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A review by anusha_reads
The Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
dark
medium-paced
5.0
STEPPENWOLF, HERMANN HESSE
Herman Hesse was honoured with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.
There are many translated versions of Steppenwolf. I started reading an edition translated by Basil Creighton but found certain parts difficult. Since I buddy-read this book , my friend sent photos of the same page, which I found easy. Then I got an edition translated by Kurt Beals,and I found the book easier. Though it’s a novel that's autobiographical, existential fiction, parts of it read like an epistolary and magical realism.
Having read Siddhartha (by the same author) a few years ago, I could see that both the books spoke about finding oneself or self-exploration in different ways.
The protagonist Harry Haller and the author Hermann Hesse have similar names starting with ‘H’. Hermann Hesse wrote this book when he was about fifty.
Harry is a man around the age of fifty. He looks like an intellectual, and he is courteous and amicable but is a mystery and perpetually looks disenchanted. Harry is a writer and a pacifist who has given up many things in his life, including his wife and job.
What is he going through?
Was he going through a midlife crisis?
Or did he suffer from an existential crisis?
A neighbour initially narrates and tells us how he perceives Harry. Then he reads out the book Harry has written about himself.
Often, we as adults feel that we do not need anybody to guide or chide us, and inherently, we need that father figure or maternal touch to pilot our lives. So many decisions in our lives would be much easier if we constantly had someone to show us the way. Time and time again, we need people to bring out the best in us. Don't you think?
Harry meets a girl at the bar who very vociferously tells Harry to do things as though taking control of his life. Harry happily listens to her and humbly agrees to do whatever she asks him to do. Loved the fact that he found a person who could bring him out of his cage. He hates dancing and considers it a rather brainless activity but ends up loving it, a talent that he was unaware of. He is a big lover of Mozart and classical, and he hates any other music like jazz. He ridicules the radio, which was new to society then.
I feel the author was beautifully able to depict how man gets torn between a dichotomy, be it good or bad, right, or wrong, isolation versus society, or man versus himself, but mostly man versus wolf or beast. He also portrays how a person dons many personalities or the existence of multiplicity in individuals
Hermann Hesse was diagnosed with type II bipolar disorder. A note at the beginning of the book says that the character shares many features with the author himself.
Did you know the rock band Steppenwolf was inspired by this novel?
This is a tough read, but I enjoyed the read thoroughly because I buddy-read it!
Herman Hesse was honoured with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946.
There are many translated versions of Steppenwolf. I started reading an edition translated by Basil Creighton but found certain parts difficult. Since I buddy-read this book , my friend sent photos of the same page, which I found easy. Then I got an edition translated by Kurt Beals,and I found the book easier. Though it’s a novel that's autobiographical, existential fiction, parts of it read like an epistolary and magical realism.
Having read Siddhartha (by the same author) a few years ago, I could see that both the books spoke about finding oneself or self-exploration in different ways.
The protagonist Harry Haller and the author Hermann Hesse have similar names starting with ‘H’. Hermann Hesse wrote this book when he was about fifty.
Harry is a man around the age of fifty. He looks like an intellectual, and he is courteous and amicable but is a mystery and perpetually looks disenchanted. Harry is a writer and a pacifist who has given up many things in his life, including his wife and job.
What is he going through?
Was he going through a midlife crisis?
Or did he suffer from an existential crisis?
A neighbour initially narrates and tells us how he perceives Harry. Then he reads out the book Harry has written about himself.
Often, we as adults feel that we do not need anybody to guide or chide us, and inherently, we need that father figure or maternal touch to pilot our lives. So many decisions in our lives would be much easier if we constantly had someone to show us the way. Time and time again, we need people to bring out the best in us. Don't you think?
Harry meets a girl at the bar who very vociferously tells Harry to do things as though taking control of his life. Harry happily listens to her and humbly agrees to do whatever she asks him to do. Loved the fact that he found a person who could bring him out of his cage. He hates dancing and considers it a rather brainless activity but ends up loving it, a talent that he was unaware of. He is a big lover of Mozart and classical, and he hates any other music like jazz. He ridicules the radio, which was new to society then.
I feel the author was beautifully able to depict how man gets torn between a dichotomy, be it good or bad, right, or wrong, isolation versus society, or man versus himself, but mostly man versus wolf or beast. He also portrays how a person dons many personalities or the existence of multiplicity in individuals
Hermann Hesse was diagnosed with type II bipolar disorder. A note at the beginning of the book says that the character shares many features with the author himself.
Did you know the rock band Steppenwolf was inspired by this novel?
This is a tough read, but I enjoyed the read thoroughly because I buddy-read it!