- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (25 Feb 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140282580
- ISBN-13: 978-0140282580
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 71,205 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
STEPPENWOLF is a poetical self-portrait of a man who felt himself to be half-human and half-wolf. This Faust-like and magical story is evidence of Hesse's searching philosophy and extraordinary sense of humanity as he tells of the humanization of a middle-aged misanthrope.
Yet this novel can also be seen as a plea for rigorous self-examination and an indictment of the intellectual hypocrisy of the period. As Hesse himself remarked, 'Of all my books STEPPENWOLF is the one that was more often and more violently misunderstood than any other'.
About the Author
Hermann Hesse was born in Calw, Germany in 1877. After a short period at a seminary he moved to Switzerland to work as a bookseller. From 1904 he devoted himself to writing, establishing his reputation with a series of romantic novels. During the First World War he worked for the Red Cross and afterwards, consolidated his position as a leading contemporary thinker. Hesse won many literary awards including the Nobel Prize in 1946. He died in 1962 at the age of eighty-five.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Steppenwolf is a novel on what it means to be alive, albeit the character of life in this book often finds itself the recipient of harsh criticism and hatred.
Hesse claimed that this work was written to portray some of the feelings of alienation and isolation that the author was feeling around the time of his fiftieth year. Despite being broken into three parts Steppenwolf essentially deals with one theme - that of the main protagonist Harry, and the struggle between his animal instincts and society.
Although Harry is somewhat alien to most of us in his utter and almost innate sadness, he does share with us a great deal. He in essence shares the struggle we all have - the one between instinct and decorum, between sensation and society. Harry is trapped because he is living as a wolf and as a man. The wolf part his base desires and the man the part of him that seeks solace in the music of Beethoven. However in reality both parts of Harry are human in nature. We all live as sensuous beings and at the same time as members of a working society, in which there are rules of conduct that will curtail the beast in us.
Steppenwolf was taken up by sixties counter-culturists as a brick to break down the walls of society around them, finding in its pages a bleak portrait of the world in which we live. The beast within lashed out, ripped the pictures from the walls and called in a new decorator! Necessary as this may have been at the time, this was not the message Hesse intended. Indeed his message was far more universal and timeless. He told us that we should enjoy the fullness of life, soak ourselves in its reveries, mine the pleasures of the intellect, but also learn how to dance and make love, to duck and dive in and out of its many forms of existence. And to do this we must not dispel the man or the beast, but we must let them lie together in an embrace, tumbling through the tides of life
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a great novel. The first third of Steppenwolf's narrative was a little heavy going, but once you get past this bit it turns into the most wonderful dream-like narrative.
The atmosphere of this book is just perfect, and the mysterious encounters of Steppenwolf and the changing shapes of his own personality are magically portrayed. As Steppenwolf explores his sense of self, the reader gets more and more drawn into his increasingly bizarre and captivating world. Steppenwolf takes the reader with him on his journey, and this is what Hesse does so well.
Although Hesse was concerned that the book might not have wide appeal, in my opinion there is something here for everyone. This is a philosophical novel and as such it doesn't have a traditional storyline. Nevertheless it is extremely engaging and really makes you think.
The only thing missing from this edition (Penguin classics) was an Editor's introduction. I wish there had been one to help explain some of the philosophical issues the novel explores, the wider historical context (as I believe this is an important part of the novel), and some background to Hesse's work. This could only have enhanced my enjoyment of this excellent novel.
9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Steppenwolf, the story of a tortured outsider, has been misinterpreted by many. The problems are a relection of Hesse's own psychological crisis at the time of writing. The glorious imagery and play with notions of space, time along with the destablisation of the notion of reality make this book unique. Through a blinding, chaotic fusion of Buddhist, Jungian and Nietzschian elements a profound essay on the nature of the self is realised. A life changing, ultimately life-affirming book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A review
Well, what can I say? Am I supposed to be reviewing the product or the transaction? I haven't a clue. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Jim
Manifesto for our time
The Steppenwolf, the wolf from the steppe, is the misanthropic Harry Haller, and this is written as his diary, or confessions. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2010 by reader 451
Contains a really good description
To start with I thought this was pretty good. Lots of crowd-pleasing misanthropy - I mean, who doesn't hate mankind? Read more
Published on 1 Dec 2009 by C. J. Moran
Boring
Not much more to it than that, I'm afraid. It's dull almost from the first page, and gets duller. As other reviewers have noted, the central character is neither sympathetic... Read more
Published on 20 Oct 2009 by Bezza
Outcasts bible
Story;suicidal bachelor discovers rock'n'roll lifestyle.
I found this a depressing book and just what a melancholic German would write in a moment of existential angst. Read more
I found this a depressing book and just what a melancholic German would write in a moment of existential angst. Read more
Published on 4 July 2009 by nicholas hargreaves
One of the greatest books I have ever read - Hesse's poetic writing is...
This was the first of Hesse's books that I ever read, and at a very young age. Perhaps because I still had the imagination of a child the poetry of his writing completely took me... Read more
Published on 22 Nov 2007 by B52
A great psychological exploration
I love this book. The "magic theatre" of the mind in which Harry Haller, Hesse's protagonist, explores different aspects of himself via strange narcotic potions created for him by... Read more
Published on 4 Sep 2007 by S. Lovat
a psychedelic classic
It's certainly no coincidence that Timothy Leary thought highly about this book and actually used it as manual for some of his public performances, where he tried to transmit the... Read more
Published on 8 Jun 2007 by Bodhi Heeren
Sublime
Magic theatre. Entrance not for everyone. For madmen only. Steppenwolf is surely one of the pinnacles of so-called "modern" fiction. Read more
Published on 18 Dec 2006 by Jonathan Birch
Review of Steppenwolf
This is a book that would probably bore the pants of anyone that reads contempory fiction commonly found in the best-seller lists. Read more
Published on 22 May 2003
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