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Product Description
Harry Haller is the Steppenwolf: wild, strange, shy and alienated from society. His despair and desire for death draw him into a dark, enchanted underworld. Through a series of shadowy encounters – romantic, freakish and savage by turn – the misanthropic Haller gradually begins to rediscover the lost dreams of his youth. This blistering portrayal 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, and remains a haunting story of estrangement and redemption.
About the Author
Herman Hesse was born in southern Germany in 1877. Hesse concentrated on writing poetry as a young man, but his first successful book was a novel, Peter Camenzind (1904). During the war, Hesse was actively involved in relief efforts. Depression, criticism for his pacifist views, and a series of personal crises led Hesse to undergo psychoanalysis with J. B. Lang. Out of these years came Demian (1919), a novel whose main character is torn between the orderliness of bourgeois existence and the turbulent and enticing world of sensual experience. This dichotomy is prominent in Hesse’s subsequent novels, including Siddhartha (1922), Steppenwolf (1927), and Narcissus and Goldmund (1930). Hesse worked on his magnum opus, The Glass Bead Game (1943), for twelve years. This novel was specifically cited when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. Hesse died at his home in Switzerland in 1962.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 43 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Argued by many to have influenced the counterculture of the 1960s, "Steppen Wolf" succeeds in captivating the reader with its philosophical informative stance, while entertaining with its inclusion into an immersing plot.
Similar in style to "Sophie's World" by Jostein Gaarder, this is a book about philosophy using the plot of a novel to present its ideas, although with more maturity and depth than this comparison. The main narrator is the Steppen Wolf himself - a self-concious and depressed man cynical of the bourgeouis soceity in which he lives. Although a very distinct character, we are able to empathise with his experiences and the thoughts he has. We follow a great change in the Steppen Wolf as he is introduced to new relationships and a very different culture and way of life to that which he endures at the beginning of the novel. The reader is presented with an alternative method of thought, looking deeper into the obvious and ourselves.
Nothing more need be said of this classic except of its guarantee to captivate the reader and force upon them obvious questions perhaps never asked before - one of those books you find your mind drifting back to long after its back on the bookshelf.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the story of a lone cultured but at the same time bestial man (the steppenwolf) who roves the provincial city where he lodges. Hesse tries to find the light through the darkness and a way out for this unhappy and unnatural creature. This he finds through immersion in the sensual life and a fantasy landscape where anything happens. An attempt to unite the animal and the spiritual in man.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I read this a long time ago. The late 60s. I liked it so much, and it influenced my thinking so much, that I read pretty well all the other Hesse books I could find. So, I was surprised by how much less radical it seems these days. Anyway, a good book and worth reading.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
sacred scripture of the 70's underground
Back in the great days of middle-class youth resistence to bourgeois consumerism , this novel was required reading for anyone wishing to hang with Andreas Baader and the incredibly... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mr. M. E. Igoe
The Immortals are laughing at us
"Steppenwolf" is a near-incomprehensible, surrealist novel by the German writer Hermann Hesse. It was first published in 1927, and has been both widely read and widely criticized... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Ashtar Command
Be warned - a very heavy book
I bought this because I had read Demian many years before and rated it amongst my favourite books. The book starts wonderfully with a third person narrative from someone who had... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Chris Jackson
So you think you're lonely
Based on the preface Harry Haller is a bookish man (not a wolf) who lives in a quiet bourgeois district, keeping himself to himself. Read more
Published on 31 Mar 2010 by Room For A View
Steppenwolf
The translation is excellent, and the novel sublime. It was very good to have the author's comment at the start on how people have interpreted his work, since it made me try to... Read more
Published on 26 Mar 2010 by Wanderer
life changing, but not necessarily for the better.
Indeed, Steppenwolf is a book of horrifying truths. Upon finishing the book, I could not help but question everything I held dear. Read more
Published on 4 May 2003 by deadbeat
There are only two books.
Hamsun's "Mysteries" and this one.
Yes, there are great books, staggering works of literature, phenomenal story-telling and revealing pieces of art. Read more
Published on 30 Dec 2000 by Robert Johnson
The life of the lone Steppenwolf, Harry Haller.
After seeing the positive reviews, I decided to give this book a read. I had high expectations and was somewhat let down. Read more
Published on 2 Dec 2000 by Uncle Stiltskin
A work of genius
This is probably the most extraordinary book I've ever read, unconventional in form and content and dealing with that most difficult of questions: what is life? Read more
Published on 22 Aug 2000
A most haunting tome
What can I say? The truth of all things is hidden in this book. Read it, and agree or disagree with my assertion I still defy you to find this work of 'fiction' to be anything... Read more
Published on 26 July 1999
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