Siddhartha (Modern Library)
by Hermann Hesse
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Book Summary Information
Author: Hermann HesseTranslator: Susan Bernofsky
Introduction: Tom Robbins
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-07-18
ISBN: 0679643362
Number of pages: 160
Publisher: Modern Library
Book Reviews of Siddhartha (Modern Library)
Book Review: A Greater Book Than We Knew - Thank You Ms. Bernofsky
Summary: 5 Stars
A friend and I agreed to re-read Siddhartha. Quite fortuitously this was the edition we chose. Either the book has been stripped of all inelegance in this translation, revealing its poetic and timeless beauty, or we have finally caught up to Hesse's grace and wisdom. I suspect it is more of the former.
Yet, in the translation lies something very structural about the book and its themes. There is a kind of inevitability of the tale that seemed to be missing in earlier versions. It flows just as we, at some unconscious level, imagine it should unfold. Siddhartha's challenges to himself and the people who surround him form a profound framing of his life's quest. It is his acceptance of the results of this quest, and the tone of the revelation of it in this text that flows much more like poetry than in prior versions. One senses that this is the tale Hesse meant to tell, and the feeling he wanted to impart. It is a simple tale of the Jungian completion of the self, but told as a tone poem, a lullaby, a prayer, a myth, a celebration, and ultimately, as a wonder.
The major characters of the book - Govinda, Kamala, Buddha, the boatman, and Siddhartha's son - all play their parts at various points in the tale, but the boatman and the river itself take Siddhartha the farthest. Siddhartha's skepticism of dogma and doctrine (of the Buddha, of Govinda, of the world of business) drives him to find his own way, but it is not until he has been satiated with both the "spiritual" and the material world, and been tortured by the indifference of his son that he comes back to the river and the boatman to find his ultimate way and true peace. It is at once the individual and the universal peace of "solving" oneself - of the self and the Atman united in a very lyrical playing out of the inner theme common to us all. When philosophy becomes art, and when that art becomes mythic poetry, one is in the presence of something truly transformative. That is the sense that this version of the story conveys.
Good for Modern Library for coming out with Susan Bernofsky's translation. It is a new book in many respects, but one that is now being sold as what it will rightfully become - a great world classic in English as well as German.
Summary of Siddhartha (Modern Library)
Hermann Hesse?s classic novel Siddhartha has delighted, inspired, and influenced generations of readers, writers, and thinkers. Though set in a place and time far removed from the Germany of 1922, the year of the book?s debut, the novel is infused with the sensibilities of Hesse?s time, synthesizing disparate philosophies?Eastern religions, Jungian archetypes, Western individualism?into a unique vision of life as expressed through one man?s search for meaning.It is the story of the quest of Siddhartha, a wealthy Indian Brahmin who casts off a life of privilege and comfort to seek spiritual fulfillment and wisdom. On his journey, Siddhartha encounters wandering ascetics, Buddhist monks, and successful merchants, as well as a courtesan named Kamala and a simple ferryman who has attained enlightenment. Traveling among these people and experiencing life?s vital passages?love, work, friendship, and fatherhood?Siddhartha discovers that true knowledge is guided from within.
Susan Bernofsky?s magnificent new translation brings out Hesse?s inspired lyricism and his elegant, melodious cadences, illuminating the novel?s universal themes and timeless wisdom about the human condition.
This original Modern Library edition includes a lively new Introduction by Tom Robbins and a glossary of Indian terms.
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