Name: Demian
Rating: 4.029513888888889 (288 reviews)
ISBN: 9783518367063

Hermann Hesse

Demian

Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend

shen

All I wanted to do was try to live the life that was inside me, trying to get out. Why was that so hard?

tuna

If someone asked me to define myself in a quote, I would choose this one. 

ℰ.

I need to feel beautiful and holy things around me, always: music, mystery cults, symbols, myths. I need it, and i refuse to give it up. that's my fatal flaw, Sinclair.

Claire Jorgensen

But every person is more than himself: he is also the remarkable point of intersection where the phenomena of the world overlap, only once and never again in just this way. That is why everyone's story is important, eternal, and godlike- why everyone, as long as and in whatever fashion he lives and fulfills the will of Nature, is wonderful and worthy of all our attention.

-from the perspective of a ten year old dealing with guilt 

For the first time I tasted death, and death tastes bitter because it is birth: anxiety and terror in the face of frightening renewal. 

blood sweat and tears music video slay moment 💅🏻💅🏻💅🏻

He too, was a tempter; he too was a link between me and the other world, wicked and bad, which I now wanted nothing more ever to do with.

...how greatly our own soul constantly participates in the continual creation of the world.

Everytime hesse talks about the inate power of our souls to love and create i just want to cry 😀💕

every form in nature has its model and prototype within us and arises from the soul whose essence is eternity, whose nature we do not know but which shows itself primarily as the power to love and the power to create. 

"No one can ever go home," came her friendly reply. "But when friends' paths meet, the whole world can look like home for a time."

Chaïmae

“La vie de chaque homme est un chemin vers soi-même (…) Chacun porte en soi, jusqu’à sa fin, les restes de sa naissance (…) chacun de nous est un essai de la nature, dont le but est l’homme. (…) Nous pouvons nous comprendre les uns les autres, mais personne n’est expliqué que par soi-même.”

“La contemplation des formes étranges, confuses, irrationnelles de la nature fait naître en nous le sentiment de l’harmonie qui existe entre notre âme et la volonté qui laissa ces formes se créer. Bientôt, nous sommes tentés de les prendre pour nos propres caprices, pour nos propres créations. Nous voyons s’effacer et disparaître les limites qui nous séparent de la nature, et nous parvenons alors à l’état dans lequel nous ne savons plus si les images imprimées sur notre rétine proviennent d’impressions extérieures ou intérieures. C’est alors que nous découvrons, le plus facilement et le plus simplement, combien nous sommes créateurs, combien notre âme participe à la création perpétuelle de l’univers”

Ce qui définit l’Homme est la conscience de son Humanité.

“Nous restreignons beaucoup trop les limites de notre personnalité. Nous lui attribuons seulement ce que nous discernons d’individuel, ce que nous trouvons différent. Mais chacun de nous contient l’univers tout entier et, de même que notre corps porte en lui tous les degrés de l’évolution, à partir du poisson et beaucoup plus loin encore, ainsi, dans notre âme, revit tout ce qui a vécu dans toutes les âmes humaines. 

(…) En quoi réside alors la valeur de l’individu ? Pourquoi aspirons-nous à un but si tout est déjà accompli en nous ?

(…) Il y a une grande différence entre le fait de porter le monde en soi et le fait de le savoir. (…) Un pieux écolier dans un institut piétiste peut avoir une intuition aussi profonde des rapports entre Dieu, l’âme et l’univers, que Zoroastre ou les gnostiques. Mais il l’ignore, et tant qu’il l’ignore, il n’est pas plus qu’un arbre, ou une pierre, ou, tout au plus, un animal. Il ne devient un homme que lorsque jaillit en lui la première étincelle de cette connaissance.”

“Des hommes comme vous et moi sont bien solitaires, mais ils possèdent la compensation secrète d’être autres, de se rebeller, de vouloir l’impossible. À cela aussi il faut renoncer quand on veut parcourir son chemin jusqu’au bout. Il faut arriver à ne vouloir être ni un révolutionnaire, ni un exemple, ni un martyr. C’est inconcevable.”

“Quand nous haïssons un homme, nous haïssons dans son image quelque chose qui réside en nous. Ce que nous ne portons pas en nous, ne peut nous toucher.”

nese

Her insanın yaşamı, onu kendisine götüren bir yoldur, bir yol denemesi, bir yol taslağıdır. Hiçbir insan yüzde yüz kendisi olamamıştır, ama yine de herkes gücü yettiğince ilerler bu yolda, kimi biraz daha gözü açık kimi biraz daha gözü kapalı.

Canım dönüş! O canım, mutlu eve dönüş, aydınlığa ve huzura dönüş!

Duygularının bir kısmını düşüncelere dönüştürmesini öğrenmiş büyükler, çocuklarda böyle düşüncelere rastlamayınca, onların bu tür düşüncelerin kaynaklandığı duyguları da yaşamadıklarını sanır.

Dışımdaki dünyaya karşı tam bir umursamazlıkla davranıyordum; öyle oluyordu ki, bazen günlerce içime kulak kabartıp orada akan ırmakların sesine kulak vermekten, içimde adete yeraltından yol alan yasak ve karanlık ırmakların çağıltısını dinlemekten başka şey yapamıyordum.

Tanrı'nın bizi yalnız bıraktığı ve içlerinden birini izleyerek kendi kendimizi bulmamıza olanak sağladığı pek çok yol vardır.

Üstesinden gelemeyeceğim tek şey vardı: karanlıklarda saklı yatan amacı içimden çekip çıkararak başkaları gibi karşımda bir yere oturtmak. Başkaları avcunun içi gibi biliyordu, profesör mü, yargıç mı, hekim mi ya da sanatçı mı olacaklarını; bunun ne kadar zaman alıp kendilerine ne yarar sağlayacağından haberleri vardı. Oysa böyle bir şey benden uzaktı. Belki ben de bir gün adı geçen mesleklerden birini edinecektim, ama şimdiden nasıl bilebilirdim bunu? Belki henüz arayacak, aramalarımı sürdürecek, daha yıllarca aramaktan geri kalmayacaktım; belki yine de bir baltaya sap olamayacak, bir amaca ulaşamayacaktım.

Herkes için gerçekte bir tek uğraş vardı: kendini bulmak.

First published in 1919 under the pseudonym "Emil Sinclair", the narrator of the story. Emil Sinclair is a young boy who was raised in a bourgeois home. He is confused as to what his life is and is going to be. Max Demian, friend and mentor of Emil, leads Emil to his eventual self-realisation.

ikkychan

Bought this book because of River Phoenix's parents and found out the whole concept of BTS's 'Boy Meet Evil' was from it. <br /><br />I'd like to call the story as The Lamentable Internal Conflict of a Certain Middle Class Brat but i guess it's so much more than that (?) with a touch of repressed sexuality and mysticism. It tells the life of Sinclair who happened to meet a very peculiar boy who goes by the name Max Demian. Suddenly he was thrown into an existential crises at the young tender age of 11 and discover an evilness within him. He tries his best to reject it and pretend to go living as an upright, respectable prodigal son but yeah, how long you can put up that mask and reject the sweet sweet ordeal of the devil anyway. It's surely exhausting.<br /><br />But I concur that I do have sweet spot in my shallow heart for this kind of comin-of-age stories.

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.

To live this love seemed my destiny, to taste of it my fate. I longed for it and was terrified of it at the same time, but it was always there, always above me.

a reminder that as you live, you will always carry traces of the world with you: "...the slime and eggshell of a primeval past," where, "The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world," and the only way to transform it would be to become fully humanized; to find and achieve the complete individual.

while it can be argued, demian to myself is the return of a child to its mother; the ever present urge to come back to the natural world, retreat, or attempt to find answers within one's origin. it's no question that the entirety of demian is steeped in religion, or simply belief, where the earliest of our kind invented/turned to/found in order to arrive at ourselves. it begs you to find each action literal but each thought behind it completely symbolic. and for such purposes despite my qualms about the creation myth i'd liken this search as if eve came into the world without adam but with the knowledge of his existence; from whose rib was i made? what matter is my equal? — and so the individual is left to seek being understood without first reaching within themselves. 

i am very late in reading hesse, even though i've been interested for a very long time; demian, through all its fog, has captured me completely; while yes, ambitious, thoroughly referential, intertextual, a disturbing amount of nietzsche in its foundations which even through my misgivings of him still has rudimentary authority on morality, and whatever demon from psychology he also conjured — hesse's demian is magnetic, faithful, that is, in terms of guiding whatever soul happens upon this text; it does not, however, tell you what you will find, once you've followed this attraction, your demian, whatever whoever it is, because even if this novel itself helps you, as put by it as well: "We can understand each other, but each of us can truly grasp and interpret only himself."

“To live this love seemed my destiny, to taste of it my fate. I longed for it and was terrified of it at the same time, but it was always there, always above me.”


a reminder that as you live, you will always carry traces of the world with you: "...the slime and eggshell of a primeval past," where, "The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world," and the only way to transform it would be to become fully humanized; to find and achieve the complete individual.

while it can be argued, demian to myself is the return of a child to its mother; the ever present urge to come back to the natural world, retreat, or attempt to find answers within one's origin. it's no question that the entirety of demian is steeped in religion, or simply belief, where the earliest of our kind invented/turned to/found in order to arrive at ourselves. it begs you to find each action literal but each thought behind it completely symbolic. and for such purposes despite my qualms about the creation myth i'd liken this search as if eve came into the world without adam but with the knowledge of his existence; from whose rib was i made? what matter is my equal? — and so the individual is left to seek being understood without first reaching within themselves. 

i am very late in reading hesse, even though i've been interested for a very long time; demian, through all its fog, has captured me completely; while yes, ambitious, thoroughly referential, intertextual, a disturbing amount of nietzsche in its foundations which even through my misgivings of him still has rudimentary authority on morality, and whatever demon from psychology he also conjured — hesse's demian is magnetic, faithful, that is, in terms of guiding whatever soul happens upon this text; it does not, however, tell you what you will find, once you've followed this attraction, your demian, whatever whoever it is, because even if this novel itself helps you, as put by it as well: "We can understand each other, but each of us can truly grasp and interpret only himself."

so good! made me think a lot - can’t wait to read it again now that im older and have experienced life more to see how i view things this time around!! 

A brilliant psychological portrait of a troubled young man's quest for self-awareness, this coming-of-age novel achieved instant critical and popular acclaim upon its 1919 publication. A landmark in the history of 20th-century literature, it reflects the author's preoccupation with the duality of human nature and the pursuit of spiritual fullfillment.

tori 👻

“The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas.”

wow, just wow

A friend's mother, war, and newly discovered self-respect draw a young man toward his psychological awakening.

The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth

kinda gay and life changing herman hesse you rocked my world

Helena

read this mostly because my boyfriend likes it but it was actually really really good

jana 

envee

Rosa

jack

beautiful coming of age story. occasionally feels like it is biting off more than it can chew, but that’s part of the charm

Syahla Aurel

You just have to just reflect on yourself and then do what truly comes from your nature. There's nothing else. If you can't find yourself, then you won't find any spirits either, it seems to me

I am definitely not smart or cultured enough to grasp the whole point of this book, especially with the bible references. The first 3 chapters was okay and interesting, but the 4th to the 8th was very confusing for me. If someone ask me about this book all I can say that this book is about self-realization, yep that's it.

easily one of the reasons that now i study psychology 

mic★

easily one of the reasons that now i study psychology 

 

Virginia L

Rovino ogni poesia dicendo: scommetto che dopo ci siamo sentiti tutti un poco filosofi.
Sta di fatto che penso che abbia ragione, nonostante mi sembri uno di quei libri che lotti fra il ''non dirai sul serio'' e ''potrebbe cambiarmi l'esistenza''.

Campos

tash

miranda

Een kort maar goed boek. Ik wist niet wat ik ervan moest verwachten en was helemaal niet voorbereid op de esoterische thema’s die centraal staan in het boek. Ik had niet verwacht dat een boek uit 1919 zo’n relatief modern verhaal zou vertellen. De “twee werelden” die eigenlijk een zijn passen bij een conclusie die ik zelf ook eerder heb gemaakt. Ik trek hem echter niet zo radicaal door, maar het is fascinerend om dit inzicht mee te maken. Ironisch dat dit ook een boek is over iemand die op groeit. Dit was een vaag boek maar zeker een aanrader, vooral als je de twee werelden nog hebt.

Bart Veldhuijsen 

Andrea Navarrete

My first Hermann Hesse book. It did not disappoint. 
I wish I had read this when I was younger, it would have helped a lot… 
But reading it now, much of what is said, the symbolism, the intellectuality, the depth and spirituality it explores still resonated so much with who I am today. I loved the characters, very immersive, and the way they are portrayed with such openness and mixed within each other, amazing. 
Definitely moved to the favorites shelf. 

Leído en español (:

sabina

I wasn't sure if I would enjoy this but it was a surprisingly good read. I limited myself to reading a chapter a day, but I probably would have read it in a day if I hadn't.

hermann hesse and his writings, especially Demian, saved my teenage years

esma

kesha

critical dissection of the idea of individual and society and an individual in a society is good. discovering self outside the imposition of moral dichotomy is good. exploring the idea of a god and a beloved with queer subtext is good. the first half is, GOOD. 

but. losing all organically built cohesive narrative to make way for an overtly self important ideology with sparse development that seems to lead nowhere is, not so good. or perhaps my personal life philosophy simply conflicts too strongly with what the book proposes and my brain is resisting the idea. or perhaps i am just too dumb to truly Get It. but anyhow, it was not possible for me to take the book seriously in the second half, especially the chapters leading to its end. 

but i still cherished the bits that i did love, and i would still call it a good read. so unless i come across a review that rationally fleshes out and validates my feelings about everything that didn't sit well with me in the book and gives me reason to reassess my opinion of it, it's a 3.75 for me.

Emil Sinclair'in Gencliginin Öyküsü

kendini arama yolculuğu, kendini bulmaya çalışmanın ıstıraplı öyküsü. küçüklüğünde dünyayı ikiye ayırmış: aydınlık ve karanlık dünya. aydınlık dünya ailesi, evi, rahat bölgesi ama hep karanlığı merak etmiş. küçükken söylediği küçük yalanla başlamış karanlık dünyaya adım atması ona göre. belki birçoğumuza önemsiz denecek kadar küçük olan bir yalan, fakat kendisi için hem karanlık dünyaya adım atma bahanesi hem de yaşayacağı ıstırap ve acıların başlangıcı. yolculuğunda ona yol gösteren, içinde kıskançlık ve hayranlığın karıştığı his barındırdığı biri çıkıyor karşısına; Demian. sonra kendine yolculuğu başlıyor. 

"İnsanın kendini kendisine götüren yolu izlemesi kadar dünyada nefret ettiği başka bir şey daha yoktur." diye tanımlıyor yolculuğu.

"Yıldızlara benziyordu tıpkı, çevresi kendine özgü bir atmosferle kuşatılmıştı, kendine özgü yasalar çerçevesinde yaşayıp gidiyordu." diye de tanımlıyor Demian'ı.

Sonra Pistorius ve en sonunda Demian'ın annesi Bayan Eva; benliğini bulması yolunda izlediği kişiler.

Kitap güzel başladı, sorular sordurttu, cevabı okuyucuya bıraktı birçoklarında. sayfa sayısı az olsa bile okuması zordu bence. sonlara doğru mistik bir hava kazanmaya başladı kitap. belki bu nedenle seveceğimi düşündüğüm kadar sevemedim. 

kendini arama yolculuğu, kendini bulmaya çalışmanın ıstıraplı öyküsü. küçüklüğünde dünyayı ikiye ayırmış: aydınlık ve karanlık dünya. aydınlık dünya ailesi, evi, rahat bölgesi ama hep karanlığı merak etmiş. küçükken söylediği küçük yalanla başlamış karanlık dünyaya adım atması ona göre. belki birçoğumuza önemsiz denecek kadar küçük olan bir yalan, fakat kendisi için hem karanlık dünyaya adım atma bahanesi hem de yaşayacağı ıstırap ve acıların başlangıcı. yolculuğunda ona yol gösteren, içinde kıskançlık ve hayranlığın karıştığı his barındırdığı biri çıkıyor karşısına; Demian. sonra kendine yolculuğu başlıyor. 

"İnsanın kendini kendisine götüren yolu izlemesi kadar dünyada nefret ettiği başka bir şey daha yoktur." diye tanımlıyor yolculuğu.

"Yıldızlara benziyordu tıpkı, çevresi kendine özgü bir atmosferle kuşatılmıştı, kendine özgü yasalar çerçevesinde yaşayıp gidiyordu." diye de tanımlıyor Demian'ı.

Sonra Pistorius ve en sonunda Demian'ın annesi Bayan Eva; benliğini bulması yolunda izlediği kişiler.

Kitap güzel başladı, sorular sordurttu, cevabı okuyucuya bıraktı birçoklarında. sayfa sayısı az olsa bile okuması zordu bence. sonlara doğru mistik bir hava kazanmaya başladı kitap. belki bu nedenle seveceğimi düşündüğüm kadar sevemedim. 

Hermione

it was definitely uhm interesting. i read a couple of reviews to maybe get a clearer look on how i feel about the book. 
its point seems to be to be touching and to give you a different perspective on the world in general. i think that worked and i was intrigued by many of the points made
however the plot was confusing at times and it didnt help on shedding light to the actually intellectual points of the book. 
it was definitely food for thought though and i enjoyed it

the reasons i read this book is so funny, but i loved this book soooo much. The introspective philosophy of German literature always makes my heart happy. The way Hesse has written about the soul and the development of youth is breath taking. Following the development of a boy to a teen to a man and the friend (they are actually in love) who guided him through it all really just 🥺. It was bittersweet and a touching read. 

DEMIAN 

“Demian enseigne à Émile Sinclair une autre morale que le piétisme dont ses parents lui donnent l’exemple. Ce n’est pas le mal travesti en bien à la manière de Sade qu’il lui propose, mais une conception dangereusement élargie du bien.”

“Demian enseigne à Émile Sinclair une autre morale que le piétisme dont ses parents lui donnent l’exemple. Ce n’est pas le mal travesti en bien à la manière de Sade qu’il lui propose, mais une conception dangereusement élargie du bien.”

— Marcel SCHNEIDER

Demian

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