Reviews - The Steppenwolf | The StoryGraph

2.08k reviews for:

The Steppenwolf

Hermann Hesse

3.96 AVERAGE

rika_readsanyway's review against another edition

5.0

dark inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

The philosophical ideas in Steppenwolf aren't groundbreaking. Hesse himself was influenced by both Carl Jung and Nietzsche, and it reflects their ideas heavily on his works. But Hermann Hesse's mesmerizing prose is something I couldn't look away from. There's something about his philosophical portrait of a middle aged brooding loner, endlessly punished by his own intellect, that felt familiar, almost as if some wise, weary 80-year-old grandma in me had been waiting for it. Steppenwolf is a cautionary tale about what happens when you retreat too far into pure intellectualism—and a plea for a society in which the sensitive, artistic, and questioning soul can exist without suffocating in alienation.

There're books that help you escape from this wretched reality and ease your pain of constant disappointments with life a little, but there're books that make you understand what kind of deep shits you're in and let you see the deeper truths of life. And Steppenwolf is the latter. Maybe it's because I see too much of myself in Harry Haller. (No shit, Sherlock. He's a depressed misanthrope🐒) Books like this can be therapeutic or destructive, depending on the reader. But for me, it's pure therapy. Because it doesn't just tell me about life; it validates my experience, letting me feel seen in my own darkness. I, too, should learn how to laugh.

"Whoever wants to live and enjoy his life today must not be like you and me. Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours—"

""Most men will not swim before they are able to." Is that not witty? Naturally, they won't swim! They are born for the solid earth, not for the water. And naturally they wont think. They are made for life, not for thought. Yes, and he who thinks, what's more, he who makes thought his business, he may go far in it, but he has bartered the solid earth for the water all the same, and one day he will drown"

"Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at the rest."

mericet's review against another edition

2.0

challenging dark 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

child_in_thyme's review against another edition

4.5

inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

frazzle's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Recommended by work friend Alice as her "favourite book ever". And a good opportunity to sample Hesse, who I've never read before.

A bizarrist, existential, elliptical tale of a lonely man out of place and I'll at ease in his age. Imagining himself as a wolf of the steppes, the semi-autobiographical protagonist recounts his re-education in being a human, learning how to dance, laugh and take life less seriously.

There's something timeless about this book (and I can see why it was picked up as a cult classic in the 1960s).

I saw a lot of parallels to Bulgakov's zany plots and Thomas Mann's heavily theoretical fiction.

sssofimon's review against another edition

3.0

“Harry encuentra en sí un hombre lleno de ideas, de sentimientos, de cultura, de naturaleza dominada y sublimada, y a la vez encuentra al lado al lobo, un mundo sombrío de instintos, de fiereza, de crueldad, de naturaleza ruda, no sublimada, fiera, caótica.”

este libro me recuerda al texto de Freud “el malestar de la cultura”, en donde el autor explica que el ser humano ansía por liberarse, por mostrarse tal cual es, pero que es la sociedad quien oprime al individuo, e inhibe los deseos más profundos. y así tomo este libro; Harry es una persona intelectual, culta, y el lobo estepario (que forma parte de Harry) es animalesco, instintivo. siento que todos nosotros tenemos a ambos lados, esa parte más intelectual y esa parte salvaje, pero que muy pocas veces podemos mostrar.
la primera parte del libro pensé que sería narrada de esa forma por el resto del texto, y creía que ese personaje en parte envidiaba a Harry o al menos sentía algo por él pero que lo trataba de negar, luego, a medida que avanzó el libro entendí que estaba siendo narrado por el propio lobo, hasta ahí bien. pero después, no entendí, al final mató él a Armanda, qué rol cumplía el teatro? quién chucha era Pablo? la verdad, me aburrió.
en general, lo encontré interesante por todo el peso que percibo, tiene la sociedad en la inhibición de un individuo, pero luego me pregunto si realmente es esa la trama, me quedé corta y confundida, por eso la puntuación.