About this title: An allegorical novel by the celebrated German writer. Sidhartha, the hero, is a type of Buddhist Everyman, who passes through many temptations and trials on his way to purification. The different stages of his spiritual development are represented by the various roles he takes on: wanderer, courtier, merchant, and hermit. Originally published in ...
read more
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: 22d printing.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books, New York
Date Published: 1976
ISBN-13:9780553102666ISBN:0553102664
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Pages tight and tanned, text clean. Corner folds to two pages, no stains or tears. Cover is clean with scuffs, scratches and edge wear. Spine is smooth and straight. Sound copy, 152 pages. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 152 p. Bantam Books ed. first published 1971. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Classic & Loveswept, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780553208849ISBN:0553208845
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Classic & Loveswept, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780553208849ISBN:0553208845
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Classic & Loveswept, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1996
ISBN-13:9780553208849ISBN:0553208845
Edition: Reprint.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: New Directions, [New York]
Date Published: 1957
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. 153 p. 18 cm. New Directions papebook no.65.. Great copy. Totally clean & unmarked inside & out. Square and solid. Spine is not creased. Light wear to front cover, almost no wear to back cover. Corners still sharp. read more
Edition: 22d printing.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Bantam Books, New York
Date Published: 1972
ISBN-13:9780553102666ISBN:0553102664
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Has lots of wear, creases in cover, front cover torn about 1" at bottom of spine, cover has light stains and a few small spots of white paint. Bantam Books ed. first published 1971. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Bantam Classics
Date Published: 1981
ISBN-13:9780553208849ISBN:0553208845
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Highlighting/underlining. Front cover significant corner crease to half side length. Text in English, German. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 152 p. Audience: General/trade. Fiction by Nobel Prize-winner Hesse: Siddhartha is a young man who leaves his family on a quest for the spiritual life. But, he finds himself attracted first to the flesh until lust and greed bore him and he gets back on track. It's just not as easy as it sounds to do that. A ... read more
"I first read this book in high school and again, as an adult, with my book club. This remains one of my all-time favorite books. In many ways the story mirrors the actual life of the Buddah--but not quite. It is the story of one person's search for enlightenment. Hesse presents just that--that, while there may be commanalitites, really enlightment is an individual journey and one cannot achieve personal enlightment by walking someone else's path. I found this idea provacative and compelling. I also like the almost lyrical, evocative style of the story--which is so well matched to the theme of the book.
Quotes: "At that moment, when the world around him melted away, when he stood alone like a star in the heavens, he was overwhelmed by a feeling of icy despair, but he was more firmly himself than ever. That was the last shudder of his awakening..." p34
...he had never really found his Self, because he had wanted to trap it in the net of thoughts. The body was certainly not the Self...Both thought and the senses were fine things, behind both of them lay hidden the last meaning; it was worthwhile listening to them both, to play with both, neither to despise nor overrate either of them, but to listen intently to both voices. He would only strive after whatever the inward voice commanded him, not tarry anywhere but where the voice advised him...To obey no other external command, only the voice, to be prepared--that was good, that was necessary. Nothing else was necessary." p39
"it is a very beautiful river...I have often listened to it, gazed at it, and I have always learned something from it. Once can learn much from a river...I have learned that from the river too; everything comes back." p40
"Has a Samana or a Brahmin ever feared that someone could come and strike him and rob him of his knowledge, of his piety, of his poer for depth of thought? No, because they belong to himself, and he can only give of them what he wishes, and if he wishes." p46
"...when you throw a stone into the water, it finds the quickest way to the bottom of the water. It is the same when Siddhartha has an aim, a goal. Siddhartha does nothing; he waits, he thinks, he fasts, but he goes through the affairs of the world like the stone through water, without doing anything, without bestirring himself; he is drawn and lets himself fall. He is drawn by his goal, for he does not allow anything to enter his mind which opposes his goal. That is what Siddhartha learned from the Samanas. It is what fools call magic and what they thinhk is caused by demons. Nothing is caused by demons; there are no demons. Everyone can perform magic, everyone can reach his goal, if he can think, wait, and fast." p50
"You are like me; you are different from other people. You are Kamala and no one else, and within you there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself, just as I can. Few people have that capacity and yet everyone could have it...Most people, Kamala, are like a falling leaf that drifts and turns in the air, flutters, and falls to the ground. But a few others are like stars which travel one defined path: no wind reaches them, they have within themselves their guide and path" p58
"Never had it been so strangely clear to Siddhartha how closely realted passion was to death." p65
"How flat and desolate his path had been! How many long years he had spent without any lofty goals, without any thirst, without any exhaltation, content with small pleasures and yet never really satisfied!" p67
"I have had to experience so much stupidity, so many vices, so much error, so much nauseau, disillusionment and sorrow, just in order to become a child again and begin anew..." p78
"No, a true seeker could not accept any teachings, not if he sincerely wished to find something. But he who had found could give his approval to every path, every goal; nothing seperated him from all the other thousands who liven in eternity, who breathed the Divine." p90
"In this hour, he felt more acutely the indestructibleness of every life, the eternity of every moment." p93
"Do you not chain him with your love? Do you not shame him daily with your goodness and patience and make it still more difficult for him?" p 97
"The water changed to vapor and rose, became rain and came down again, became spring, brook, and river, changed anew, flowed anew." p110
"'When someone is seeking,' said Siddhartha, 'it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have not goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.'" p 113
"...a truth can only be expressed and enveloped in words if it is one-sided. Everything that is thought and expressed in words is one-sided, only half the truth; it all lacks totality, completeness, unity...But the world itself, being in and around us is never one-sided...never is a man wholly a saint or a sinner. This only seems so because we suffer the illusion that time is something real. Time is not real, Govinda. I have realized this repeatedly. And if time is not real, then the dividing line between this world and eternity...is also an illusion." p115
"The world, Govinda, is not imperfect or slowly evolving along a long path to perfection. No, it is perfect at every moment; every sin already carries grace within it...Therefore, it seems to me that everything that exists is good--death as well as life, sin as well as holiness, wisdom as well as folly. Everything is necessary...I learned through my body that it was necessary for me to sin, that I needed lust, that I had to strive for property and experience the nauseau and the depths of despair in order to learn not to resist them, in order to learn to love the world, and no longer compare it with some kind of desired imaginary world, some imaginary vision of perfection...to love it and be glad to belong to it." p 116
"This stone is stone; it is also animal, God, and Buddha. I do not respect and love it because it was one thing and will become something else, but because it has already long been everything and always is everything. I love it just because it is a stone, because today and now it appears to me a stone...There are stones that feel like oil or soap, that look like leaves or sand, and each one is different and worships Om in its own way. Each one is Brahman. At the same time it is very much stone..." p117
"Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another." p117
"Govinda said: 'But what you call thing, is it something real, something intrinsic? Is it not only the illusion of Maya, only image and appearance? Your stone, your tree, are they real?' 'This also does not trouble me much,' said Siddhartha. 'If they are illusion, then I also am illusion, and so they are always of the same nature as myself...that is why I can love them.'" p 118
"Not in speech or thought do I regard him as a great man, but in his deeds and life." p 119"
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
