Name: Evan's review of Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Item: Steppenwolf
Rating: 4
Author: Evan

Hermann Hesse

Steppenwolf

Evan

Well, to each his lot, and none is light.

Der Steppenwolf

Bart Veldhuijsen 

En in onze moderne wereld bestaat er literatuur waarin achter de sluier van het persoon- en karakterspel, zonder dat de auteur het zich nauwelijks bewust is, wordt gepoogd een veelvoudigheid van de ziel uit te beelden.

clara

Vojtech

This book definitely goes through phases, and personally I liked the earlier stuff far more than the later sections. Harry reading "Treatise on the Steppenwolf" was not only amusing but the beginning of the book's philosophical journey. I thought the points and questions raised here were great and left me with a lot to consider -- towards the end of the book, unfortunately, I think the pacing goes completely flat and is a bit too cuckoo yet simultaneously dull. The last ~40 pages or so began to felt like a chore, even if the ending message is seemingly a hopeful and important one.

Despite calling the final stretch a "chore", I do like this book a lot. I think it's an interesting journey into the psyche, clearly Hesse writing about his own inner turmoil and one he likely (rightly) believed we all share: the journey of the self. It's not an easy trip, but it's the only one we've got.

I'm very happy to have read this. Sadly, while I believed initially (around page 50) this would be something I could recommend to everyone, I know for certain the ending would annihilate many people I know. They'd simply stop dead in their tracks and never finish, and really, I can't blame them. I'm glad to have finished it, but I cannot lie and say I enjoyed every part of it. I likely won't recommend this to many people (and of course, like a dolt, I already have).

I view this the journey of Harry Haller as an easily shared one. I know many people who would recognize themselves in the man struggling with his inner Steppenwolf. Harry literally casts a mirror on himself, quite critically, and I think that's something we could all use. His final thoughts, the thoughts that he apparently earns after a wild acid-like trip, are ones that are also very important. This is, ultimately, a book of optimism -- Hesse confirms this in the introduction, but it's pretty obvious at the end as well.

I recommend "Steppenwolf" to someone who can handle a very verbose journey and discovery of the self. Someone who isn't scared of the most flowery of prose and stretches that may lull you to sleep. I think it's an important book, but also one that could have likely been a bit more engaging at its end.

A pretty wild ride.

  

This book definitely goes through phases, and personally I liked the earlier stuff far more than the later sections. Harry reading "Treatise on the Steppenwolf" was not only amusing but the beginning of the book's philosophical journey. I thought the points and questions raised here were great and left me with a lot to consider -- towards the end of the book, unfortunately, I think the pacing goes completely flat and is a bit too cuckoo yet simultaneously dull. The last ~40 pages or so began to felt like a chore, even if the ending message is seemingly a hopeful and important one.

  

Despite calling the final stretch a "chore", I do like this book a lot. I think it's an interesting journey into the psyche, clearly Hesse writing about his own inner turmoil and one he likely (rightly) believed we all share: the journey of the self. It's not an easy trip, but it's the only one we've got.

  

I'm very happy to have read this. Sadly, while I believed initially (around page 50) this would be something I could recommend to everyone, I know for certain the ending would annihilate many people I know. They'd simply stop dead in their tracks and never finish, and really, I can't blame them. I'm glad to have finished it, but I cannot lie and say I enjoyed every part of it. I likely won't recommend this to many people (and of course, like a dolt, I already have).

  

I view this the journey of Harry Haller as an easily shared one. I know many people who would recognize themselves in the man struggling with his inner Steppenwolf. Harry literally casts a mirror on himself, quite critically, and I think that's something we could all use. His final thoughts, the thoughts that he apparently earns after a wild acid-like trip, are ones that are also very important. This is, ultimately, a book of optimism -- Hesse confirms this in the introduction, but it's pretty obvious at the end as well.

  

I recommend "Steppenwolf" to someone who can handle a very verbose journey and discovery of the self. Someone who isn't scared of the most flowery of prose and stretches that may lull you to sleep. I think it's an important book, but also one that could have likely been a bit more engaging at its end.

“Alleen voor gekken” wat een verwarrend goed boek weer. Veel is de wel duidelijk maar veel niet echt, daarom heeft de schrijver zelf ook een paar pagina’s geschreven dat mensen het niet snappen. En misschien snap ik het ook niet, toch heb ik wel het een en ander opgestoken en zal ik het zeker aanraden. Ik ben nu wel benieuwd waarom steppenwolf hun band naar dit boek vernoemd heeft.

Stefan R. Schmid

** spoiler alert **
           Die Zähne fletschen und drauf loslachen.

Betul M.

Keyifli zaman geçirmek için okunacak bir kitap değil Bozkırkurdu, hatta Hesse'nin karakteriyle duygudaşlığınız yoksa bitirmenin mümkün olmadığını düşünüyorum. Harry’nin hikayesinde kendi jenerasyonum için de geçerli gördüğüm çok zekice tespitler var. "Öyle çağlar vardır ki, bütün bir kuşağın insanları iki çağ, iki ayrı yaşam üslubu arasında sıkışıp kalır." diyor kitapta Hesse bence bu benim gibi 80'lerin sonu 90'ların başında doğanları da tanımlıyor. Kitap boyunca bir huzursuzluk bir iç döküş bir kendinden kaçış okuyoruz. Olmayı istediği ve aslında olduğu arasında ezilenler, yücelttiklerinin değersizliğini fark edenler, kahramanlığa soyunup değirmenlerle savaşan Don Quijote ‘ler, belki de yalnızca kaçıklar için bu kitap.

Gavin

Aging Romantic pessimist Harry comes to a crisis, and learns that fun is fun (and meaningful). I’ve been avoiding this book because of its status in rockist, hedonist circles, but after the first 50 pages it begins to subvert this reputation, and itself, over and over again until charming. 

Hesse also inserts himself, as the domineering, sparkling ‘Hermine’ which is strange and excellent. 

Would’ve changed my life if I’d read it aged 16, or in 1930. As it is, Regina Spektor, the Supremes and DJ Hixxy had already forced me to admit the existence and glory of non-cognitive, non-consequential, non-political quality.

(Read aloud)

suspiria

"bense ne modern, ne de modası geçmiş biriydim; zamanın dışına düşmüş, sürüklenip gidiyordum, ölüme yakın, ölüme istekli."

Omar AlHashmi

Pretty weird book to be honest. I loved the philosophical aspects of the book and how it talked about the nature of the Steppenwolf. The middle section was pretty dull for me, I lost interest in the book pretty quickly at that point. However the final third of the book just cranked the weirdness up to eleven. I can't even begin to fathom what Hesse was thinking when he wrote that. All in all, its the type of weird book that I tend to enjoy, its different.

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. For more than twenty years, Picador has been producing beautifully packaged literary fiction and nonfiction books from Manhattan's Flatiron Building. Our Twentieth Anniversary Modern Classics line pairs iconic books with a design that's both small enough to fit in your pocket and unique enough to stand out on your bookshelf.

A Novel

Fraser Simons

I suspect this would be completely insufferable to some people but it so happens the self indulgent miasma is so granular in the thought process of our protagonist here, I couldn’t help but admire an original No plot, heavy symbolism, no character driving, sad boy moving through the world. DMM rather than DWM (damaged/depressed woman moving), perhaps? 

But what I really liked about this, which put it above the three stars, is how it deftly illustrates the most elided human experience, or certainly obfuscated: the precision and craft the mind puts into building its prison of thought. We swing wildly, code switching between groups, adjusting our patterns and ideologies to better fit the social situation. That’s what kind of animal we are. A byproduct of our socialization always seems to be the construction of unhappiness and self-flagellation. The most intuitive thing any human ever builds is brick-by-brick motivated thinking straight into unhappiness of some kind. Some Psychologists say getting what you want even fucks you up. 

Still, the more complex ending and the ability for the reader to subjectivity throw themselves onto the pages and take away probably very different experiences is admirable craft. Even if it will absolutely bother some readers. I for one love me a good interior novel.

baelgia

2021/04/11
Figure out the few things you need to take seriously. Treat everything else with good humor. Listen more. Don't be so pretentious. Any division is a social construct. We are all the same, all immortals and bourgeois.

2016/07/13
Subtitled: Treatise of the Steppenwolf (in which I, as the reader, am the Steppenwolf in question).

If I had read this book years ago - or even a year ago - I don't think I would have enjoyed it. At times it seemed to completely abandon its narration in favor of a philosophical discussion, and those parts can be quite jarring, if not a pain to read. Of course that just goes to show how much people change (and how change is possible) as now, today, in this very year, I'm left awestruck in the wake of Steppenwolf. Hesse's mind is so enchanting and his way of stringing words together to form a coherent idea feels like 248 pages of charming, drugged cigarettes. Apart from the protagonist, his characters are always very surreal, and perhaps even unreal, but they never fail to captivate. I don't know what to say. This is one hell of a beautiful piece of writing.

Asif Akbar

** spoiler alert **
           I stumbled upon this book searching books on duality of life. How we have multiple selves in ourselves. Which it answers pretty well in the first 100 pages or so, but it soon takes frightful turns to show the despair in life, the pointlessness of everyday.
But it gives hope towards the end. It helps visualise change. Change which is possible in every one of us. We all have, however lost, a capacity to love and a capacity to rediscover ourselves.

sara gerner

** spoiler alert **
           Ich habe den Steppenwolf beim zweiten Mal lesen viel besser verstanden und auch viel intensiver erlebt. Es gibt durchaus Passagen, die mich nach wie vor stören oder die mir persönlich einfach zu lange sind, weil sie mit der Prämisse, die ich persönlich im Steppenwolf erkenne, eher weniger zu tun haben. Die ersten hundert Seiten zu lesen war erneut eine große Überwindung, das Traktat ist anstrengend, wenn auch tröstlich. Die Erzählung Hesses wird durch das Herausgeberwort, die ersten Gedanken von Harry Haller selbst und das Traktat quasi dreimal eingeleitet, was in meinen Augen nicht unbedingt notwendig war, aber was ich auch nachvollziehen kann. Das Herausgeberwort bereitet einen auf den gesellschaftlichen Außenseiter Harry Haller vor, seine ersten eigenen Gedanken zeigen den Zwiespalt und die Schwere, in welcher der Protagonist lebt. Und das Traktat ist eine erste Erklärung dafür.
Ich habe das Ende immer noch nicht verstanden, auch die Bedeutung der Ewigkeit ist mir immer noch ein Geheimnis. Aber wer weiß, vielleicht kommt das noch.

baikalsturgeon

A critique of bourgeois society as perceived by a lonely and sensitive man through his partly beautiful, partly diseased fantasies.

Alexis Romero

yuyu

Khoa Dang

Hygor Zorak

Drew Sawicki

lena

François Declercq

Varun Jayaraman

Teodora Živulović

Jaycee

behringlukas

'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, Steppenwolfcaptured the mood of a disaffected generation that was beginning to question everything.

Vojtech &
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

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Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse