From School Library Journal
Grade 10 Up-Winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize for Literature, Hesse is revered internationally by readers who share his views on pacifism, individuality, isolation, and spirituality. Influenced by Benedict de Spinoza, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as by Indian and Chinese philosophy, his writings covered a period of disenchantment with his native country (Germany) as well as his life during two World Wars. Essays here include discussions of Hesse's personal life, writing style, themes, characters, philosophy, and influences. His novels Siddhartha, Narcissus and Goldmund, The Glass Bead Game, Steppenwolf, and Demian are analyzed as is some of his poetry. Similarities of Hesse's writings with those of Andre Gide, Marcel Proust, and James Joyce are discussed in several essays. Excerpts of his poems are included in both German and English. This scholarly book will help advanced students of literature better understand the writer's works.Pat Bender, The Shipley School, Bryn Mawr, PACopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Book Description
Herman Hesse's introspective, lyrical writing won him praise from the literary world, while his sense of estrangement from industrialized civilization and endorsement of pacificism brought him wide popular approval. Winner of the Nobel Prize for The Glass Bead Game, Hesse renders life's callings in a way that has called readers to a renewed sense of purpose and possibility. This series is edited by Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities, Yale University; Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Professor of English, New York University Graduate School. These text presents critical essays that reflect a variety of schools of criticism on the most important 20th-century criticism on major works from The Odyssey through modern literature. Each volume also contains an introductory essay by Harold Bloom, critical biographies, notes on the contributing critics, a chronology of the author's life, and an index.

FROM THE CRITICS

School Library Journal