HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Loading...

Steppenwolf (original 1927; edition 1971)

by Hermann Hesse

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
13,434187444 (4.01)254
Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine.… (more)
Member:burnit99
Title:Steppenwolf
Authors:Hermann Hesse
Info:Bantam Books (1971), Paperback
Collections:Your library
Rating:***
Tags:Fiction, Drama

Work Information

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse (1927)

  1. 50
    Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre (GaryPatella)
    GaryPatella: The protagonist in Nausea has a very similar personality to the protagonist in Steppenwolf. Both books have that same gloomy feel to them.
  2. 72
    Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse (PandorasRequiem)
  3. 40
    The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster (Smiler69)
  4. 41
    Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse (snipermatze, chwiggy)
  5. 10
    Herzog by Saul Bellow (roby72)
  6. 32
    The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (owen1218)
  7. 00
    Abel Sánchez by Miguel de Unamuno (Neurasthenio)
  8. 11
    The Hothouse by Wolfgang Koeppen (Liondancer)
    Liondancer: Die Persönlichkeit des "Treibhaus"-Abgeordneten Keetenheuve erinnert mich sehr an den "Steppenwolf" Harry Haller.
  9. 11
    The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann (caflores)
  10. 11
    Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (paradoxosalpha)
    paradoxosalpha: Fight Club could be read as an updated rewriting of Steppenwolf, with Hermine replaced by Tyler Durden, and the dance hall transformed to the fight club. Maria becomes Marla, and the Magic Theater becomes Operation Mayhem.
  11. 16
    Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (Smiler69)
  12. 28
    The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (roby72)
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 254 mentions

English (144)  Spanish (16)  German (6)  French (5)  Italian (3)  Dutch (2)  Swedish (2)  Catalan (2)  Finnish (1)  Greek (1)  Portuguese (Portugal) (1)  Portuguese (1)  Norwegian (1)  All languages (185)
Showing 1-5 of 144 (next | show all)
Really liked it when I read it in my 20's
But .. similar to Hesse's Debian & James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist..." much of it wafter over my head a poetry that I was enjoying but it didn't stick with me & don't if I fully got it. I'm pretty sure there' store to "get" now that I'm older (& would def re-read) but I do think it's quite poetic / abstract / means different things to different people (i.e not just something you "get" or "don't get" ( )
  dtscheme | Jan 1, 2024 |
Start & finish so so , to "etherial". I like the middle of his "awakening". ( )
  SteveMcI | Oct 3, 2023 |
This novel is presented as the memoirs of a 50-year-old man named Henry Haller, a lonely, wandering man who identifies his disconnect from "bourgeois" society as being like a wolf of the steppes. Over the course of the book he makes friends and acquaintances who help him enjoy frivolous activities such as dance and casual drug use. The final part of the book is set inside a magic theater where his thoughts come to life. Honestly I don't understand what was happening in there.

The novel at times reads more like a treatise on philosophy and spirituality than a fictional narrative. Haller comes across as a grump although I suppose there's a lot about him that is relatable. Many years ago I read Hesse's Siddhartha, which is a similar story of spiritual self-discovery that I found more engaging. Nevertheless, this worth the read. ( )
  Othemts | Aug 30, 2023 |
There's tremendous wisdom in this book, but I nevertheless found it a pretty unrewarding read. I have never been one for the novel of ideas - just write an essay about your ideas! - and this book has all the standard problems of the form. I never found the protagonist, Harry Haller, very likeable or very interesting. I could really identify with so many of the insights about how he is distanced from life and how his insistence on refinement has ended up as a kind of dried-up deprivation. But he was such a crashing bore and such a caricature that I didn't much care what happened to him.

One of the major problems is that he exerts no volition whatsoever; he just encounters one signpost after another and follows them obediently. Even when he doesn't follow the signposts it turns out he was supposed to ignore that one and take the next turn. I believe that's all very Jungian with the universal unconscious and so on, but in narrative terms it makes for a pretty boring read. I think if a character is going to be passive like Harry Haller, they need to either be charming or there needs to be a higher purpose for the reader to be invested in.

I also found the book entirely humourless. There's some insistence on the need to laugh, but that rings pretty hollow when you can't seem to muster a decent joke. I seem to have a constitutional dislike of dream sequences and "it was almost as if...", which I guess make me particularly ill-suited to getting the most out of this book.

I'd like to pretend that I might reread this book, and it could completely change my perspective to read it in a different stage of life, but there are so many books I've never read it's hard to imagine going back to one I didn't particularly enjoy. ( )
  robfwalter | Jul 31, 2023 |
Stepskog vuka Hese je napisao 1927. godine. U toj "biografiji duse" svaka licnost je odraz jednog od sukoba autora sa samim sobom, kao ogledalo neprikrivenog razdora i pometnje u samopoimanju.

Ime glavnog junaka - Hari Haler jasno je obelezje, dovoljno za indentifikaciju. Hari Haler ima mnogo toga zajednickog sa Heseom. Sam je Hese kao izdavac rukopisa o izlaganjima Harija Halera, primetio sledece: "Ove zabeleske, bez obzira do koje mere pocivaju na stvarnim dozivljajima , predstavljaju saznanje da se velike bolesti nasega vremena ne mogu savladati na taj nacin sto cemo ih zaobici i ulepsati , to je pokusaj da sama bolest bude predmet izlaganja . "

Celokupno pripovedacko delo Hermana Hesea je autobiografsko, ali sa jednim posebnim obelezjem . Sam Hese je rekao da su to " biografske duse ". Dozivljaji su uglavnom plod maste ali ne u smislu proizvoljnog izmisljanja , vec kao pokusaj da se duboko dozivljavani dusevni tokovi prikazu kao vidljiva zbivanja. Tako je Heseovo kazivanje, s jedne strane, vezano za stvarnost koja je formirana u vremenu, a s druge, za nevidljivu i neoformljenu strvarnost koja ne zna za vreme…
  vanjus | Jun 12, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 144 (next | show all)
'Wat me nu opviel bij herlezing na dertig jaar was die durf van Hesse om alle registers open te trekken. Niet alleen stilistisch en structureel, maar ook door de meerdere lagen die op literair, psychologisch, seksueel, geschiedkundig en filosofisch vlak elkaar aanvullen en soms met elkaar contrasteren.'
 

» Add other authors (150 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Hesse, Hermannprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Şipal, KamuranTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bļodniece, AlīdaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bļodnieks, ĢirtsTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Beals, KurtTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bradac, JaroslavIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Creighton, BasilTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Dekker, MauritsTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Horrocks, DavidTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Magnus, PeterTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Manner, Eeva-LiisaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Manzanares, ManuelTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pocar, ErvinoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Sorell, WalterEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Verstegen, PeterTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Попова, НедялкаTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

Is contained in

Has the adaptation

Is abridged in

Inspired

Has as a reference guide/companion

Has as a study

Has as a commentary on the text

Has as a student's study guide

You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
This book contains the records left us by a man whom, according to the expression he often used himself, we called the Steppenwolf.
Quotations
Ah, Harry, we have to stumble through so much dirt and humbug before we reach home. And we have no one to guide us. Our only guide is our homesickness.
I had the taste of blood and chocolate in my mouth, the one as hateful as the other.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
3518366750 1974 softcover German suhrkamp taschenbuch 175
3518460633 2009 softcover German suhrkamp taschenbuch 4063, st Großdruck
3518463551 2012 softcover German suhrkamp taschenbuch 4355 (Geschenkbuch)
35187361082011 ebook German suhrkamp
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Information from the German Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4.01)
0.5 3
1 43
1.5 12
2 141
2.5 28
3 462
3.5 155
4 974
4.5 144
5 979

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

Penguin Australia

4 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 014118289X, 0141045531, 0241951526, 0141192097

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 203,186,807 books! | Top bar: Always visible