Book Description
With its blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, Hesse’s best-known and most autobiographical work is one of literature’s most poetic evocations of the soul’s journey to liberation

Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine. The tale of the Steppenwolf culminates in the surreal Magic Theater—For Madmen Only!

Originally published in English in 1929, Steppenwolf ’s wisdom continues to speak to our souls and marks it as a classic of modern literature.



Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German


About the Author
Hermann Hesse was born in Germany in 1877 and later became a citizen of Switzerland. As a Western man profoundly affected by the mysticism of Eastern thought, he wrote many novels, stories, and essays that bear a vital spiritual force that has captured the imagination and loyalty of many generations of readers. He died in 1962.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Torn between his frustrated artistic idealism and his contempt for the world of the senses, Harry Haller is a lonely, disconnected man. Then, through contact with a woman in a club called the Magic Theater, he learns that peace lies in reconciling the two warring sides of his psyche. An experimental mix of symbolism, realism and fantasy, this affecting story embodies Hesse's most personally felt theme--the wrenching conflict between the flesh and the spirit.

ANNOTATION

The most autobiographical of Hesse's works, Steppenwolf is the profoundly memorable and affecting story of Harry Haller--an evocative portrayal of the wrenching conflict between the needs of the flesh and the spirit and a searing appraisal of Western civilization.

FROM THE PUBLISHER