Hesse, Hermann (hĕr`män hĕs`ə), 1877–1962, German novelist and poet. A pacifist, he went to Switzerland at the outbreak of World War I and became (1923) a Swiss citizen. The spiritual loneliness of the artist and his estrangement from the modern world are recurring themes in Hesse's works. His novels, increasingly psychoanalytic and symbolic, include Peter Camenzind (1904, tr. 1961), Unterm Rad (1906, tr. Beneath the Wheel, 1968), Rosshalde (1914, tr. 1970), and Demian (1919, tr. 1923, 1958). One of his most famous and most complex novels, Steppenwolf (1927, tr. 1929, 1963), treats the dual nature of humanity. This theme is also pursued in Narziss und Goldmund (1930, tr. Death and the Lover, 1932; Narcissus and Goldmund, 1968).

Among his other works are Das Glasperlenspiel (1943, tr. The Glass Bead Game, 1970) and Siddhartha (1922, tr. 1951), a novella reflecting Hesse's interest in Asian mysticism. The gentle, lyric quality of Hesse's prose is shared by the wistful, lamenting verse of his Gedichte (1922, tr. Poems, 1970) and Trost der Nacht (1929). His essays are collected in Betrachtungen (1928) and Krieg und Frieden (1946, tr. If the War Goes on… , 1970). Hesse was awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Bibliography

See his Wandering (autobiographical notes, tr. 1972); studies by R. Rose (1965), T. Ziolowski (1965 and 1966), M. Boulby (1967), G. W. Field (1972), J. Mileck (1978), R. Freedman (1979), and E. L. Stelzig (1988).

Hesse, Hermann

Hermann Hesse, 1957.

(credit: Wide World Photos)

(born July 2, 1877, Calw, Ger.—died Aug. 9, 1962, Montagnola, Switz.) German novelist and poet. He left the seminary because of his inability to adapt to the life there. His first novel was Peter Camenzind (1904); it was followed by Beneath the Wheel (1906), Gertrud (1910), and Rosshalde (1914). An opponent of militarism, he settled permanently in Switzerland at the outbreak of World War I (1914–18). His later works deal with the individual's search for spiritual fulfillment, often through mysticism. Demian (1919), influenced by his experience with psychoanalysis, made him famous. Siddhartha (1922), about the early life of Buddha, reflects his interest in Eastern spiritualism. Steppenwolf (1927), which examines the conflict between bourgeois acceptance and spiritual self-realization, was highly influential in its time and brought him cult status among the young of more than one generation. Narcissus and Goldmund (1930) and The Glass Bead Game (1943; also published as Magister Ludi) concern duality and the conflict between the contemplative and the active life. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. His mysticism and his interest in self-realization kept him popular long after his death.