Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.96 AVERAGE
3.96 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-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
one of my favorites when i was younger; clearly outdated, but the perspective stuck with me
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts
The Steppenwolf treatise and Hermine were right with their doctrine of the thousand souls, every day a few new souls showed up in me in addition to all the old ones, they made demands, made noise, and now I could see the madness of my old personality, I could see it clearly like a picture before my eyes. I had given exclusive priority to the few abilities and activities in which I happened to excel, and I had painted the picture of a Harry and lived the life of a Harry who was actually no more than a very finely trained specialist in poetry, music, and philosophy—as for the entire rest of my person, the whole remaining chaos of abilities, drives, and aspirations, I had found them burdensome, and had given them the name of Steppenwolf.
I used to have a deep and urgent connection to the werewolf archetype and every now and then I like to check back in. The Steppenwolf blew me away. what could easily have been another woe-is-me middle aged man melodrama is instead a scathing takedown of man's assumed duality, of the hasty and immature adoption of the wolf as our shadow persona when the reality is so much more complex. Hesse uses Harry's disillusionment to summon and dispel a series of whiny shitty male attitudes, up to and including DV. the werewolf is a handy starting point for Hesse's interrogation, but he quickly and skillfully progresses towards more fantastical territory.
as Hesse himself has a character point out, much of the novel is about forcing men to come to terms with a reality that most women arrive at in their teens, so dumb dudes like me might get more out of this simply because we're more emotionally stunted. that said, I think it is beautiful and genuinely moving. I was impressed that it refuses to let masculinity off the hook even at the end. it is the opposite of those shitty books that men love like Stoner. a perfect werewolf novel.
I used to have a deep and urgent connection to the werewolf archetype and every now and then I like to check back in. The Steppenwolf blew me away. what could easily have been another woe-is-me middle aged man melodrama is instead a scathing takedown of man's assumed duality, of the hasty and immature adoption of the wolf as our shadow persona when the reality is so much more complex. Hesse uses Harry's disillusionment to summon and dispel a series of whiny shitty male attitudes, up to and including DV. the werewolf is a handy starting point for Hesse's interrogation, but he quickly and skillfully progresses towards more fantastical territory.
as Hesse himself has a character point out, much of the novel is about forcing men to come to terms with a reality that most women arrive at in their teens, so dumb dudes like me might get more out of this simply because we're more emotionally stunted. that said, I think it is beautiful and genuinely moving. I was impressed that it refuses to let masculinity off the hook even at the end. it is the opposite of those shitty books that men love like Stoner. a perfect werewolf novel.
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
The best psychoanalytic fiction there is in literature.
Very slow at first, basically starts off painting a portrait of this man the Steppenwolf from three different perspectives, his landlord’s nephew, himself, and in the 3rd person from a handbook. This start is repetitive and I was concerned when the book would actually start! But it painted his character so well it really informs how you read the following plot. From there it’s just amazing and dream like. Rotten but not sick. Spiritual transformation!
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
3.5. This book was a mixed bag for me. There were times when it was slow and I despised it, other times when I found myself stuck in between the pages and was throughly enjoying it.
There were two main things about this book that I still, after finishing, stick out to me as a summary of my reading experience; I enjoy what the book had to say, the concepts that it touched upon about society and things such as love and suicide, but also, it’s not that deep my dude. It was such a weirdly beautiful perspective on life - even through suffering we endure for the sake of experiencing it as part of life, yet despite all these life lessons and real brain-bending head-turning ideas, i can’t help but get over how this book feels quite arrogant and pompous.
A generation on the cusp of change, it is complicated, multi-faceted and bloody conceited at times. It was not as ‘fictitious’ as i had anticipated, and a little outdated, but I still found it enjoyable as I had to use my head quite a bit.
There were two main things about this book that I still, after finishing, stick out to me as a summary of my reading experience; I enjoy what the book had to say, the concepts that it touched upon about society and things such as love and suicide, but also, it’s not that deep my dude. It was such a weirdly beautiful perspective on life - even through suffering we endure for the sake of experiencing it as part of life, yet despite all these life lessons and real brain-bending head-turning ideas, i can’t help but get over how this book feels quite arrogant and pompous.
A generation on the cusp of change, it is complicated, multi-faceted and bloody conceited at times. It was not as ‘fictitious’ as i had anticipated, and a little outdated, but I still found it enjoyable as I had to use my head quite a bit.