Hermann Hesse

A great writer for the cerebral individual who feels like they live in the borderlands of life. If you’ve ever felt like a bit of an outsider, Herman Hesse’s stories might intrigue you. My favorite story by him is Steppenwolf, a story about a man who feels a little bit lost, then has a bit of an “extrasensory experience” in a “dream theatre”, and Narcissus and Goldmund, the story of two men who want different things out of life, one a hylic, the other a pneumatic, and how each turns out to be. Hesse was appreciated in interwar Germany, but was heavily censored when the Nazis came to power because his stories celebrate the passionate and erotic (not sexual, but chaotic and desiring connection with humans) experiences of life. He was allowed to live in obscurity during the war, and awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962. “It is the duty of spiritual types to stand alongside the spirit and not to sing along when the people start belting out the patriotic songs their leaders have ordered them to sing."

Personally, a foundational writer for how I started to see myself and the World. Steppenwolf is one of my favourite Books of all time and im glad, that im able to read it in its original language. Hesse use of the German Language is just beautiful and reminiscent of the Romantic age of Passion and mystic.