I think Steppenwolf is a truly fascinating book. Amongst other things it is a portrait of the intellectual as an outsider. It is also a picture of the loneliness of ageing. There are very imaginative pieces of writing rather a forerunner of magical realism. The final passages achieve a kind of dramatic resolution. It is true to say that it is not a comfortable read. It is possible you will enjoy Siddartha more- thanks for posting.
Reviews From the Archive
An occasional series, cross-posting my reviews from Read the Nobels.
To see my progress with completing the Read the Nobels Challenge, see here.
Steppenwolf, by Herman Hesse, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1946
Translated by Basil Creighton, revised by Walter Sorrell, Penguin, 1965, 1979 reprint.
I am almost too embarrassed to share the excruciating naïveté of this review, but there it is at Blogspot for all to see anyway, and those who’ve read the book may enjoy an opportunity to chat about it set me straight. To redress my sins, I’ve added excerpts from its citation in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die which, (obviously) I didn’t own when I wrote this review. I apologise too, for the use of the term ‘schizophrenic’… these days I would use ‘bipolar disorder’.
30th November, 2006
Hesse says in his introduction that this is the…
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penwithlit 
2 replies on “Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1946”
Hello there, thanks for the re-blog:)
I see from your tag cloud that you’ve read a lot more German Lit than I have, and I’m going to take some time to explore the names I don’t know.
Cheers
Lisa
Might have to re-read one of these days.