Book Bearings
Siddhartha
- 140 pages · about 2 hours
- First published 1922
- 206 editions
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1 About this book
Siddhartha, the gifted son of a Brahmin in ancient India, is admired by everyone and satisfied by nothing he has been taught. With his friend Govinda he leaves home to live among wandering ascetics, and later the two hear the teaching of Gotama, the Buddha himself. Govinda stays to follow the Buddha; Siddhartha, convinced that wisdom cannot be handed from teacher to pupil, goes on alone. His search takes him into the life of the city, to a courtesan and a merchant, and at last to a river and the ferryman who lives beside it. Hermann Hesse's short novel was first published in German in 1922.
- Buddha and Buddhism
- Buddhism
- Buddhist Philosophy
- Classics
- Enlightenment
- Mythology
- Spiritual life
- Mysticism
2 What to expect
A short, lyrical novel about a young Brahmin's search for enlightenment in the India of the Buddha's time. He tries one way of life after another, as ascetic, lover, merchant and ferryman, and the book's argument is that wisdom has to be lived, not taught. The language is simple and rhythmic, like a parable, with little plot in the usual sense, and it can be read in a day.
Good for readers who want: a spiritual parable, Eastern philosophy through Western eyes, and a short, calm read.
3 About Hermann Hesse
Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
4 More by Hermann Hesse
5 Similar books
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- Kim by Rudyard Kipling
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- Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
- David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
- The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain
- Noli Me Tangere by José Rizal