It’s been a long time since I’ve bought Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf. I never wanted to read it although it kept appearing from everywhere. Fortunately, it was a good thing I didn’t read it so far. I think there couldn’t be a better time to read. It is cold outside, making what the book makes you feel more striking. Well, of course, there is an element of age as well.
This novel is about all of us. There has always been a time when men judge himself, the society, the way of living. It is precisely at this point that we come across the universality and humanity of literature. The fact that we all have different characters, while trying to live in harmony with all these characters, we also need to listen to our effort to keep up with the society from the book’s main character, Harry Haller. This book, which was first published in 1927 and still highly praised, should be read in while you are in your twenties without delay.
Steppenwolf
With its blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, Hesse’s best-known and most autobiographical work is one of literature’s most poetic evocations of the soul’s journey to liberation.
Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine. The tale of the Steppenwolf culminates in the surreal Magic Theater-For Madmen Only!
Originally published in English in 1929, Steppenwolf’s wisdom continues to speak to our souls and marks it as a classic of modern literature.
For more than twenty years, Picador has been producing beautifully packaged literary fiction and nonfiction books from Manhattan’s Flatiron Building. Our Twentieth Anniversary Modern Classics line pairs iconic books – The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse, Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson, and Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson – with a design that’s both small enough to fit in your pocket and unique enough to stand out on your bookshelf.
Hermann Hesse
Hermann Karl Hesse was a German-born poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include Demian, Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game, each of which explores an individual’s search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
