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Summary: A Nietzschean voyage into middle-aged alienation and loss
Review: Herman Hesse, in his seemingly autobiographical "Steppenwolf", is a man drunk on Nietzsche and Schopenhauerian pessimism, with an added dose of Eastern mysticism. The novel, written in 1927, contains savage indictments of conventional bourgeois morality and searching philosophic forays into the role of art, music and the independent, self-willed individual. Its philosophy of composition will seem unacceptable by contemporary standards, as the many theoretic divagations end up by placing too great a burden on the narrative. In the final section -- the "Magic Theatre" part -- consisting in hallucination, banditry, and bold and outright violence, the novel simply goes off the rails and the conclusion is far from being a satisfying one. But the charactarisation is compelling, especially in the portrayal of the protagonist, Harry Haller. the eponymous "Steppenwolf": isolated, suicidal, pessimistic, lonely, misanthropic, intensely intellectual -- torn by his human side as well as his animal subconscious, -- the perfect specimen of the Nietzschean overman who renounces the world. The fact that Hesse makes his hero encounter exotic and beautiful women and succeed in seducing them, betrays something of self-indulgence in the author. What is most admirable, though, is the lucidity and spareness of his idiom, the way in which he succinctly manages to articulate acute conceptual problems. This tale is an authentic testimony of middle-aged crisis and dispossession.
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Summary: WAS not impressed
Review: the book is okay i just didn't like it
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Summary: The lonely and cool individualism as natural
Review: This novel describes the daily life of a poet, who is the author himself. It is all of this book. His life is quiet and steady. Nothing but poem and music disturbs him. His enthusiasm to make a poem is drawn cynically as if the author chuckled at him. He has no friends and has talked to no one but the owner of his house. I am surprised at this real figure of Helmann Hesse, who has created a variety of novels. His world has no significant existence like a steppe. His solitude is natural like a wolf, which is different from the weak herbivore animals that must live in a group.I have seen before somewhere this view of the world, which lets him have no human relations with others and regard this life style as natural. It may be "The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner" of Alan Sillitoe. Despite the difference of their contents, both atmospheres are felt the same, that is, the lonely and cool individualism as natural.
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Summary: Infinite meanings
Review: This book is a product of pure literary and psychological genius. Throughout the course of the last century this work influenced and changed many lives at different levels. I think the key to understanding this book is thinking of it as the Magic Theatre and the Chess Game presented in it: a collection of allegories of life, characters and situations that may be interpreted and arranged by the reader in an almost infinite array of orders, just like the Chess Game in which Harry Haller is taught to control the many aspects and natures of his life and psyche. For example, the character of Hermine could be seen, among other interpretations, as both a symbol of decadence and unsatisfied needs of the flesh and also as a symbol of an introduction to society for the lonely Haller. Her death at Harry's hands could be read as the triumph of the Man part in which Harry rids himself of his frustrated desires and decadent tendencies in order to continue a life of contemplation and self-study, but it could also mean a triumph of the Wolf part in which Harry severs his awakening ties with society and "normal" life. I believe that this infinite array of possible interpretations demonstrates that this book does not contain a whole truth, but a particular kind of truth determined by each reader's experience and personality, in direct link to the aspects of Freudian psychology that Hesse carries out through the story. This makes it the perfect triumph of union between Author and Reader at a profoundly personal level, and a masterful testimony to Hesse's genius. He gives us the pieces of our own little Chess Game, and he gives us the doors of our own Magic Theatre. What we do with these is up to our own spirit, and, like the council of Harry's Execution says, should not be tainted too much with what we call reality. A great work at all levels of its meaning. Definitely not for everyone to understand. The price: your current conception of human nature and existence.
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Summary: I am torn
Review: I can't decide whether to give Steppenwolf 3 or 4 stars- I give it 4 just because it is a "great work of literature" but I'm tempted to give it only 3. That is because, although I feel the first 3/4 of the novel fulfills the status of great literature, the ending completely degenerates. The beginning and middle of Steppenwolf are excellent psycological writing and even contain an engaging love story, in my opinion. Unfortunately, the end of the novel, the famous "Magic Theater" part, is in my opinion, hallucinatory in the worst sense of the word. Do I reccomend this book? Ultimatly, it is worth reading.
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Summary: Incredible read.
Review: This book touched me and made me say "I understand completely" several times while thinking about how Haller's mind worked. One could read this book over and over again and gain new things from it every time because of our own growth and personal development. This book rivals Dostoevsky's, Crime and Punishment as the best depiction of the human psyche. Also, it is a very interesting read for those interested in Nietzsche. Hesse was heavily influenced by Nietzsche and it is clearly evident with this book.
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Summary: It helped me, but no guarantees
Review: Steppenwolf is one of the numerous novels in the world that makes no sense to some people and tremedous sense to others, and can only be fully understood under the scrutiny of a expert critic or english teacher. I read it when I was 14, I'm now 15 and much happier. The book deals with the alienation of one Harry Heller and his struggle with his alternate persona. Or, more accurately, it deals with him trying to find what is really right. In a world filled with conflicting morals, Harry finds himself lost. The book explores his adventures when he comes to meet a young woman who tries to make him see that there is more to life outside his narrow stoic ideals. Harry once considered himself smarter than every one else for seeing things the way he did and scorned those who bathed in pleasure and convience. However, the woman (Hermine) turns him on his head and shows him how close-minded he really is. I had this similar experience in my life, and I found the similiarities between me and Harry at that point in my life to be almost frightening. My own morals have been tampered with by a wonderful girl who is now my girlfriend (applause), and I have found a way to look at things in a much different way. I've grow smarter and more mature, in part because of this book (the other half I own to my lovely gal, Hi Melly). Anyway.... For those people out there that are content and happy with life, you probably won't enjoy this book much. However, if you're struggling to understand the world around you and the line between right and wrong seems to blur for you, try picking up this book. I can't guarantee anything, but you never know.
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Summary: How to justify life
Review: Herman Hesse's Steppenwolf is an interesting, if not particularly entertaining book. It gives a good insight into the estrangement of those of us who feel ill at ease with the conventional priorities of bourgois society. The main character, Harry Haller, reminded me in this aspect of the Rodion Raskolnikov of Dostoevski's Crime and Punishment. Yet I have to disagree with those who see it primarily as a book about the basic opposition between man and wolf in Haller's personality. Hesse is surely indebted to Dostoevski, Goethe, the Romantics, and Eastern mysticism, but most of all I read Steppenwolf as a literary adaptation of elements of Nietzsche's philosophy, especially as laid out in the Birth of Tragedy. The process the main character lives through after meeting the decadent Hermine is one in which the esthetic justification of life celebrated by Nietzsche is exemplified. This transformation is remarkably analogous, to my mind at least, to the change from the somewhat passive nihilism of Schopenhauer to the active nihilism of Nietzsche. (Interestingly, Schopenhauer, like Haller and Hesse, was an ardent student of Hindu philosophy). The importance given to music, as a redeeming force in human life, is also remniscient of both Schopenhauer and Nietzsche.
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Summary: Left me uninspired
Review: More philosophy than fiction - as a story it trudged along very slowly, and finished with a fizzle. The book kept me interested enough to finish, but just barely. No doubt I missed something, but I certainly won't be re-reading Steppenwolf to figure out what.
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Summary: pretentious and sexist
Review: I had to read this book for a class on existentialism and found this book to be one of the most irritating books I have ever had to read. Herman Hesse name-drops elements of Eastern culture in an obnoxious attempt to make his novel more "exotic". The novel also reads like the pathetic wet dream of an old man. The protagonist of the book, a plain, bitter old man has sex with young, attractive women. And the protagonist openly acknowledges that he's really not drawn to them by their intelligence, only to their youth and good looks, going so far as to point out that one of the women really is too stupid for him. And there's a gratuitous hot-bisexual women scene. Way to alienate half of your audience, Hesse.
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