>>7687088
Steppenwolf gets posted here a lot too. No one talks about Glass Bead Game though.

I really enjoyed the Glass Bead Game. Hesse's writing about art is interesting and appealing

>>7687104
I've honestly only ever heard of Siddhartha and Steppenwolf, haven't heard of his other stuff.

Siddhartha is quite good. I didn't come into it looking for anything philosophical and was very pleased by it. I think most people go in expecting some kind of enlightenment from reading it when it really has a very straightforward message.

>>7687104

Have you read it? People say its his best work

glass bead game is his best work

hesse's stuff is best read in order

recommended:

demian (optional) -> siddhartha -> steppenwolf -> narcissus and goldmund -> journey to the east (optional) -> glass bead game

siddhartha and steppenwolf are very simplistic reductions of hesse's themes and philosophies, which tends to make people underrate him as an author.

>>7687124
if its so good why havent I heard of it?

I randomly found his novel called Rosshalde. Not knowing what to expect, I got a story that wasn't surprising in its theme, (minimal) plot and character.
However, I enjoyed it far more than expected. He really suceeds in making you care about the characters, and even if you see what's coming from a mile away, it's still very hard to see it happen. It's a poignant and well written story.
The only thing I didn't like was how the kid spoke, he sounded artificial, unlike anything a kid ever said.
Siddhartha is one of my favourite books, I didn't enjoy Steppenwolf that much. Rosshalde cemented Hesse in place of one of my favorite writers.

>>7687124

Awesome, thanks. I'm quite interested in reading Steppenwolf at this time but glass bead game also caught my eye at the bookstore.

>>7687124
narcissus and goldmund is a halfway point between steppenwolf and glassbead game, so you can alterenatively go

steppenwolf -> narcissus and goldmund -> glass bead game
and simultaneously
siddhartha -> journey -> glass bead game
cause there's a similar dynamic.

then read his short story collection (pictor's metapmorphosis) if you really care. it covers stuff from early to late in his career and you can trace his development in a third way

regardless glass bead game is the culimination of almost everything else he did.

demian is a weirder standalone, and has traces of what's to come in the steppenwolf/narcisuss line as well as the journey to the east line. it's more of a direct reaction to WW1 and predated his other stuff.

>>7687130
idk. cause plebs? it's "difficult" if you just dive straight into it whereas siddhartha and steppenwolf are "simple", though most people misread those two books, especially steppenwolf, which is something hesse himself lamented

>>7687088
siddhartha was a gay love story that didn't end with the blowjob climax it so desperately deserved.

I really liked siddhartha (esp. at the time in my life that i first read it), demian was good too, a few great scenes.

I dont think I really understood steppwnwolf. Harry seemed like the underground man, but before going full cynical hermit he has a weird freudian psychelic adventure that I dont recall resolving coherently.

>>7687088
Steppenwolf is more famous than Siddhartha I think since it was one of the defining books of the hippie culture

>>7687166
siddhartha and steppenwolf are both woefully misread and misappropriated by the "just b urself :^)" movement and the new age hippie spiritualism crap.

>>7687160

why gay? cause that one hallucination thing siddharta had?

>>7687160
That forehead kiss tho.. :)

>>7687088
>people haven't heard of Demian
Are you for real? I thought it was his third well known book after Siddhartha and Narcissus und Goldmund.
For fuck's sake every German soldier read it after WW1 and they identified with the book.

And I'm the plebbest.

>>7687581
no, the order is probably more along the lines of

siddhartha
-small gap-
steppenwolf
-huge gap-
demian
-gap-
narcissus and goldmund/glass bead

>>7687585
I don't know, maybe in Burgerland. I'm pretty sure I've heard of Narcissus more than Steppenwolf.
And Demian was one of the most famous books of its time.

>>7687611
"its time" was also almost a century ago. many famous books from 100 years ago are barely known today.

i am definitely speaking from burgerland perspective though so maybe narcisusus is more famous wherever you are. as someone mentioned above, steppenwolf was championed by the hippie/counterculture/freelove/etc. movement pretty heavily here in USAUSAUSA so maybe that plays into it.

>>7687088
I've read Siddhartha, Steppenwolf,and Narcissus and Goldmund. I liked them all, Siddhartha was my favourite. Personally I think they all have flaws.

>>7687088
Steppenwolf is one of my favorite novels. The protagonist's detachment, fascination with the bourgeois lifestyle, and love for Mozart are all qualities I could not but see in myself and so I imagined it an account of a future version of myself as I read it. Also, Mozart's advice at the end is the best paragraph I've read in a book.

>>7687628
so you're literally in the perfect position to read the perfect synthesis, glass bead game :3

you'll prob really like it.

siddhartha is only famous because a bunch of dumbass hippies in the 60s and 70s resonated with all the eastern spirituality bullshit since that was a fad at the time. it's a good book, but it's not that good.

>>7687627
I'm Italian but as I said I'm a pleb, so maybe I'm wrong about Steppenwolf.
You don't seem to understand, Demian was not just famous, Demian was THE fucking book when it came out.

I must say that I love how the name Goldmund sounds, both in original and in my own language, Boccadoro, even if I prefer the Italian one as it seems like a name from a fairy tale. I think they both carry a soft, mellow sound and imagery. If it wasn't gay as fuck I'd name my non-existent future son that.

>>7687675
no im very much aware of how much demian was THE book when it came out. what i said still holds true.

I like him.

I didn't like Steppenwolf. I thought it was a lot of rambling without any literary merit, but I was considerable biased towards this book since my expectations were considerable high - I found out about this book reading a thread named "Never read this book" by a guy telling us how he was never the same after reading Steppenwolf, and several people agree with him on how their acquaintances that read Steppenwolf changed a lot after reading it. I think this gave the book an almost supernatural aura, and I was hugely disappointed when I read it, even considering I identified myself with the main character up to a certain point.

Several years laters I picked up Siddharta without any expectation, and I was truly impressed, enough to go and read Demian straight away and go on with Beneath the Wheel and the rest of his books.

I still don't quite get the considerable hype of Steppenwolf.

Ive only read Siddartha, and loved it.
Is Hesse inspired by Nietzsche at all? Siddhartha seemed to have strong Nietzschean themes in it, specifically the concept of eternal recurrence of the same. Parts about the river were almost identicle to "Of the Vision and the Riddle" in Zarathustra.

>>7687664
Its a pretty damn good book mang. I like it better than the Stranger, which for some reason was very similar to me in ways.

>>7687124

dude Demian is essential to me, it made my fucking cry unlike his other short works. It could be because I read it on a lonely christmas eve though..

>tfw the sky is going apeshit

>>7687654
Thanks, I'll check it out. I remember reading a little bit about it, but never got around to it.

I wasn't liking Steppenwolf very much but then he goes full David Lynch at the end in the best way possible. I really need to reread it.

Hesse is definitely one of my bros and it's nice to see a thread for him that's not just Siddhartha/Steppenwolf.

Glass Bead Game is arguably his best work and I agree with other anons that call it a culmination of his other works. I especially adore the 3 lives end-pieces that the protagonist wrote. However, and I'm sure someone here can tell me why it's not a terrible ending, or the deep meaning it had, but personally I thought the ending of the Glass Bead Game was crap. Like, absolute, retched, waste of so many pages before it crap. Blargh.

Narcissus and Goldmund is a great story and I wouldn't have any qualms calling it better than GBG. The characters are interesting, I really enjoyed watching...who was it, Goldmund that became the artist? Yeah, Hesse told a good story about a kid that wanted to become a priest but who got sent into the world to be an artist. Obviously Hesse didn't get Christianity but bless his heart. Goldmund found himself amidst all that sex and plague.

Now none of you mentioned my favorite work by Hesse though and it's really a novel more of you would like and that's Gertrude. Awesome story about a dude who gets semi-crippled but composes music, falls in love with a singer who falls in love with his melancholy best friend, and they fall deeply into a (bad) romance. Sad story for everyone, a lot of heart. It's good, read it faggots.

>>7688360
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34352.Gertrude

I'd be so happy if more people read this.

>>7687088
There's probably a lot of stuff in his books that flies over my head, but just reading them is really enjoyable. The one I liked the most is Narcissus and Goldmund, but I haven't read Gertrude and Journey to the East yet.

I honestly wasn't too hot on Glass Bead Game when I read it, except for the very last part of the book with the different lives. But it was a long time ago and I might just need to give it a re-read.