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grereads's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This was my first time reading something for German class unabridged, so this was definitely a challenging read. At first I struggled a bit, but then I understood that I should only translate the essential words among those I didn't know, I got the hang of it and it became really enjoyable. Although I study philosophy, we don't learn much about Eastern philosophy, so this was a really insightful read. Of course the philosophical contents were sometimes a bit overwhelming and challenging (in fact there's a lot to unpack and to think about while reading this), but the language was so simple that I understood all of their explanations. The chapters and the book itself are really short, which I love. The storyline was also pretty interesting, I particularly enjoyed the account of Siddhartha's life with Vasudeva. I underlined a lot, which is something I don't do often, because the book is filled with meaningful and beautiful quotes. Lastly, I'm really happy I was able to read a famous classic the way it's meant to: in the original language and unabridged.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual content, Slavery, Pregnancy, Animal death, Alcoholism, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, and Death
maricasement's review against another edition
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
First Read (2011): 4 stars
Re-read (2021): 3.5 stars
This book is about Hesse taking you on a journey to what he envisions of enlightenment*. It is a book made of cycles and of learning and relearning what the world is all about. In it, we follow Siddhartha on his own journey, and through it Hesse tries to help us holistically understand how the world is made up of cycles and how it is a big interconnected whole.
This is an interesting and reflective book. You become frustrated by Siddhartha (I call him Sidd) and the people around him, you follow his thoughts and learn from them too. Ten years ago, when I first read it, I felt so light when I finished it, like I belonged to the whole world and it belonged to me. I felt calm and accepting of everything going on around me.
Now, my view of the world has changed and the world itself has. I am much more worried about how to change our world for the better, to not accept the devastating effects we all have on the climate. A part of accepting our unity with the world and its cycles is grounded on the idea that these cycles will never end or truly change, but if we keep doing what we've always done and just let our planet get worse, these cycles will not survive its devastation.
Hesse's view of enlightenment* is beautiful and I do think that it is important to reflect upon many things that he does in this book. But I feel that his view also encourages complacency, and that is not something we can afford right now.
*I am aware that Hesse knew a lot about Hinduism and Buddhism and that this book is based on the religions' beliefs. I don't think he reached enlightenment himself, though, and I have no idea how faithful he is to what is taught by those who have reached it. Even if he is close to actual Buddhist teachings, I would rather not assume that his view of enlightenment and ones path to it are anything but that - his view. He does try to show in the book that people's ways of expressing what enlightenment is are different, so I don't think he'd mind me saying that what he writes is merely how he sees it, and not a universal truth. Please do correct me if I'm wrong.
Re-read (2021): 3.5 stars
This book is about Hesse taking you on a journey to what he envisions of enlightenment*. It is a book made of cycles and of learning and relearning what the world is all about. In it, we follow Siddhartha on his own journey, and through it Hesse tries to help us holistically understand how the world is made up of cycles and how it is a big interconnected whole.
This is an interesting and reflective book. You become frustrated by Siddhartha (I call him Sidd) and the people around him, you follow his thoughts and learn from them too. Ten years ago, when I first read it, I felt so light when I finished it, like I belonged to the whole world and it belonged to me. I felt calm and accepting of everything going on around me.
Now, my view of the world has changed and the world itself has. I am much more worried about how to change our world for the better, to not accept the devastating effects we all have on the climate. A part of accepting our unity with the world and its cycles is grounded on the idea that these cycles will never end or truly change, but if we keep doing what we've always done and just let our planet get worse, these cycles will not survive its devastation.
Hesse's view of enlightenment* is beautiful and I do think that it is important to reflect upon many things that he does in this book. But I feel that his view also encourages complacency, and that is not something we can afford right now.
*I am aware that Hesse knew a lot about Hinduism and Buddhism and that this book is based on the religions' beliefs. I don't think he reached enlightenment himself, though, and I have no idea how faithful he is to what is taught by those who have reached it. Even if he is close to actual Buddhist teachings, I would rather not assume that his view of enlightenment and ones path to it are anything but that - his view. He does try to show in the book that people's ways of expressing what enlightenment is are different, so I don't think he'd mind me saying that what he writes is merely how he sees it, and not a universal truth. Please do correct me if I'm wrong.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship
bluejayreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
I originally thought this was a fictionalized biography of the Buddha, and was very confused when the titular Siddhartha's journey didn't line up with what I knew of the Buddha Siddhartha's story. But the protagonist of this story is a completely different character who just happens to have the same name.
There is no real plot in this book, unless you count the kind-of character arc of Siddhartha searching for enlightenment. He becomes an aescetic and masters all those teachings and he meets the Buddha and recognizes the wisdom in his teachings but chooses not to become a disciple (this is where I looked at the Wikipedia article for this book and discovered I was not in fact reading a fictionalized biography of Siddhartha Gautama the Buddha), and does a bunch of other stuff on his journey to become enlightened.
This may be my modern sensibilities talking, a strange choice by the translator (this book was originally written in German), or the 1920s having a very different way of expressing friendship, but I choose to believe this book is queerer than it seems on the surface. Siddhartha's best friend Govinda is obviously completely in love with Siddhartha, with several paragraphs talking about how much Govinda loves every aspect of Siddhartha's face and body and personality, and it must have been at least somewhat reciprocated because they call each other "my dear." Siddhartha did have a female lover, but he later moved in with a man and at one point they raise a child (Siddhartha's with his female lover) together. There's nothing explicitly queer anywhere, but I don't think the subtext is exactly subtle.
This book is best understood when you have the context of Hermann Hesse's life. Hermann was very depressed, didn't fit into the bourgeois society he grew up in, and couldn't find meaning in having fun and being rich like his peers did, so he went to India to try and find enlightenment in Eastern philosophy. He didn't find it, so he wrote a novel where the protagonist has the enlightenment experience he wishes he had. (And Hermann himself being not into women would explain why he couldn't seem to stay interested in any of his wives - although considering this book and that his Wikipedia page hints nothing about him being gay, I wouldn't be surprised if he were asexual and romantically interested in men but his strict religious upbringing meant he was never comfortable acting on anything.) This is all speculation, of course, but I think it explains a lot.
Much of the philosophy in this book is obscure bordering on incomprehensible. From reading Hermann's Wikipedia page his personal philosophy was that each person has to find their own individual path to god, and that seems to be the moral of Siddhartha (just replace "god" with "enlightenment"). This book's redeeming quality is that it's less than 100 pages long. If this were a longer book I probably wouldn't have finished it, but since it's so short it didn't drag too much. And even though the philosophy came off as esoteric and unclear, it did end up being a cute little story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Self harm and Sexual content
Minor: Animal death
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