I would like to get an opinion of a person who read Hesse novels in his native tongue - German that is. I recently read Hesse for the first time and disliked it to the extent that makes me think something is wrong with the translation I had.

The writer was extremely popular among my friends in Russia about 20 years ago (when I and the friends were also in their 20s). Unfortunately, I never had a chance to read Hesse then, the first opportunity came about just recently. Since the Glass Bead Game was suggested to be his peak, I tried it (in Russian) and was shocked how poor the book was.

The literary aspect of the book does not, in my opinion, merit any discussion - it is a naive, dry, artificial, still-born pile of words void of any characteristics that make great Russian-French-English literature of the 19th century and German-American-Russian of the 20th. The art, the artistry, the subtle and the beautiful never took a lodging there. Take his contemporary - Thomas Mann - for one, and you will see the glaring absurdity of the Hesse writing.

Well, forget the literary part, perhaps it's just a philosophy. (Although, I believe, one should write philosophy books to express philosophical opinions and write literature for the literature.) I'm an amateur in philosophy, yet am familiar with the main philosophy directions and ideas of 19th-20th centuries. Compared to any more or less significant thinker - from Hegel to Derrida, Hesse's philosophy looks like a naive chatter of a high-schooler.

Look, one may be sincerely concerned with Kultur, fate of Humanity, Music, Ideas and other stuff we all care about, but that concern alone does not make him yet neither a good writer or interesting philosopher.

Help me out here, please - am I missing some language poetics that got lost in translation ??????

Bewildered.

I haven't read it in German, but I have to say that I just started the Glass Bead game in Russian and it just doesn't seem like Hesse at all. I mean I haven't read all of Hesse, but after Siddhartha, Narcissus and Goldmund and Steppenwolf this book seems fake, raw, dry. Ah well...I wonder if it's the same in English...

To Nada:

thanks for the reply. Well, let's assume something is wrong with the translation; what would you recommend me to read to get the quintessential Hesse ? Thank you in advance...

Try Demian and Siddhartha. Incredible books, but you do have to remember that there is a translator who is also putting their "literary" spin on it. The ideas are still entact and hopefully the translation retains some of the passion that Hesse spoke about spiritual and emotional freedom, in a time where such things were not at all popular.

Hope you like those two, they were very influential for me.

~ paul

Paul,

I will, thank you and will let you know.

Hi nada,
I have read Hermann Hesse in German and yes, you are probably right:His language is quite methaphysical and so is German. I found it wonderful. He has influenced and enriched my life a lot.