About this title: The classic coming-of age novel by the celebrated German author and Nobel Laureate. It tells the story of Arthur Sinclair, a young German from a wealthy family. Arthur is a constant target of bullying and abuse at school, until he makes the acquaintance of Max Demian, a mysterious new boy. Demian is at once sensitive and overpowering, and he fascinates Arthur long after they are separated. Many years later they are reunited at the university.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books, New York
Date Published: 1970
Description: Good. No Jacket. The book is very solid with lightly browned pages. The cover has moderate shelf & edge wear. The spine has a few creases. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780060931919ISBN:0060931914
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 176 p. Perennial Classics (Paperback). Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780553206968ISBN:0553206966
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Very minimal rubbing on front cover. Text is beginning to tan. No other flaws. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780486414133ISBN:0486414132
Description: Fine. No DJ Issued. Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 109 p. Dover Thrift Editions. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780060931919ISBN:0060931914
Description: Very Good. Slight shelf wear with age toning. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Dover Publications
Date Published: 2000
ISBN-13:9780486414133ISBN:0486414132
Description: Very Good. Slight cover wear with minor scuffing to edges. Age toning. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books
Date Published: 1968
ISBN-13:9780553206968ISBN:0553206966
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. circa 1968 printing, tight and unmarked, very little wear, 1/4 inch tear in the front cover. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam N3259
Date Published: 1966
Description: Good. 327-X Books rated "Good" may have some notes, underlining, or highlighting. These books also may contain the previous owner's name, stamp, sticker, or gift inscription, or may be library discards. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
ISBN-13:9780060931919ISBN:0060931914
Description: Fair. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"Terrible, dreary book. I can't understand what anyone sees in Hesse.
It's supposed to be the diary of a teenage boy, but it's really just an excuse for the author to ramble on about various philosophical notions at length. Nobody actually does anything very much apart from talk philosophy, and if they do, it's usually sketched in briefly, with little interest.
I only read this because it includes a notion that became one of the main themes of the anime Utena, but sadly, the notion is not developed in any way, so it was a bit of a waste."
"i am so glad i give authors three books to make me love them. this was hesses last chance to woo me, and he really almost got a five-star valentine from me, but we will call it a four and a half - must be a little coy, after all. this is a book that i would love to go back in time and give myself upon graduating from high school. i would love to know whether it would have made me more or less insufferable than i am now. because i could see it going either way, at seventeen. i could see myself taking this as a cautionary tale, in a way, or i could see myself going whole hog into some sort of mystical, quasi-intellectual liter-orgical spree and alienating everyone around me. i can see myself smoking a pipe and holding court with my philosophies and my revelations ohhhh my revelations. as it is, i held no court - i just finished it on the subway, took moll flanders out of my bag, and started reading that, in some quiet bookish equivalent to chain-smoking. but o what could have been..."
"I am not sure I am smart enough for this book. I am unable to grasp all of the philosophic ideas and spiritual exploring involved. I felt depressed during much of it. However, it is a nice change from other books I've read recently in the sense that the list of characters are minimal and the majority of dialogue is really monologue. I liked the quote about how people don't hate other people; they hate the part of those people that they see in themselves that they dislike. What I notice most is that there is a whole lot of thinking and talking but very very little action!!!!!"
"I just completed the most incredible book I have ever read. At least right now, only minutes after finished pouring myself into its words for the past two days (in which I read it front to back), that is what I think... That this is the most special, enlightening, beautiful, peaceful, entrancing...almost holy books I have ever, ever read. Right now I feel this odd understanding and contentment in my stomach, heart, and mind. It might sound cheesy, but everything about this book was perfect. I read it this weekend with my blinds stretched wide, letting the cool breeze of the onset of Spring enter my room along with its sunshine and optimism. I cleaned my room and sat on my made bed for hours straight listening to Andrew Bird's "Ballad of the Red Shoes" and Beirut's "Holland" on repeat as non-purposefully perfectly suitable background noise...or listened to the birds chirp in the courtyard. As you can see, I am writing more about my experience of reading this book than the content of it, perhaps because this story is truly more to be experienced rather than simply glazed over. You may be wondering what I have occuppied my eyes with since my most recently finished book, Trainspotting. Well...I have been reading stories by Thomas Mann, essays by Carl Jung, and in between it all reading The Bell Jar for pleasure (but that, at the moment, is unrelated. I might critique it in connection with these other pieces in its review later.) But about Mann and Jung...they were essential prerequisites to the book, or at least partners. I would say Torless is too, actually, even if it is more Freudian, the plotline is relatable. And all three of these, like Demian, are very German. But Demian is very German without being overbearing and maybe a bit too caught up in itself, like I found Mann to be (though I enjoyed the two stories I have read of his so far thoroughly). The language of Demian is as balanced and modest as everything the story suggests - the quest for one's true self. Hesse was seeing a Jungian psychoanalyst at the time of writing this book, which undoubtedly influenced its stress on symbolism, dreams, the collective unconscious, and mainly - the self. Hesse and Jung's interest in Eastern philosophy (as we see in Siddhartha, which had an extremely similar story as Demian but some very stark differences, which maybe I will discuss when I read it for the second time later this week). I do not know to sum up this book other than to swear that it was remarkable. I read it at a good time, when I have been wishing to spiritually cleanse and thrust myself into a positive, balanced new future, but I believe anyone would appreciate this novel. Perhaps a quote I underlined would do it some justice...
"Humanity - which they loved as we did - was for them something complete that must be maintained and protected. For us, humanity was a distant goal toward which all men were moving, whose image no one knew, whose laws were nowhere written down." (five stars.)"
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