Demian

Sound Bite

Hermann Hesse's finest novel, Demian has been hailed as an exemplary version of the Hero's Journey, a poetical, lyrical, Jungian journey to self-discovery. This fresh new translation faithfully reproduces the lively style and impact of Hesse's original writing. A tale of adolescent awakening set on the verge of the First World War, a time like ours when one could smell that "the collapse of an old world is getting closer," Demian is a cure for nihilism, Face­book, and self-despair.

About the Book

This bildungsroman, a classic of German literature, is about the development of the individual and the choices that one faces in this journey to selfhood.The work is autobiographical, originally published in 1919 under the pseudonym of its protagonist and narrator, Emil Sinclair. “Sinclair” tells the story of his fascination with his boyhood friend and idol, Max Demain, who is himself a representative of the ideas and ideals suggested by Goethe, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche ? Hesse’s literary forebears.In this work Hesse succeeded for the first time in bringing together in a coherent fashion his main concerns and beliefs.