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Summary: A Faust-like and magical story
Review: With the publication of Steppenwolf in1927 Hermann Hesse was standing on the top of the literary world. Other great contemporaries like Knut Hamsun and Thomas Mann, Fitzgerald and Hemingway, were also established and writing great books, but with this book Hesse finished that decade as a leading author, thinker and philosopher. Steppenwolf is not an easy book, it demands commitment from the reader, but what you put into it, you get back many times. I have read most of Hesse's works andSteppenwolf and Knulp with the greatest influence on me. If anything, Hermann Hesse's writing is engaging and influential, for those who likes to see all questions in life put down on paper, where you can reflect on them together with the author. Music, poetry, painting, philosophy, nature and life experience was what influenced Hesse, and he shared it with us in his writing, joys and sufferings, he gave of himself. About Steppenwolf Hesse said himself; "Of all my books Steppenwolf is the one that was more often and more violently misunderstood than any other. Of course, I neither can nor intend to tell my readers how they ought to understand my tale. May everyone find in it what strikes a chord in him and is of some use to him!"
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Summary: a coming together of Nietzche, Novalis and Mozart
Review: Der Steppenwolf is not an ordinary book. It is a crossroad were Nietzsche, Novalis and Mozart (maybe even the great Goethe) come together. The book contains large similarities with the opera the Magic Flute by Mozart. The stories told are almost identical, so are the charecters. The ideas are almost certain those of Nietzsche, and the atmosphere is (as with almost all books of Hesse) provided by Novalis. What you can expect from the book is pure poetry, magic, shivers done your spine. Harry Haller (Herman Hesse) is a person everybody at one point in time will identify with. He is an extremely well educated man who wants to share is knowledge of art, music and philosophy with the rest of the people. However nobody wants this (interbellum) from him. He therefore thinks he is part man and part steppenwolf, that is untill he meets Hermine and Pablo (is Zarastro from the magic flute). Through "Trial by fire and water", Harry tries to become the ubermensch of which Nietzsche wrote in his classic "also sprach Zaratustra".
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Summary: I cannot say enough good about this book
Review: I cannot say enough good about this book. Hesse explores the effects that lack of humor can have on one's life. The chracter Hermine has to be one of the greatest characters ever created in any book. This book should be a must read for high school students.
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Summary: Confused man in Germany thinking about his position in life
Review: Too many metaphors, Hesse forgot what he was supposed to writ
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Summary: A book to be read over and over!
Review: It seems no matter how many times I read Steppenwolf I find something new and wonderful with in it's pages.I've read all of Hesse's book's and this one is my absolute favorite. I always underline profound sentences in the Classics I read and with this one a sentence became whole chapters. The whole book is to be underlined.Hesse ensnares and amazes with his depth. To me he's like a professer of life, with so much to say you're often in awe of the thoughts he burrys deep in your mind.
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Summary: Steppenwolf is an absolute "must have."
Review: Steppenwolf engages what is perhaps man's greatest problem: the battle between hid Id and his Superego, the flesh versus the spirit. Hesse uses very clear language and progression, but the complexity of this work is beyond the scope of the average writer. Hesse proves himself as an excellent author by delivering such complexity to the reader in terms easily understood by the average person. Enjoy.
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Summary: Totally awesome. After fifteen reads, still the best ever.
Review: I have read Steppenwolf fifteen or more times, and as amazing and enlightening as this work is, it is true that EVERY time I read it,I glean something new from it. A real masterpeice. A MUST read.
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Summary: Steppenwolf is a make you think book
Review: I read Steppenwolf in my tenth grade english class.I was so impressed by the way Hermann Hesse wrote it that it made you confused. It was a wonderful book.
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Summary: Exterminated Species
Review: A truly great book, like the glaze of a bursting star, millions of light-years away so that no one gets to see enough of it to truly appreciate it. I think I should hate Hesse for this piece of work. He is expecting too much from humanity. The book is written for a long-extinct species, or perhaps for a species that never existed. To the extent that "a man must seek pleasure which originates and ends in himself", the book provides all that I ever intended to seek. A genuine masterpiece! I changed my mind about hating Hesse.Kudos to Hesse (I must not think of others !)!
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Summary: Ten stars wouldn't do it justice...
Review: People always say how difficult it is to pick the five or ten greatest books ever written. Here's a handy hint to make it easier: Step 1) Write "Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse" at no 1. Step 2) Build around it. If you ever wanted a real, authentic representation of the essence of being alive, complete with it's chaos, madness, paradox and stunning beauty, this is it. The closest ink will ever get to being flesh.
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