A man named Harry Haller calls himself Steppenwolf: part human, part wolf, a cultured outsider who despises bourgeois contentment and also craves it. He is about to kill himself when he reads an anonymous pamphlet analysing his case. A woman called Hermine drags him into a new life of dance halls, jazz and sensual experience. Through her he meets Maria and Pablo, and in the final chapters he walks through the Magic Theatre, where each door shows another side of his personality. Hermann Hesse, who knew depression and psychoanalysis, wrote the novel in 1927. It became a cult book of the 1960s.
It is for readers who enjoy introspective fiction about identity and alienation. It is dense in places, but if you have ever felt that you did not fit anywhere, it offers surprising recognition.
Deep, inward-looking, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1974
- Publisher
- Suhrkamp
- ISBN
- 9783518366752
- Language
- DE
