You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“When someone seeks," said Siddhartha, "then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.”
Siddharta by Herman Hesse is one of those books that you're strongly suggested to read during school years. I think I did read it back then but I really didn't remember what it was about so I picked it up again: it is a journey (mostly spiritual) of a wealthy Indian Brahmin who gives up his privileges to look for self-discovery and self-fulfillment. It's not a long story but it's packed with philosophy, religion and self-analysis. It's a journey to understand life and its beauty, relationships and individualism.
Unfortunately its concepts didn't arrive to me as strongly as I expected. I didn't agree with some choices he made and at some point I just wanted to get over with this book (I usually don't DNF).
I found it boring in some parts and I believe younger readers would appreciate it more. I'm sorry I can't give a warmer review, for me it was just okay. 2 stars.
Siddharta by Herman Hesse is one of those books that you're strongly suggested to read during school years. I think I did read it back then but I really didn't remember what it was about so I picked it up again: it is a journey (mostly spiritual) of a wealthy Indian Brahmin who gives up his privileges to look for self-discovery and self-fulfillment. It's not a long story but it's packed with philosophy, religion and self-analysis. It's a journey to understand life and its beauty, relationships and individualism.
Unfortunately its concepts didn't arrive to me as strongly as I expected. I didn't agree with some choices he made and at some point I just wanted to get over with this book (I usually don't DNF).
I found it boring in some parts and I believe younger readers would appreciate it more. I'm sorry I can't give a warmer review, for me it was just okay. 2 stars.
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Siddhartha is a very short book, you can finish it in an afternoon reading if you like.
Siddhartha and his friend, Govinda, seek to discover the path to enlightenment. Being Brahmins, they enjoy much educational and connection to the spiritual elites. Siddhartha wonders on the rituals and teachings on the Brahmins, why do they always search for enlightenment in these external sources and sacrifice to the gods? Isn’t it taught that the true creator lives in all? Therefore, to truly find enlightenment you must study and search yourself, not engage in rhetoric or teachings with other learned men.
Siddhartha and his friend, Govinda, seek to discover the path to enlightenment. Being Brahmins, they enjoy much educational and connection to the spiritual elites. Siddhartha wonders on the rituals and teachings on the Brahmins, why do they always search for enlightenment in these external sources and sacrifice to the gods? Isn’t it taught that the true creator lives in all? Therefore, to truly find enlightenment you must study and search yourself, not engage in rhetoric or teachings with other learned men.
“One must find the source within one’s own Self, one must possess it. Everything else was seeking - a detour, an error”. -pg. 7
They leave town to join a group of Samanas, essentially Buddhist monks who has sworn themselves to enlightenment. In denying everything, love, food, joy, the Self dies, and only then, within an Empty Heart, the true Being of One emerges.
He feels disgust when looking at the people living their lives, laughing, eating, and loving.
“…everything lied, stank of lies; they were all illusions of sense, happiness and beauty. All were doomed to decay. The world tasted bitter. Life was pain”. -pg. 14
He eventually becomes disillusioned with the Samanas, thinking that meditation does work, but only for a short time. You must always return to the Self, much like a drunk escaping the worlds pains will always sober up. Like the Brahmins, the cycle repeats. There are always more sacrifices, more lessons, more meditation, more drugs to escape. But none are permanent. Govinda disagrees. They are not going in circles, but up a spiral staircase, a good metaphor. While it seems repetitive, it’ll pay off. Siddhartha remains unconvinced.
They hear reports of a man who has reached Nirvana, that being the Buddha (whose name was also Siddhartha, specifically Siddhartha Gautama). They leave the Samanas to search for him and listen, though Siddhartha remains skeptical of knowledge and teachings. Govinda likes what he says, and so does Siddhartha himself, however only Govinda stays to study under him. Siddhartha believes that though the Buddha does teach a Perfect Path, is it better for one to brave the world and discover it themselves. Only then will they truly understand enlightenment. There are some things that cannot he taught.
He leaves the grove of the Buddha and begins his path again, when he has a realization. If enlightenment is an attaining of the inner Self, and all existence boils down to Atman, the True One, he cannot reject nature. He compares it to a scholar rejecting the letters of a book while, at the same time, trying to decipher its meaning. To understand existence, you must speak and read its language. But he cannot do this by returning to his life, as he has been shed of everything down to his being, that being Siddhartha. Stripped of everything, he will rebuild off of this platform, that being himself only.
“He had never ready found his Self, because he had wanted to trap it in the net of thoughts.” -pg. 47
He then meets the Ferryman, who allows him to cross for free, saying that one of the things the beautiful River has taught him is that everything comes back around, and that their paths will cross again for repayment. If not, his friendship and prayers are payment enough. Traveling into the town across the river, he meets a woman. Despite their mutual attraction and her invitation, he Self denies him to lay with her, so he continues.
The next day, he see’s a woman going to a grove, Kamala, and is drawn to her. He desires to learn love from her. He cleans himself up and reappears the next day, where he meets her in the grove. She recognizes him from his unkept state the day before, and learns he was a Samana. He exchanges a poem for a kiss, but he must have wealth and clothes if he wants to continue with her. He reveals he is literate, so a pathway opens for employment. She gets him a job with the town merchant, Kamaswami, but she notes that it’s is due to her. Siddhartha disagrees, saying that like a stone sinking in water, he will always find the path of least resistance in life, all while not even trying. That is his gift from the Samanas.
He begins work with Kamaswami, but has no true passion. He is unbothered by life, and really does it due to Kamala. I enjoyed this portion, he speaks on how a trip is never a waste if you use it well.
“Certainly I travelled for pleasure, why not? I have become acquainted with people and new districts. I have enjoyed friendship and confidence. Now, if I had been Kamaswami, I should have departed immediately feeling very annoyed when I saw I was unable to make a purchase, and time and money would indeed have been lost. But I spent a number of good days, learned much, had much pleasure and did not hurt either myself or others through annoyance or hastiness. If I ever go there again, … friendly people will receive me and I will be glad that I did not previously display hastiness and displeasure. - pg. 68
Despite this, as I said, he does not feel satisfied. He feels his True Self is far away, and he’s only in a game. He confides in Kamala that she is similar to him in this way, and they cannot truly love or enjoy trivial things like others. As the years pass, the habits of his peers slowly envelop him, even unconsciously. Their world trapped him. Realizing this, he swears the life off and leaves Kamala and the town. Soon after he leaves, around 40 at this time, Kamala gives birth to his child.
He comes across a river and, in despair, almost kills himself. He hears Om, and stops right before. Then he sleeps and is awakened by Govinda, who fails to recognize Siddhartha. Siddhartha tells him that he knows him, and Govinda is confused about his wealthy appearance. He is no longer Siddhartha the Brahmin, nor Siddhartha the Samana, nor Siddhartha the Merchant. He is now Siddhartha. Govinda leaves him, and Siddhartha feels a sense of enlightenment. He is unsure if it is due to the sleep, meeting his friend, or by his newfound freedom from life’s worries again.
He then realizes that this is the same river he crossed years ago with the Ferryman, so Siddhartha decides to return to him and learn from the river, as he does. The Ferryman does not recognize him, and slightly jeers at him due to his wealthy appearance. Siddhartha offers his clothes as the payment he still owes from 20 years ago, and the Ferryman, named Vasudeva, recognizes him now.
Siddhartha asks Vasudeva what there is to learn from the river, in a sense rejecting his own ideals and seeking a human teacher in Vasudeva. The Ferryman responds that it is impossible to teach, you must only listen and then you will know. He then understands that in the river, every portion of it is the same river, though there may be rapids, banks, falls, and streams. There is no past river or future river, only the river in all its places.
“… and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past, nor the shadow of the future. … Siddhartha’s previous lives were also not in the past? And his death and return to Brahma are not in the future. Nothing was, nothing will be, everything has reality and presence.” -pg. 107
The Buddha was dying, and many went to visit him. One of these was Kamala, who had devoted herself to him and travelled with her son, named Siddhartha (Siddhartha Jr. ). He is immature and accustomed to getting his way. She is bitten by snakes though, and begins to die in the hut of Siddhartha and Vasudeva. She realizes she went on a trip to visit a holy man, and she had done this with seeing Siddhartha again.
fast-paced
This was disappointing in all honesty. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse is one of those books that has an interesting premise with a lot of potential but fails to really deliver on any of it. Perhaps it's because lately I've been engaging in a lot of theology, philosophy and metaphysics; but Siddhartha just felt really simple and childish in comparison to other things out there that deal with similar spiritual topics.
I feel like this is such a popular book for a couple reasons which I'll quickly go over.
1: Easy writing style. No kidding, I was shocked going from Steppenwolf by Hesse to this, Siddhartha is very, very readable in comparison, but not in a good way, it's bland and pretty unengaging. When you're dealing with topics such as universal unity, reincarnation and the beauty of the world; you have such an opportunity to show off your writing chops, go crazy with descriptive metaphors and allegories, whip out the dictionary. But no, the most famous Buddhist-inspired fiction book requires the reading comprehension of a 5th grader.
2: It tells you everything you want to hear, especially if you're a teenager. Life sucks? Parental control got you feeling down? Just run away from it all and "Find your own way". Also, there's no bad or good in the world, everything just is. Murder and rape? Don't worry about it, it just is. Plus, Women are sexual objects that will want to immediately have sex with you if you're chill and act like you're wiser than them.
3: The spiritual guidance of Siddhartha is the most generic and repeated "White guy tells you about eastern Asian mysticism" slop you've ever heard. How do you achieve spiritual purity, everlasting calm? Stare into a river and say "Om". Not kidding. Also, what does the world need? More love. Yeah, we get it Siddhartha, Peace and love, like we don't all know that already.
This book reminded me of The Alchemist a lot. It's fictional self-help for teenagers and adults who've barely read anything before. But, let me go over the main themes of the book for fairness' sake.
Self-discovery/Wisdom through experience, not knowledge.
A major theme of the novel is this belief Siddhartha has that knowledge and teachers are essentially useless, and to really know the world and how everything works, we must instead seek it through experience. This is fine, I somewhat agree to an extent, But the novel has a sort of self-defeating prophecy as the last thing Siddhartha does is attempt to preach and teach a fellow spiritual person. Also, Siddhartha's experience with the world is very, VERY unrealistic. We just know that as a kid he's smart, and then he becomes an ascetic monk, which we hear pretty much nothing about apart from the fact he doesn't really eat. Then he meets the Buddha and is like "Hm cool". Then he has sex with a lady and wears nice clothes for a decade. Then he's like "I've had enough of this" and goes and lives next to a river for the rest of his life.
If my description sounds weird and simple, that's because it's reflecting the tone and pacing of the actual novel. Everything in this book so obviously occurs for the sake of the plot, people randomly rock up, die, have sex, and all these other events occur with no logic or depth behind them, they simply happen to progress Siddhartha's sloppy discovery story.
The interconnectedness/unity of everything.
See, this was the part that could have been very interesting. Judging by other reviews some people did find this part of the story groundbreaking for their personal worldviews, but again, I feel like that would only be the case if you've never been exposed to this concept before.
Siddhartha has this revelation towards the end of the book, and although we do get one decent metaphor about a rock and the river, that's it. When you're trying to convince or show a reader a concept like the infinite chain of cause and effect, or about how everything blends into everything else; it's ok to spend more than a few pages on the topic. Instead, we get: "Rock is rock, but rock become soil, soil become plant, plant feed cow, cow feed human, human die, human become soil."
Great, cool idea, write about it with more depth next time.
In conclusion.
Siddhartha isn't egregiously bad or anything, it's only egregiously surface level. Baby's first spirituality. I'm honestly really glad this book has helped other people, that's great, if a book like this can grant you a profound understanding of the world and inner peace then all the power to you. I just didn't see any ideas or concepts that ancient humans two-thousand years before Herman Hesse hadn't already discussed. Plus, the pacing is really bad and the characters are bland. Ka-Chow.
I feel like this is such a popular book for a couple reasons which I'll quickly go over.
1: Easy writing style. No kidding, I was shocked going from Steppenwolf by Hesse to this, Siddhartha is very, very readable in comparison, but not in a good way, it's bland and pretty unengaging. When you're dealing with topics such as universal unity, reincarnation and the beauty of the world; you have such an opportunity to show off your writing chops, go crazy with descriptive metaphors and allegories, whip out the dictionary. But no, the most famous Buddhist-inspired fiction book requires the reading comprehension of a 5th grader.
2: It tells you everything you want to hear, especially if you're a teenager. Life sucks? Parental control got you feeling down? Just run away from it all and "Find your own way". Also, there's no bad or good in the world, everything just is. Murder and rape? Don't worry about it, it just is. Plus, Women are sexual objects that will want to immediately have sex with you if you're chill and act like you're wiser than them.
3: The spiritual guidance of Siddhartha is the most generic and repeated "White guy tells you about eastern Asian mysticism" slop you've ever heard. How do you achieve spiritual purity, everlasting calm? Stare into a river and say "Om". Not kidding. Also, what does the world need? More love. Yeah, we get it Siddhartha, Peace and love, like we don't all know that already.
This book reminded me of The Alchemist a lot. It's fictional self-help for teenagers and adults who've barely read anything before. But, let me go over the main themes of the book for fairness' sake.
Self-discovery/Wisdom through experience, not knowledge.
A major theme of the novel is this belief Siddhartha has that knowledge and teachers are essentially useless, and to really know the world and how everything works, we must instead seek it through experience. This is fine, I somewhat agree to an extent, But the novel has a sort of self-defeating prophecy as the last thing Siddhartha does is attempt to preach and teach a fellow spiritual person. Also, Siddhartha's experience with the world is very, VERY unrealistic. We just know that as a kid he's smart, and then he becomes an ascetic monk, which we hear pretty much nothing about apart from the fact he doesn't really eat. Then he meets the Buddha and is like "Hm cool". Then he has sex with a lady and wears nice clothes for a decade. Then he's like "I've had enough of this" and goes and lives next to a river for the rest of his life.
If my description sounds weird and simple, that's because it's reflecting the tone and pacing of the actual novel. Everything in this book so obviously occurs for the sake of the plot, people randomly rock up, die, have sex, and all these other events occur with no logic or depth behind them, they simply happen to progress Siddhartha's sloppy discovery story.
The interconnectedness/unity of everything.
See, this was the part that could have been very interesting. Judging by other reviews some people did find this part of the story groundbreaking for their personal worldviews, but again, I feel like that would only be the case if you've never been exposed to this concept before.
Siddhartha has this revelation towards the end of the book, and although we do get one decent metaphor about a rock and the river, that's it. When you're trying to convince or show a reader a concept like the infinite chain of cause and effect, or about how everything blends into everything else; it's ok to spend more than a few pages on the topic. Instead, we get: "Rock is rock, but rock become soil, soil become plant, plant feed cow, cow feed human, human die, human become soil."
Great, cool idea, write about it with more depth next time.
In conclusion.
Siddhartha isn't egregiously bad or anything, it's only egregiously surface level. Baby's first spirituality. I'm honestly really glad this book has helped other people, that's great, if a book like this can grant you a profound understanding of the world and inner peace then all the power to you. I just didn't see any ideas or concepts that ancient humans two-thousand years before Herman Hesse hadn't already discussed. Plus, the pacing is really bad and the characters are bland. Ka-Chow.
Thank goodness I wasn't forced to read this in high school. I mean, I might have liked it, I don't know, but I surely wouldn't have understood it. This was one of those perfect books at the perfect time. It synergized concepts I'd explored when reading primary eastern texts with my understanding of real life experiences through novelization. What else could you want? Just lovely, lovely read I'm sure I'll back to over and over.
I think this book might have actually saved my life looking back
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes