I've read nearly all of Hesse's work, seen the two movies (Siddhartha & Steppenwolf) and certainly find that most of his novels are autobiographical but interesting on their own. I've read Siddhartha every year since 1978 and find something new yearly. The diverse translations even add something to the reading. Yes, Hesse is about looking into yourself, but then, other authors have other perspectives. I find Hesse to be one that makes me think. The early novels are easier and less complex than the latter. By the time he got to the Glass Bead Game it took me years to work my way up to reading that novel and found it amazing.

I am a French student and I need to read Demian very soon in German, but the translation in French does not exist: CAN SOMEONE SUMMARIZE VERY QUICKLY THE BOOK FOR ME OR HELP TO FIND A SUMMARY SOMEWHERE ?

www.amazon.fr lists "Demian" under livres en francais.

Dear fellow Hesse Machines,
I'm a recovered Hesse addict. At the end of every Hesse novel, my body convusled, I couldn't breath, let alone concentrate on the novel that had just been tatooed into my pysche. I would blackout and awake in bookstores, panting, searching for Hesse, screaming at the clerk when no new Hesse novel sat on the shelf waiting for me. From bookstore to bookstore, I ran in a frenzy untilI I was forced to order a new book which took two weeks to be delivered. Drugs and alcohol only made my Hesse addiction worse. If Hermann's grave had been in my town, I would have dug it up and feasted on the rotten mostly decomposed corpse. If I would have became ill, vomited, and expelled the waste from every orface I would have re-ingested the flesh of Herr Hermann until my body aborbed it completely.
Hermann, in his old age, was once at Spa when a fellow Spa goer recognized him and asked questions concerning Hermann's early novels. Hermann's response was something like this (not exact quote, forgive my arrogance) 'Well Sir, I'm afraid you do not exist. You exist on paper but ..." ( I'm sorry, I can't bring myself to continue for I feel he was speaking to me)
We must understand, Hermann's novels are not printed on paper! There is no meaning in any of his books. Hermann's Novel's are simply broken mirrors and swampy ponds, only from the right angle or certain moments of the day can we see ourselves.

If you are not teasing us, (we who are truly Hesse addicts, I mean,) you said that brilliantly and I feel the same way.
This thread is marked by some very good writers, (except for the mean one, of course.)