Demian (Perennial Classics)
by Hermann Hesse

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Book Reviews of Demian (Perennial Classics)

Book Review: A Book That Changed My Life
Summary: 5 Stars

The book follows the spiritual growing pains of one Emile Sinclair from his school days into adulthood. The title of the book refers to his associations, at various times in his early life, with another boy named Max Demian. Max Demian, although he only appears in a relatively few pages of this book, becomes the driving force behind Emile Sinclair's emotional and spritual awakening. Emile is lost. He comes from a very starched middle class family where everything is proper and nothing is out of place. Inside, though, he feels as though he doesn't belong (much like Harry Haller in Hesse's Steppenwolf). He feels a much darker side to himself and thinks that makes him evil and a sinner. Demian, through a series of encounters over a period of years, plants in his mind the notion that we are all made up of good and evil tendencies and that a "true" god would accept all of this. In fact, there is a god who itself is made up of equal parts dark and light; that god's name is Abraxas. This realization is a watershed for Emile who, though he continues to struggle, search, and follow others for years afterward, eventually comes into his own as a person.

Which of us hasn't been Emile Sinclair at one or another point in his life?

Classics Books

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• World Literature > German