Steppenwolf: A Novel
by Hermann Hesse
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Book Summary Information
Author: Hermann HesseTranslator: Basil Creighton
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-12-01
ISBN: 0312278675
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Picador
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780312278670
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Book Reviews of Steppenwolf: A Novel
Book Review: "I can't dance with you...I'm bound for hell."
Summary: 5 Stars
Each of Hermann Hesse's writings is a unique tale of the numinous life. In STEPPENWOLF, his most autobiographical work, first published in German in 1927, Hesse introduces us to the trials and tribulations of his nominal alter ego, Harry Haller.
Haller is an intellectual of independent but modest means who believes himself to be a 'Steppenwolf,' a lone wolf of the plains, forever an outcast from life's feast. STEPPENWOLF is Haller's half-mystical half-mad memoir of his descent from intellectual self-absorption into the bohemian subculture of interwar Germany.
STEPPENWOLF is also a repository of some of the best poetical prose ever written. Much nuance is inevitably lost in translation from the original German to English, but STEPPENWOLF still shines as a work of the spirit.
In one aspect, STEPPENWOLF is a book of its time, the reflective writings of a thinking man faced with the decay of the Weimar Republic, and suffering with prescience of the cataclysm to follow.
In another aspect, STEPPENWOLF recounts the existential crisis of a man who upon reaching middle age has discovered that all his idols, idylls and fancies are just so much dust in the wind. At age fifty, Haller is a tragic and discontented figure who yearns for the simple touch of a hand on his own. Nevertheless, he despises most of human behavior and makes no secret of it. Still, he hates himself most of all, and seeks isolation and aloneness as his lot, choosing to expend his days in windy speculations on poetry, music and philosophy. Harry is a man lost in his own misery. As Hesse shows us, Harry's only escape from unhappiness lies not Poetics but in Carnival.
In still another aspect, STEPPENWOLF is a tale of youthful alienation and rebellion. Harry meets the mysterious courtesan Hermine, who becomes his best friend and confidant. She makes Harry conversant with popular culture, dance, and the art of love, as well as the simple social conventions which lie beyond his narrow view of life.
STEPPENWOLF has long been one of the bibles of the counterculture, based largely on its lengthy coda, wherein Harry visits the "Magic Theatre" courtesy of Hermine and her friend the jazz saxophonist Pablo, who act both as initiators and guides in Harry's experimentation with various altered states of consciousness. The mechanics of Harry's experiences are all but invisible against the rich tapestry of image and fantasy woven by Hesse in these pages.
The sensitive and thoughtful reader will no doubt discover still other aspects to this complex and multifacted novel.
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