Hermann Hesse丨Seeking Light in the Labyrinth of the Soul

Ich bin ein Verehrer der Untreue, des Wechsels, der Phantasie. Ich halte nichts davon, meine Liebe an irgendeinen Fleck der Erde festzunageln.

——Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse（1877-1962）

German literary master and Nobel Laureate in Literature, hailed as "the poet of the spiritual realm." His works are renowned for their profound philosophical contemplation, poetic language, and exploration of human nature's essence, synthesizing Eastern Zen philosophy with Western psychoanalysis to build a bridge to self-redemption for modern individuals. Whether depicting the throes of adolescent growth, the existential void of midlife, or the relentless inquiry into art and eternity, Hesse's words consistently dissect the folds of the soul, allowing readers amidst confusion to touch the contours of truth.

PART 1:  Crises and Awakenings in the Stages of Life

Demian : die geschichte von emil sinclairs jugend

Call Number: PT2617.E85 H47 2022 CN / PT2617.E85 H47 2022d CN

Adolescent identity crisis. Young Sinclair struggles while torn between the "World of Light" and the "Realm of Darkness", where the emergence of mysterious guide Demian acts as a mirror reflecting his inner chaos. Hesse depicts the adolescent quest for selfhood with poetic brushstrokes: from rebellion against authority to acceptance of the "Mark of Cain", from guilt-ridden anguish to the awakening of "becoming oneself", each page vibrates with the shudder of soul-shedding. The iconic line "The bird is struggling out of the egg. The egg is the world." has become a spiritual totem for generations of youth.

Unterm rad

Call Number: PT2617.E85 H47 2020a CN / PT2617.E85 H47 2023a CN

Adolescent rebellion against educational alienation. A mournful elegy for "the disciplined." Prodigy Hans gradually suffocates within a rigid educational system, ultimately falling "under the wheels" into icy waters. With autobiographical strokes, Hesse critiques the industrial age's crushing of humanity — when grades, honors, and societal expectations become shackles, how can innocence and spirituality survive in a clockwork world? This book serves as a sobering tonic for all misfits and a manifesto for resisting alienation.

Klingsors letzter Sommer

Call Number: PT2617.E85 H47 2018 CN

Midlife creative crisis and rebirth. In the scorching summer of 1919, painter Klingsor battles looming death with oils and liquor. This semi-autobiographical novella unfolds like a blazing Impressionist canvas: crimson sunsets, rampant grapevines, drunken soliloquies on war trauma... Hesse infuses the prose with Nietzschean Dionysian spirit, making ephemeral life radiate eternal light through artistic frenzy. The confession "I desire nothing but to be permeated by sunlight" perfectly encapsulates every creator's obsession.

PART 2: East-West Spiritual Quest

Siddhartha (Available in Chinese & English editions)

Call Number: PT2617.E85 H47 2019 CN / PT2617.E85 H47 1999

An odyssey of Indian philosophical enlightenment. Young aristocrat Siddhartha abandons status and wealth to seek the "True Self," embarking on an arduous journey through asceticism, hedonism, commerce, and ferrymanship. Like a leaf swept into the river of existence, he suffocates in ascetic practices, drowns in a courtesan's embrace, loses himself in mercantile calculations, yet glimpses in an old ferryman's silence the river's metaphor — time and truth flow like water; only by listening to the present can one touch eternity. Hesse reconstructs the Buddha's enlightenment with poetic language, stripping religious trappings to reveal a universal human dilemma: when knowledge, faith, and experience cannot fill the soul's fissures, how does one reconcile with oneself? The answer may lie in becoming a riverbed stone learning tender existence amidst torrents.

Der steppenwolf (Available in Chinese & English editions)

Call Number: PT2617.E85 H47 2022l CN / PT2617.E85 H47 2023 CN / PT2617.E85 H47 1963

Self-Redemption of the Western Intellectual. Middle-aged scholar Harry Haller wanders through bars, fever dreams, and the Magic Theatre, self-proclaimed as "a Steppenwolf coexisting with human and lupine instincts," oscillating between suicidal impulses and the will to live. Through surreal narrative, Hesse tears open the hypocritical mask of modern civilization: when rationality fractures from desire, and the individual confronts society, how does one reconstruct faith upon spiritual wastelands? The book's revelation to "humorously regard the pain of existence" offers an unorthodox antidote to existential crises.

Das Glasperlenspiel

Call Number: PT2617 H47 2012 CN / PT2617 H47 2023b CN

A utopian spiritual commonwealth. Hesse's culminating utopian allegory from his later years. In a future world, a circle of intellectuals synthesizes science, art, and religion through the Das Glasperlenspiel yet plunges into new dilemmas within perfect order. Protagonist Knecht's decision to descend from the ivory tower into the secular world symbolizes the intellectual's spiritual breakthrough — true wisdom resides not in abstract truths, but in life practices embracing earthly existence. This monumental symphony of ideas constitutes Hesse's ultimate interrogation of civilization's destiny.

PART 3: Spirit and Flesh in Counterpoint

Narziss und Goldmund

Call Number: PT2617.E85 H47 2015 CN / PT2617.E85 H47 2023d CN

The eternal dialogue between reason and sensuality. Narziss, the ascetic philosopher in the monastery, and Goldmund, the wandering sensual artist, form Hesse's most poignant spiritual doppelgängers. The former pursues truth through abstinence, the latter captures beauty through abandon, their paths ultimately converging in the creation of a Madonna sculpture. This symposium on "spirit versus flesh" and "rationality confronting passion" unveils Hesse's central thesis: supreme wisdom manifests when opposites achieve sacred reconciliation through creative acts.

Iris

Call Number:  PT2617.E85 H47 2021 CN

A story collection blending poetry and philosophy, featuring Hesse's original watercolor illustrations. This prose-poetry anthology serves as a cryptographic key to Hesse's spiritual cosmos. From dandelions by the Rhine to lotuses in Indian mythology, from childhood memoirs to Eastern pilgrimage notes, Hesse bares his ultimate meditations on beauty, death, and rebirth through three hundred pages of intimate musings. Pressed between these pages lie not merely iris petals, but fragile specimens of the poet-philosopher's most vulnerable soul.

PART 4: Ink Traces of Spiritual History

Hermann Hesse - Thomas Mann: Briefwechsel (Available in Chinese & English editions)

Call NumberPT2617.E85 H47 2022b CN / PT2617.E85 H47 2016

Intellectual duels between twin jewels of German literature. This four-decade-spanning epistolary chronicle (1904-1955) documents soul dialogues between two Nobel laureates. Hesse the "introspective hermit" and Mann the "worldly statesman" erected a spiritual sanctuary through ink and parchment amid 20th-century catastrophes — world wars, exiles, and ideological fractures. Their letters unveil creative revelations behind masterpieces like Zauberberg and Das Glasperlenspiel, alongside fury against Nazi tyranny and meditations on human corruption. Hesse declares "Art must blaze like wildfire to incinerate false orders," while Mann counters "Yet we must sow seeds in the ashes." These texts are not merely literary fossils, but a testament to how intellectuals became lighthouses for each other in darkness — their flickering thoughts defying the juggernaut of their age.

Hermann Hesse gesammelte briefe

Call Number: PT2617 H47 2023 CN

Spiritual monologues traversing artillery fire and Iron Curtains. This collection curating Hesse's correspondence with family, readers, and literary peers (Romain Rolland, Stefan Zweig et al.) opens another window into his psyche. Unlike the binary dialogue in Hermann Hesse - Thomas Mann: Briefwechsel, these letters reveal Hesse's expansive constellation of dialogues: comforting war-shattered strangers, probing with Rilke "how beauty resists nihilism," even confessing creative blockages to young readers. The epistolary mosaic interweaves existential excavations of literature and warfare with quotidian tenderness — like lamenting "iris blossoms withered by thunderstorms." These pages collage a three-dimensional portrait of Hesse: not merely the philosopher-sage, but a tender mortal with ink-stained hands.

*All the recommended books listed above have been shelved in the atrium on SLAC 3F. Readers are welcome to check them out.

Hermann Hesse's Enduring Legacy

To read Hesse is not to seek answers, but to learn the art of coexisting with existential ambiguity. His bibliographic constellation serves as a celestial navigation chart, guiding disoriented souls to forge their own equilibrium between earthly burdens and ideals, despair and hope, annihilation and creation. When modern individuals find themselves trapped in the midnight void of meaning, these century-old texts still ignite wildfires that illuminate the chambers of the heart.

Content | LIN Yujia
Layout | LIN Yujia
Review | HU Linxiao