Hermann Hesse

By Hermann Hesse Translated by Michael Roloff “A remarkable mixture of affection, gentle humor, compassion, light irony, bitterness, and cold, angry indignation.”—The Sacramento Bee“Can be read for sheer pleasure. Hesse's peculiarly supple lyricism, his brittle irony, and his stunning descriptions of nature are marvelously carried over into the English.”—The Saturday Review“[A] Black Forest Catcher in the Rye, a work infused with that sense of homesickness that Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., quite rightly said was so prominent in Hesse's novels.”—The National Observer In Hermann Hesse's Beneath the Wheel, 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. Paperback192 pagesPicador Publishing, 2003Originally published in 19068.2 x 5.4 x 0.6 inchesISBN 9780312422301Fiction

Beneath the Wheel

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Elisabeth LaufferIllustrated by Jakob Hübner"A charming book for nature and literature lovers...leaving audiences feeling as lucky to encounter it as Hesse felt about meeting his winged subjects."―Foreword Reviews This volume gathers the most alluring stories, recollections, contemplations and poems on butterflies by Herman Hesse. "I have always had a connection with butterflies and other fleeting and ephemeral beauties, while I have never succeeded in maintaining permanent, committed and so-called solid relationships," writes Hermann Hesse in a letter from 1926. This preference, occasionally resembling an elective affinity, for "flowers and butterflies, that are of everlasting things, a fleeting allegory" – as he says in one of his poems, has left its mark on Hesse’s entire oeuvre.Hardcover136 pages | 110 full-color engraved copper illustrations Kales Press, 20235.3 x 0.7 x 7.3 inchesISBN 9798985955859 Anthology, Nature Writing

Butterflies: Reflection, Tales, and Verse

By Hermann Hesse "All I really wanted was to try and live the life that was spontaneously welling up within me. Why was that so very difficult?" Generations of readers have recognized the impassioned cry that introduces the young narrator of Demian, and embraced this tale of a troubled young man's struggle toward self-awareness. Initially published in Berlin in 1919, the novel met with instant critical acclaim, as well as great popular success among people seeking answers amid the devastating aftermath of World War I. A brilliant psychological portrait of an individual's departure from social conventions in the search for spiritual fulfillment, Demian encompasses many of the themes associated with Hermann Hesse, its Noble Prize–winning author, particularly the duality of human nature and the quest for inner peace. Considered an important work in the evolution of 20th-century European literature, this perceptive coming-of-age novel enjoys a particular resonance with young adults, a fact that has made Demian a perennial favorite in schools and colleges all over the world. This inexpensive edition, featuring an excellent new English translation, is sure to be welcomed by teachers and students, and by the legions of confirmed Hesse fans.Paperback128 pagesDover Publications, 2012Originally published in 19195.2 x 0.2 x 8 inchesISBN 9780486414133Psychological Fiction

Demian (Dover Thrift Editions)

By Hermann Hesse Foreword by James FrancoIntroduction by Ralph FreedmanTranslated by Damion Searls “Demian became . . . a voice I could listen to and contemplate as I tried to find my way from childhood to adulthood and into the world of art.” —James Franco, from the Foreword“[An] excellent new translation.” —The Times Literary SupplementA 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.Paperback176 pagesPenguin Classics, 2013Orginally published in 19195 x 7.75 0.45 inches ISBN 9780143106784Psychological Fiction

Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Hilda Rosner With Gertrude, Herman Hesse continues his lifelong exploration of the irreconcilable elements of human existence. In this fictional memoir, the renowned composer Kuhn recounts his tangled relationships with two artists--his friend Heinrich Muoth, a brooding, self-destructive opera singer, and the gentle, self-assured Gertrude Imthor. Kuhn is drawn to Gertrude upon their first meeting, but Gertrude falls in love with Heinrich, to whom she is introduced when Kuhn auditions them for the leads in his new opera. Hopelessly ill-matched, Gertrude and Heinrich have a disastrous marriage that leaves them both ruined. Yet this tragic affair also becomes the inspiration for Kuhn’s opera, the most important success of his artistic life. Paperback237 pagesPicador Publishing, 2005Originally published in 19105.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inchesISBN 9780312424633Fictional Memoir

Gertrude

By Gunnar DeckerTranslated by Peter Lewis “Top-notch….A masterful, penetrating biography…that deserves the accolade ‘definitive.’…Decker lays bare Hesse’s complex, contradictory personality, his all-consuming dedication to the creative life, his tormented relationships with women, and the cultural and political forces that found their ways into his works….A richly detailed and supremely sensitive portrayal of an artist obsessed with the ‘terrible and magnificent’ act of creation.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review“Shows that Hesse’s life was an uneasy compromise between his spiritual absolutism, which pushed him in the direction of irascible isolation, and his human needs, which encumbered him with wives, children, and houses that he never quite wanted or accepted.”—Adam Kirsch, The New Yorker Against the horrors of Nazi dictatorship and widespread disillusionment with the forces of mass culture and consumerism, Hermann Hesse’s stories inspired nonconformity and a yearning for universal values. Few today would doubt Hesse’s artistry or his importance to millions of devoted readers. But just who was the author of Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, and Demian? Gunnar Decker weaves together previously unavailable sources to offer a unique interpretation of the life and work of Hermann Hesse. Drawing on recently discovered correspondence between Hesse and his psychoanalyst, Josef Lang, Decker shows how Hesse reversed the traditional roles of therapist and client, and rethinks the relationship between Hesse’s novels and Jungian psychoanalysis. He also explores Hesse’s correspondence with Stefan Zweig―recently unearthed―to find the source of Hesse’s profound sense of alienation from his contemporaries. Decker’s biography brings to life this icon of spiritual searching and disenchantment who galvanized the counterculture in the 1960s and feels newly relevant today. Hardback800 pagesHarvard University Press, 20186.7 x 1.7 x 9.2 inchesISBN 9780674737884Biography

Hesse: The Wanderer and His Shadow

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Ursule Molinaro “Hesse was a great writer in precisely the modern sense: complex, subtle, allusive; alive to the importance of play, to the desperate yet frolicsome game of writing....Narcissus and Goldmund is his very best....What makes this short book so limitlessly vast is the body-and-soul-shaking debate that runs through it, which it has the honesty and courage not to resolve: between the flesh and spirit, art and scientific or religious speculation, action and contemplation, between the wayfaring and the sedentary in us.”—The New York Times Book Review“One of the most profound and magical novels published in our age.”—Kirkus ReviewsHermann Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teacher’s fierce intellect and sense of discipline. When Narcissus persuades the young student that he is not meant for a life of self-denial, Goldmund sets off in pursuit of aesthetic and physical pleasures, a path that leads him to a final, unexpected reunion with Narcissus.Paperback315 pagesPicador Publishing, 2003Originally published in 19300.8 x 5.4 x 8.4 inchesISBN 9780312421670Historical Fiction

Narcissus and Goldmund

By Hermann HesseIntroduction by Theodore ZialkowskiTranslated by Rika LesserIn the spring of 1922, several months after completing Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse wrote a fairy tale that was also a love story, inspired by the woman who was to become his second wife. That story, Pictor’s Metamorphoses, is the centerpiece of this anthology of Hesse’s luminous short fiction. Based on The Arabian Nights and the work of the Brothers Grimm, the nineteen stories collected here represent a half century of Hesse's short writings. They display the full range of Hesse’s lifetime fascination with fantasy—as dream, fairy tale, satire, or allegory.Paperback240 pagesPicador Publishing, 2003Originally published in 1922ISBN 9780312422646Short Stories, Fantasy

Pictor's Metamorphoses and Other Fantasies

By Hermann Hesse Translated by James Wright “Hesse is a writer of suggestion, of nuance, of spiritual intimation.”—Christian Science Monitor“One of the defining spirits of our century.”—Ralph Freedman, Princeton UniversityFew American readers seem to be aware that Hermann Hesse, author of the epic novels Steppenwolf and Siddartha, 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.Paperback79 pagesFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008Originally published in 19715.7 x 0.3 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9780374526412Poetry

Poems

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Ralph Manheim “Hesse's finest short story...This book's maturity, craftsmanship, and truthfulness recommend it as an outstanding work.”—The Oregon Journal “Rosshalde shimmers with the vitality of a richly imagined existence.”—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution “A kind of disguised biography, an account of Hesse's quite private turmoil on the eve of the war.”—The Christian Science MonitorHermann Hesse's Rosshalde is the classic story of a man torn between obligations to his family and his longing for a spiritual fulfillment that can only be found outside the confines of conventional society.Johann Veraguth, a wealthy, successful artist, is estranged from his wife and stifled by the unhappy union. Veraguth’s love for his young son and his fear of drifting rootlessly keep him bound within the walls of his opulent estate, Rosshalde. Yet, when he is shaken by an unexpected tragedy, Veraguth finally finds the courage to leave the desolate safety of Rosshalde and travels to India to discover himself anew.Paperback224 pagesPicador, 2003Originally published in 19145.5 x 0.5 x 8.5 inchesISBN 9780312422295Fiction

Rosshalde

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Sherab Chödzin KohnWith an Introduction by Paul W. Morris "Filled with timeless truths and told so beautifully with images that burn deep into your being, Hesse’s novel speaks powerfully to every generation of spiritual seekers. . . . A fresh translation of Siddhartha that offers greater authenticity than any other translation—while still preserving the unique beauty of the original prose."—Branches of Light 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 Chödzin 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. Also available in German. Paperback119 pagesShambhala Publications, 2000Originally published in 19226 x 0.4 x 9 inchesISBN 9781570627217Spirituality, Fiction

Siddhartha

By Hermann HesseThis classic novel of self-discovery has inspired generations of seekers. With parallels to the enlightenment of the Buddha, Hesse's Siddhartha is the story of a young Brahmin's quest for the ultimate reality. His quest takes him from the extremes of indulgent sensuality to the rigors of asceticism and self-denial. At last he learns that wisdom cannot be taught - it must come from one's own experience and inner struggle. Steeped in the tenets of both psychoanalysis and Eastern mysticism, Siddhartha presents a strikingly original view of man and culture, and the arduous process of self-discovery that leads to reconciliation, harmony, and peace.Paperback108 pagesDover Thrift Editions, 2012Originally published in 19225.2 x 0.5 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9780486406534Fiction, Spirituality

Siddhartha (Dover Thrift Editions)

By Hermann HesseIntroduction and Translated by Stanley Appelbaum With its excellent line-for-line English translation on facing pages, this handy dual-language volume allows students of German language and literature an ideal way to read the 1922 classic based on events from the life of Buddha. The restless young Brahmin Siddhartha undertakes a spiritual journey that takes him from years of asceticism to the utmost sensual and materialistic indulgence before he achieves his long-sought enlightenment. Paperback192 pagesText in German and EnglishDover Publishing, 1998Originally published in 19225.4 x 0.4 x 8.4 inchesISBN 9780486404370Fiction

Siddhartha (Dual-Language) German/English

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Basil Creighton "For all its savagely articulate descriptions of torment and isolation, it is most eloquent about something less glamorous but far more important: healing."—The GuardianWith 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. Also available in German. Paperback224 pagesPicador Publishing, 2002Originally published in 1927ISBN 9780312278670Autobiographical Fiction

Steppenwolf

By Hermann HesseTranslated and afterword by David Horrocks A Penguin Classic Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse’s iconic countercultural novel about the search for authenticity in an inauthentic world, in a new translation At first glance, Harry Haller seems like 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 undergoes a spiritual, even psychedelic, journey, and ultimately discovers a higher truth and the possibility of happiness. This blistering portrait 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. It continues to resonate as a haunting story of estrangement, redemption, and the search for one’s place in the world. Paperback256 pagesPenguin Classics, 2025Originally published in 19275.06 x 7.75 inchesISBN 9780143137825Classic Fiction

By Hermann Hesse Translated by Jack Zipes “Sometimes lush and lyrical, sometimes in the simple language of the parable, these tales elaborate Hesse’s concerns with mortality, the unity of life and the isolation of the artist. . . . Quirky and evocative, Hesse’s fairy tales stand alone, but also amplify the ideas and utopian longings of such counterculture avatars as Siddhartha and Steppenwolf.”—Publishers Weekly“Hesse unerringly creates the feel of a fairy tale. . . . Lay readers will enjoy this as much as literary specialists.”—Library Journal A collection of twenty-two fairy tales by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist, most translated into English for the first time, shows the influence of German Romanticism, psychoanalysis, and Eastern religion on Hesse’s development as an author. Paperback304 pagesBantam, 19955.2 x 0.7 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9780553377767Fiction, Fairy Tales

The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Richard and Clara WinstonWith a foreword by Theodore Ziolkowski "...a genre blend of science fiction, fantasy, and fictional biography, leavened with musicology, poetry, and Hesse’s unique swirl of Eastern and Western philosophy."—The American Scholar The final novel of Hermann Hesse, for which he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, The Glass Bead Game is a fascinating tale of the complexity of modern life as well as a classic of modern literatureSet in the 23rd century, The Glass Bead Game is the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game). Paperback576 pagesPicador Publishing, 2002Originally published in 19435.6 x 1 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9780312278496Fiction

The Glass Bead Game

By Hermann HesseTranslated by Hilda RosnerIn simple, mesmerizing prose, Hermann Hesse's Journey to the East tells of a journey both geographic and spiritual. H.H., a German choirmaster, is invited on an expedition with the League, a secret society whose members include Paul Klee, Mozart, and Albertus Magnus. The participants traverse both space and time, encountering Noah’s Ark in Zurich and Don Quixote at Bremgarten. The pilgrims’ ultimate destination is the East, the “Home of the Light,” where they expect to find spiritual renewal. Yet the harmony that ruled at the outset of the trip soon degenerates into open conflict. Each traveler finds the rest of the group intolerable and heads off in his own direction, with H.H. bitterly blaming the others for the failure of the journey. It is only long after the trip, while poring over records in the League archives, that H.H. discovers his own role in the dissolution of the group, and the ominous significance of the journey itself. Paperback118 pagesPicador Publishing, 2003Originally published in 19325.5 x 0.4 x 8.2 inchesISBN 9780312421687Spirituality, Fiction

The Journey to the East

Translated and with commentary by Ludwig Max Fischer, PhDForeword by Andrew Harvey Vowing at an early age “to be a poet or nothing at all,” Hermann Hesse rebelled against formal education, focusing on a rigorous program of independent study that included literature, philosophy, art, and history. One result of these efforts was a series of novels that became counterculture bibles that remain widely influential today. Another was a body of evocative spiritual poetry. Published for the first time in English, these vivid, probing short works reflect deeply on the challenges of life and provide a spiritual solace that transcends specific denominational hymns, prayers, and rituals.The Seasons of the Soul offers valuable guidance in poetic form for those longing for a more meaningful life, seeking a sense of homecoming in nature, in each stage of life, in a renewed relationship with the divine. Extensive quotations from his prose introduce each theme addressed in the book: love, imagination, nature, the divine, and the passage of time. A foreword by Andrew Harvey reintroduces us to a figure about whom some may have believed everything had already been said. Thoughtful commentary throughout from translator Ludwig Max Fischer helps readers understand the poems within the context of Hesse’s life. Paperback113 pagesNorth Atlantic Books, 20116 x 0.4 x 8.9 inchesISBN 9781583943137Poetry

The Seasons of the Soul: The Poetic Guidance and Spiritual Wisdom of Hermann Hesse

By Hermann HesseTranslated from the German by Kurt Beals "A sharp, erudite new translation of Hesse’s moody classic." ―Susan Bernofsky, Columbia University, and translator of The Metamorphosis "An English-language translation that highlights both the thoughtfulness and, ultimately, the sheer personal power of the original. Beals has managed the considerable feat of making a cult classic of twentieth-century literature feel completely alive for the twenty-first." ―Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Monthly This revolutionary translation is the only way to experience the novel as Hesse envisioned it nearly one hundred years ago. 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. Paperback256 pagesW.W. Norton & Company, 2025Originally published in 19275.5 x 0.7 x 8.3 inchesISBN 9781324105992German Literature, Hermann Hesse

The Steppenwolf [paperback]

By Hermann HesseTranslated from the German by Damion Searls“One of humanity’s most beautiful love letters to trees.” ―The Marginalian “Nature frequently brings out our deepest thoughts, but few can express those thoughts better than Hermann Hesse does in this anthology.” —New York Journal of Books An elegant collection of Hermann Hesse’s essays, poems, and passages on the subject of trees and nature, accompanied by thirty-one of his watercolor illustrations. Hermann Hesse understood trees to be symbols of transcendence and rebirth, of instinctive growth present in all natural life. This elegant collection of his essays, poems, and passages on trees, accompanied by thirty-one of his watercolor illustrations, reveals his inspired thoughts on nature, spirituality, and self-knowledge. Together, his writings and paintings mirror the seasons and landscapes as he experienced them, and help remind us that trees’ annual rings are representations of our own days’ struggle, happiness, and purpose.In the author’s words: “They struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws . . . Whoever has learned to listen to trees no longer wants to be one. He wants to be nothing except who he is.”Hardcover 136 pages | 31 full-color watercolors from Hermann HesseKales Press, 20225.3 x 0.7 x 7.4 inchesISBN 9781737832713 Anthology, Nature Writing

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