- Hardcover
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (Dec 2000)
- ISBN-10: 0060932120
- ISBN-13: 978-0060932121
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
"Demian es la obra que catapulto a Hermann Hesse a la fama. La novela, que refleja la crisis personal de Hesse, es la historia de un hombre desgarrado entre su ordenada vida burguesa y un caotico mundo de sensualidad"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Demian, like several other books by Hesse, is a book about the growth of an individual, in this case Emil Sinclair.
Emil Sinclair's life is an ordinary one: he is an ordinary adolescent growing up in an ordinary household, encountering ordinary troubles and coming up with ordinary and ineffective solutions to these problems. Into this world enters someone who is not ordinary, who does not live in an ordinary household and who does not seem to have any of the ordinary problems. This someone, Demian, solves Sinclair's inconsequential problems quite easily.
He takes Sinclair under his wing and shows him that what distingishes between ordinary and extraordinary is simply thought and action based on a deep rooted understanding of human nature. This knowledge is enough to alleviate many of the troubles which afflict most people, allowing more time for higher pursuits, for growth.
Demian guides and helps Sinclair during the early stages of his development. Sinclair's growth is incidental - he takes to Demian because Demian solves his problems. Ultimately he must move away. If he is to continue growing significantly however, there must ultimately be an awareness and a desire for it. Growth must eventually come alone and will only come if there is a strong and persistent hunger for it.
Demian is a good teacher, but like most teachers he fails because of his zeal to educate. For higher education to be successful, the student must seek out the teacher. If the teacher has to seek out the student, the student is probably not yet ready to learn. Moreover, the teacher in seeking out a student halts his own growth.
In Demian, as in many of his books, Hesse suggests a philosophy which stresses that an essential requirement for mental fulfillment is an awareness of what is required for fulfillment. This awareness in turn leads ultimately to the realization that the road to fulfillment is a lonely one.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As usual, Hesse - in 'Demian' - has produced a rich and thought-provoking comment on life and the individual's place within it. It's very similar to his other work in that it shares certain themes and views...but this makes it no less enjoyable as a text that is still fresh and relevant in the 21st Century.
I agree that the novel (novella?) loses focus towards to end. Indeed, perhaps the main narrative never finds a true focus at all. I felt that several characters in the tale were superfluous and brought little to the book's central 'message'.
I was, however, extremely impressed with the sense of impending war that Hesse manages to paint towards the end. In a very small amount of pages, the full sense of a world about to collapse in on itself is exceptionally sharp. It really comes close to portraying how the youth of entire nations must have felt in the face of imminent conflict in Europe.
Very compelling - perhaps a little muddled, but rightly judged as a classic.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A beautifully written book. Entering the world of children and their fears and how it can manifest itself into adulthood. From the moment I picked this book up I could not leave it alone until I had reached the last word. A wonderful and understanding author.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE ABOUT EVERYONE
A beautiful story of a character on his path to self-awareness, told using wonderfully rhythmic and accessible language that allows the tale to be read on so many levels without... Read more
Published on 13 April 2009 by Easily Me
This is the one that I love...
Among Hermann Hesse's works it is very difficult to choose one. They are all great and deep. Some are novels of formation (Steppenwolf, Sidhartha, Demian) some are description of a... Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2009 by Cinephilo
Adolescent torment on the eve of the Great War
Herman Hesse was one of the leading figures of twentieth century literature and this one of his most important works. Read more
Published on 10 Dec 2008 by Trevor Coote
Very good but not what it seems....
This a very readable and enjoyable book for the most part, as the above reviewer points out.
It definetly seems to be a coming of age story where huge ideas loom below the... Read more
Published on 21 Nov 2002 by "sbailey118"
Not really Hesse at his best.
This is basically a story of a boy from a middle class family growing up. He falls under the guiding influence of several older and wiser characters and by his late teens comes to... Read more
Published on 7 July 2002 by "pavel_goudochnikov"
Interesting early work with familiar albeit inchoate themes
I have only recently read Demian, and found that it was in turns annoying, thought provoking and moving in the way I have found other of Hesse's work: there is a certain vanity... Read more
Published on 9 Sep 1999
Interesting but self-indulgent and rather ill-conceived
Despite its enduring popularity, this novel is certainly not among Hesse's best. The author's painful, overriding preoccupation with his own emotions (which in novels like... Read more
Published on 17 Nov 1998
OUTSTANDING DOORWAY TO SELF DISCOVERY
I WAS MAYBE 15 AND LOOKING FOR A SALINGER BOOK WHEN I STUMBLED UPON HESSE. AS I BEGAN TO READ DEMIAN I WAS DRAWN IN BY THE IMAGERY AND RAW HONESTY OF EMOTION. Read more
Published on 9 Nov 1998
Best book I've ever read
I read this book in school and fell in love with it. It was the first book I read by Hesse. I instantly had to go read his other great books.
Published on 15 Sep 1998
A book for the intensely troubled.
It is some time since I have read this book and I want to read it again since I have carried a rather powerful impression of this. Read more
Published on 24 July 1998
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