I didn't read this Hesse's work but I know it is his capital work and I surpose that you can tell me little more abouth it so that I make myself picture abouth it before reading it! What is there in this work to pay attention to?

Just read it, without another reader's judgements or suggestions. As for it being his "capital work", I find that arguable. I suppose it is somewhat appropriate to call it his ouevre, but being that he is better recognized as a poet, it might be inappropriate to consider one of his novels as such. Just a thought...

Take care,

rose

You gave me great idea: to try to understand better his poetic work rather than to 'lose' my time with reading his novel 'masterwork' ! Maybe I will open forum for everybody who reads his poetic work! At the same time one where I will open discussion abought translations of his works on my mothertongue (croatian)!
Thank you,
Alen!

Take care Rose,
Alen!

I read this book twenty-five years ago, and have not returned to it. Yet it remains my favorite book, and it has shaped my life in remarkable ways, consciously and unconsciously. In the intervening 25 years I have become a physician, then a psychiatrist, and now a psychoanalyst, and the relevance of this book has not diminished. I more or less play a private version of the glass bead game in my mind constantly, and it has led to a much enhanced capacity to learn, and to let my mind play, discover, and sift truth from illusion. Just have to love that Joseph....

Maybe the way how you look at things in live have something with the picture you have in your had... Great way to gain that picture is to copy it from somebody! Can you find a better person to copy it from than Hesse and from that book of his that is called he's masterwork?! I got that picture from another great man and his work; now the picture is fullfiling with many other thoughts and I can proudly say that some of them are mine.

I hope you read this book and enjoy it, it is one of my favorite books. Please do not be discouraged by the first few pages being slightly dull. After an uninteresting introduction it is an awesome and inspiring work. Pay attention to the "comedy by omission". There are things hinted at but not discussed that make it a very funny book. (For instance, the Narrator writes "Joseph must have had some religious experience at this point, but it's not something we'll go into here," then Joseph's behavior changes and it's clear he had some important experience.) There are a lot of funny understatements like that.
Besides the entertaining part, this book changed my life and I'd reccommend it to anyone.

Thanks abouth giving me a new way to look at the subject, Hesse's work ! This masterwork of his is maybe the uplight (one of many) of his writteing, but this moment I have turned to his poems... From my perspective, everything you can find in his novels has a greater weight in his poems... They are his masterwork; but in his poems, more than in his novels he is turn to things around him! They have a great affect on him... Maybe there is the reason why he had turned to novels: they are great way to discribe what you see and at the same time to discribe what affect they have on you! I surpose that with "Glassperlenspiel" he breaked with his "poetic thinking" and turn to novels in the traditional way of understanding the term!

Bok!