'A subtle distillation of wisdom, stylistic grace and symmetry of form' Sunday Times 'It's hard to think of a more recent novel that has sung so eloquently the joys of being alone' Guardian An inspirational classic from Nobel Prize-winner Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha is a beautiful tale of self-discovery Dissatisfied with the ways of life he has experienced, Siddhartha, the handsome son of a Brahmin, leaves his family and his friend, Govinda, in search of a higher state of being. Having experienced the myriad forms of existence, from immense wealth and luxury to the pleasures of sensual and paternal love, Siddhartha finally settles down beside a river, where a humble ferryman teaches him his most valuable lesson yet. Hermann Hesse's short, elegant novel, echoing the life of the Buddha, has been cherished by readers for decades as an unforgettable spiritual primer. A tender and unforgettable moral allegory, it is an undeniable classic of modern literature. Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe Translated by Hilda Rosner Hermann Hesse (1877-1963) is counted among the leading novelists and thinkers of the twentieth century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1946 for a body of literature renowned for its humanist, philosophical and spiritual insight. His most famous works include Siddhartha, Journey to the East, Demian, Steppenwolf, and Narcissus and Goldmund.

Follow Siddhartha on a journey toward peace and enlightenment in this gorgeous hardcover edition of Herman Hesse’s lyrical masterwork. Herman Hesse’s classic novel Siddhartha comes to you in this newly designed edition complete with full-color illustration and foil and debossed hardcover. In the journey, Siddhartha, living in ancient Nepal, rediscovers the illumination of travel, meditation, and the wisdom of the Buddha. Join the young Brahmin and explore the themes of enlightenment and self-discovery in his ultimate search for reality. This edition contains the original work from the US publication in 1951. For Herman Hesse fans, this elegantly designed keepsake edition features beautiful illustrations that enhance Hesse’s poetic vision.

Demian is a coming-of-age story that follows a young boy's maturation as he grapples with good and evil, lightness and darkness, and forges alternatives to the ever-present corruption and suffering that he sees all around him. Crucial to this development are his relationships with a series of older mentors, of who the titular Demian is the most charismatic, otherworldly and ultimately influential. Many have noted the influence of Jungian psychology upon this novel and it is fascinating to see Herman Hesse's interests in the self, existence and free will play out through through the lens of early twentieth-century Europe; Christian imagery and themes are ever-present, as is the shadow of the First World War.

Hans Giebernath lives among the dull and respectable townsfolk of a sleepy Black Forest village. When he is discovered to be an exceptionally gifted student, the entire community presses him onto a path of serious scholarship. Hans dutifully follows the regimen of study and endless examinations, his success rewarded only with more crushing assignments. When Hans befriends a rebellious young poet, he begins to imagine other possibilities outside the narrowly circumscribed world of the academy. Finally sent home after a nervous breakdown, Hans is revived by nature and romance, and vows never to return to the gray conformity of the academic system.

Written in a prose of almost biblical simplicity and beauty, Siddhartha is the story of a soul’s long quest for the answer to the enigma of man’s role on earth. As a youth, the young Indian Siddhartha meets the Buddha but isn’t content with the disciple’s role. He must work out his own destiny—a torturous road on which he experiences a love affair with the beautiful courtesan Kamala, the temptation of success and riches, the heartache of struggling with his own son, and finally, renunciation and self-knowledge. The name “Siddhartha� is often given to the Buddha himself—perhaps a clue to Hesse’s aims contrasting the traditional legendary figure with his own conception. This new edition of the classic Siddhartha includes The Dhammapada (“Path of Virtue�), the 423 verses attributed to the Buddha himself, which forms the essence of the ethics of Buddhist philosophy.

What does it mean to live a life of completeness? And how far must one go to understand the pain of others? Is change truly possible? This is the story that proves that it is. In what could be described as equal parts self-help book and a novelistic guide to spiritual awakening, Siddhartha has been hailed as prolific and unlike any other. Growing up, Siddhartha never experienced true pain. He was sheltered, as many are, turning a blind eye when the hardships of daily life made itself visible to the peasantry around him. Awakening from a hazy reverie that has shielded Siddhartha from the inevitable, he vows to make a change. With the hope of finding a deeper and resounding life's purpose, Siddhartha, a young man living in the ancient Indian kingdom of Kapilavastu, embarks on a journey of self-discovery and actualization. Accompanied by his best friend Govinda, the pair abandon the comfort of their old life by trading their material possessions for what they hope will be eternal enlightenment. Ridding themselves completely of the comforts of their previous life, the duo vow to a life of attempted purity. In a world where suffering is inevitable, Siddhartha hopes that by experiencing the pain so many face, only then will he find the true meaning of life. Siddhartha, written by German author Hermann Hesse in 1951, is a tale of self-discovery and spiritual awakening. The novel as a whole explores the totality of the human experience, of what it means to abandon the parameters of comfort and routine in search for a higher calling.

Few American readers seem to be aware that Hermann Hesse, author of the epic novels "Steppenwolf "and "Siddhartha," among many others, also wrote poetry, the best of which the poet James Wright has translated and included in this book. This is a special volume--filled with short, direct poems about love, death, loneliness, the seasons--that is imbued with some of the imagery and feeling of Hesse's novels but that has a clarity and resonance all its own, a sense of longing for love and for home that is both deceptively simple and deeply moving.

'These fairytales ... have the nature of immortal things.' - Hermann Hesse

A powerful new translation of Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse's masterpiece of youthful rebellion--with a foreword and cover art by James Franco A Penguin Classic A young man awakens to selfhood and to a world of possibilities beyond the conventions of his upbringing in Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse's beloved novel Demian. Emil Sinclair is a quiet boy drawn into a forbidden yet seductive realm of petty crime and defiance. His guide is his precocious, mysterious classmate Max Demian, who provokes in Emil a search for self-discovery and spiritual fulfillment. A brilliant psychological portrait, Demian is given new life in this translation, which together with James Franco's personal and inspiring foreword will bring a new generation to Hesse's widely influential coming-of-age novel. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Here the spirituality of the East and the West have met in a novel that enfigures deep human wisdom with a rich and colorful imagination. Written in a prose of almost biblical simplicity and beauty, it is the story of a soul's long quest in search of he ultimate answer to the enigma of man's role on this earth. As a youth, the young Indian Siddhartha meets the Buddha but cannot be content with a disciple's role: he must work out his own destiny and solve his own doubt--a tortuous road that carries him through the sensuality of a love affair with the beautiful courtesan Kamala, the temptation of success and riches, the heartache of struggle with his own son, to final renunciation and self-knowledge. The name "Siddhartha" is one often given to the Buddha himself--perhaps a clue to Hesse's aims in contrasting the traditional legendary figure with his own conception, as a European (Hesse was Swiss), of a spiritual explorer.

A modernist work of profound wisdom that continues to enthral readers with its subtle blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf is revised by Walter Sorell from the original translation by Basil Creighton. At first sight Harry Haller seems a respectable, educated man. In reality he is the Steppenwolf: wild, strange, alienated from society and repulsed by the modern age. But as he is drawn into a series of dreamlike and sometimes savage encounters - accompanied by, among others, Mozart, Goethe and the bewitching Hermione - the misanthropic Haller discovers a higher truth, and the possibility of happiness. This blistering portrayal of a man who feels himself to be half-human and half-wolf was the bible of the 1960s counterculture, capturing the mood of a disaffected generation, and remains a haunting story of estrangement and redemption. Herman Hesse (1877 - 1962) suffered from depression and weathered series of personal crises which led him to undergo psychoanalysis with J. B. Lang; a process which resulted in Demian (1919), a novel whose main character is torn between the orderliness of bourgeois existence and the turbulent and enticing world of sensual experience. This dichotomy is prominent in Hesse's subsequent novels, including Siddhartha (1922), Steppenwolf (1927), Narcissus and Goldmund (1930) and his magnum opus, The Glass Bead Game (1943). Hesse was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. If you enjoyed Steppenwolf, you might like Hesse's Siddhartha, also available in Penguin Classics. 'A savage indictment of bourgeois society ... the gripping and fascinating story of disease in a man's soul' The New York Times

Herman Hesse remained clear-sighted and consistent in his political views and his passionate espousal of pacifism and the bloody absurdity of war from the start of the First World War to the end of his life. He wrote the earliest essay in this book in September 1914, before he cemented his fame with the novels Steppenwolf and Siddhartha, and continued writing a stream of letters, essays and pamphlets throughout the war. In his native Germany his views earned him the labels 'traitor' and 'viper', but after World War II he was moved to reiterate his beliefs in another series of essays and letters. If the War Goes On . . . resonates as strongly today as it did when originally published and begs the question: have our politicians learnt nothing in the last seventy years?

The quest for self-discovery never ends, especially for Harry Haller-better known as the Steppenwolf. After a life spent in self-imposed isolation, Harry meets the mysterious Hermine and becomes captivated by her intoxicating power. Through their nighttime adventures, the Steppenwolf experiences the decadent underbelly of the bourgeois society he always despised. Harry becomes a man divided-lost in a surreal underground world of pleasure and set on a collision course with his innermost desires. There has never been a translation that fully captures the essence of Hermann Hesse's own spiritual questioning until now. Kurt Beals restores the original meaning of this hallucinatory German tale in a recognizably modern voice. Beals's expert introduction traces the impact of The Steppenwolf for readers seeking meaning during the upheaval of world conflicts, the onslaught of new technologies, and life's uncertainties.

'The unhappiness that I need and long for . . . is of the kind that will let me suffer with eagerness and die with lust. That is the unhappiness, or happiness, that I am waiting for.' Alienated from society, Harry Haller is the Steppenwolf, wild, strange and shy. His despair and desire for death draw him into an enchanted, Faust-like underworld. Through a series of shadowy encounters, romantic, freakish and savage by turn, Haller begins to rediscover the lost dreams of his youth. Adopted by the Sixties counterculture, Steppenwolf captured the mood of a disaffected generation that was beginning to question everything.

This classic of twentieth-century literature chronicles the spiritual evolution of a man living in India at the time of the Buddha--a spiritual journey that has inspired generations of readers. Here is a fresh translation from Sherab Chodzin Kohn, a gifted translator and longtime student of Buddhism and Eastern philosophy. Kohn's flowing, poetic translation conveys the philosophical and spiritual nuances of Hesse's text, paying special attention to the qualities of meditation experience. This edition also includes an introduction exploring Hesse's own spiritual journey as evidenced in his journals and personal letters.