
A modernist work of profound wisdom that continues to enthral readers with its subtle blend of Eastern mysticism & Western culture the Penguin Modern Classics edition of Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf is revised by Walter Sorell from the original translation by Basil Creighton At first sight Harry Haller seems a respectable educated man In reality he is the Steppenwolf wild strange alienated from society & repulsed by the modern age But as he is drawn into a series of dreamlike & sometimes savage encounters
- accompanied by among others Mozart Goethe & the bewitching Hermione
- the misanthropic Haller discovers a higher truth & the possibility of happiness This blistering portrayal of a man who feels himself to be half-human & half-wolf was the bible of the 1960s counterculture capturing the mood of a disaffected generation & remains a haunting story of estrangement & redemption Herman Hesse (1877
- 1962) suffered from depression & weathered series of personal crises which led him to undergo psychoanalysis with J B Lang; a process which resulted in Demian (1919) a novel whose main character is torn between the orderliness of bourgeois existence & the turbulent & enticing world of sensual experience This dichotomy is prominent in Hesse's subsequent novels including Siddhartha (1922) Steppenwolf (1927) Narcissus & Goldmund (1930) & his magnum opus The Glass Bead Game (1943) Hesse was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946 If you enjoyed Steppenwolf you might like Hesse's Siddhartha also available in Penguin Classics'A savage indictment of bourgeois society the gripping & fascinating story of disease in a man's soul' The New York Times