Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Steppenwolf

by Hermann Hesse, Basil Creighton (translator)

4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 · rating details · 41,190 ratings · 1,212 reviews

"Steppenwolf" is a poetical self-portrait of a man who felt himself to be half-human and half-wolf. This Faust-like and magical story is evidence of Hesse's searching philosophy and extraordinary sense of humanity as he tells of the humanization of a middle-aged misanthrope. Yet this novel can also be seen as a plea for rigorous self-examination and an indictment of the in...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published February 25th 1999 by Penguin Books (first published 1927)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Best Books of the 20th Century

125th out of 4,639 books — 31,438 voters

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling

Best Books Ever

447th out of 24,588 books — 93,812 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Sep 27, 2012 Rajat Ubhaykar rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, must-read-at-least-once

I read this book on a twenty four hour train journey surrounded by the bourgeois. It was a terrifying experience. The book didn't change my life and was not meant to, but it gave me hope and hope is always a good thing.

The influence of Indian spirituality on this book is apparent, but Hesse chooses to dissect it using the prism of Western pessimism. He talks about the multiplicity of the self and the infinite potential associated with it, how we often choose to attach fanciful restrictions to t...more

39 likes · like · see review

Nov 26, 2012 Jenn(ifer) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: the-germans, nobel-laureates, dark, read-in-2012

Um. What the? What?

What the hell did I just read?

First third, BRILLIANT -- one of the most interesting bits of philosophical fiction I've ever read. Seriously. I was completely enthralled. Second third -- hard to believe that two people would ever actually have conversations such as these, but still engaging. Third third -- what the F*CK? No, really, what the f*ck? It was some sort of crazy funhouse reality blurring, whacked out Kubrick film. I don't know if I liked it or I hated it. My brain i...more

35 likes · like · see review

Sep 30, 2011 Dan Schwent rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, homework-from-the-ladies, oldies

Harry Haller fights a battle ever day against his animalistic nature, the Steppenwolf, the thing keeping him from fitting in with society. Will he conquer the Steppenwolf before it drives him to suicide?

I'd toyed with the idea of paraphrasing the opening of the 1970's Incredible Hulk TV show but it felt disrespectful to a book of this power. Steppenwolf is one of the more thought-provoking books I've ever read. I lost count of the number of times I stopped and pondered my own Steppenwolfishness....more

35 likes · like · see review

May 19, 2010 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

This novel:

1. Initially reminded me very much of my own mental imbalances.

2. Started to make me feel like I'd been had, and that it was, in fact, just pretentious, overly self-aware "me me me" wackoff shite.

3. Redeemed itself (AND THE NARRATOR!) in the end with its exploration of drug-induced Jungian dreamscapes and subconscious mental states.

4. Successfully summoned that strange emotion that I like to call "happysad."

5. Did not change my life forever, but did act like aloe on a sunburn for my...more

42 likes · like · see review

Jun 30, 2012 MJ Nicholls rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels, other-parts-of-europe, penguin-classics, nonreviews

COMING SOON: THE STEPPENWOLF CARD RANGE.

MEANTIME PLEASE PERUSE OUR CATALOGUE:

#1 VENICE RANGE

description

#2 BEE RANGE

description

#3 DANNY BAKER RANGE

description

#4 POPE RANGE

description

9 likes · like · see review

Dec 25, 2007 Kirstie rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people interested in the complexity of life

I've read a few of Hesse's novels and I keep coming back to Steppenwolf time and time again. It's not as if books like Demian and Beneath the Wheel aren't worthwhile, either. It's just that there is something so grabbing and memorable about Steppenwolf. I was truly changed after I read this and I can't really say that for the majority of the books I've read.

One thing I think Hesse was obsessed with a little is the duality of life-the light and the dark side. Steppenwolf takes you to some dark ca...more

29 likes · like · see review

May 28, 2012 sologdin rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, literary

Likely the dumbest Important Book that I've read.

Yeah, it's cool that the narrator thinks he's a werewolf, but is really just a recluse pseudo-academic--and then reads a manuscript that describes fake werewolves and outs them as poseurs.

Cool, also, that the preface, by the manuscript's fictional finder and publisher, records the impression that the horrors of the middle ages were non-existent: "A man of the Middle Ages would detest the whole mode of our present day life as something far more th...more

14 likes · like · see review

May 25, 2010 Erin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Erin by: self

Shelves: favorites, fiction-lit, german-lit, 1001-books, hesse

Who am I?
Am I a hedonistic, drug using, sex-obsessed creature of the night, or am I a polite bourgeoise academic who does nothing but sit in my study-with clean floors-and read all day?
Can one be both?
I've been something of both, like the main character in this book.
The final message is that nothing matters, so we should all stop worrying about trying to find meaning or integrating the different parts of our personalities. Instead, we should just laugh our asses off! There's also a theme of lon...more

32 likes · like · see review

Apr 17, 2009 Peter McEllhenney rated it 2 of 5 stars

Now that I’ve reached middle age, I thought it was time to revisit that classic of earnest adolescent angst (despite the fact the novel’s hero is nearly 50 years old), Hermann Hesse’ Steppenwolf.

I found the early sections of the book dull, flat, pretentious, and swimming in its own vanity. But the later sections corrected some of these faults, and made the book interesting and worth reading overall.

My main problem with the early parts of Steppenwolf is that the novel is constantly tells us how f...more

16 likes · like · see review

deleted user That is amusing as I read this book the first time about age 22 and recently bought myself a copy again and wondered what I ever saw in it the first t...more
Apr 25, 2009 10:03pm

Rebecca Doesn't what you wrote in the end cancel out everything you wrote in the beginning and middle? Did you write that part of the review before finishing...more
Apr 05, 2012 05:47am

Daniel Hoffman As claimed by Hesse, the novel is not at all about teenage angst but dealing with middle age, and while I have no context myself, I often times was no...more
Nov 28, 2012 02:33pm

Mar 29, 2013 Dennis Ruane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first time I read Steppenwolf was over thirty years ago, during an era when I read nearly all of Hermann Hesse’s novels. I’ve recently decided to reread some of the books that influenced me when I was young, and although I didn’t remember Steppenwolf as my favorite of Hesse’s novels, the story had a definite impression on me at the time—particularly its other worldly aspects.

Now that I’m old and cynical, I didn’t find the book’s other worldly characteristics as impressive, but I enjoyed thi...more

2 likes · like · see review

Nov 19, 2011 William rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 20-ce, germany, translation, fiction

The novel starts well with a preface by the young man of the house where the Steppenwolf (Harry Haller) is lodging, but then bogs down in a long disquisition on Harry's suffering called "The Treatise on the Steppenwolf." I found these pages turgid and thought they might easily be skipped. It's not until Harry enters a dance hall around page 95 that we meet Hermine, who becomes a matriarchal-figure for him; Maria, who becomes his lover; and Pablo, the impresario who leads the band and become's Ha...more

5 likes · like · see review

Sep 02, 2011 Liam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: David Lynch fans

Recommended to Liam by: "What, like 'Born To Be Wild'"?

Shelves: c20th-prewar, downbeat, heartbreaking, heartwarming, it-s-how-its-written, trippy, biographical

This is book with complex qualities. The narrative tricks you into sympathising with feelings that it later tears down as navel-gazing pomposity, and once it's built a feeling of optimism in you it continues to makes you feel deluded for your credulity.

It's a carefully structured story, claiming to be a manuscript left unpublished by an unemployed lodger; the retired, divorced scholar, Henry Haller. It is prefaced by the account of the son of the houseowner, who presents a vague picture of a ma...more This is book with complex qualities. The narrative tricks you into sympathising with feelings that it later tears down as navel-gazing pomposity, and once it's built a feeling of optimism in you it continues to makes you feel deluded for your credulity.

It's a carefully structured story, claiming to be a manuscript left unpublished by an unemployed lodger; the retired, divorced scholar, Henry Haller. It is prefaced by the account of the son of the houseowner, who presents a vague picture of a man only met in casual acquaintance before he fled without a trace; an intellectual, quirky, polite, a drinker, a smoker, indoorsy. The manuscript itself is a stylised but journal-like story of his stay in the town. The first 'part' largely concerns his feelings of depression and philisophical dissatisfaction after nearly 50 years of living, alongside accounts of his aimless journies out to town. He explicitly tells us about his dreams, but even in his awakened state his accounts are dreamlike and infeasible, at times clearly the product of an insane mind.

Haller tells people his name is The Steppenwolf, an alter ego that represents his most self-destructive, unsocial thoughts. Conincidentally, one day he comes to acquire a book called 'A Treatise on The Steppenwolf'. The short text is a philosophical pamphlet that at first seems to vindicate Haller's most hateful conclusions regarding the average man through his own intellectual alienation; addressing Haller by name and echoing his philosophy of wild/civilised duality; but the text's attitude turns halfway through. It proceeds to accuse the aforementioned philosphy of self-serving egotism, and mock his view of age and personality as simplistic. Following his discovering of this strange document, he meets with an old friend, a professor, and burning this bridge spectacularly, Haller begins to contempalte suicide. So scared of his razor, he refuses to return home, staying in a bar in town. There he meets a free-spirited and aloof young woman, Hermine.

Haller's obsession with his own intellectual misery becomes replaced with a growing obsession with Hermine and her bohemian circle of friends, who challenge his aging sensibilities and tutor him in new, more youthful pleasures like dance, sex, drugs and jazz. As the book builds to its climax reality begins to merge with surreal symbols of time, personality, jealousy, aesthetics and violence, and events already described are cast into doubt. You find yourself returning in mind to the preface to anchor the story to some sense of reality, but at the same time Haller's rich flights of fantasy are so though-provoking that it's not clear which is the illustration of the other - a dreamy representation of some grim reality, or a fictional cast that represent Haller's internal aruments over his own nature.

The book is summarily about the pains of overbearing thought. It's outlook is more complex than the kind of self-pitying, glam-cynicism that Colin Wilson trumpets in The Outsider, however, as if any conclusion can be solidly made from the poetic jumble of images, dialogue and situation, it is that Hesse ridicules the sort of intellectual ludditedom that Haller often embodies. I don't feel like the ending should be taken as an inevitable and moral consequence of the thoughts and feelings that Haller indulges in, but the feeling remains that the root of his problems lie in his reluctance to learn from experience, rather than living his life through books and thought. The "manuscript"'s gradual disassociation from the everyday into free-flowing, associative imagery echoes a poignant metaphor that Haller himself makes to the landlady's son in the preface, quoting from an unnamed book of the philosopher Novalis:

'This is very good too, very good', he said, 'listen to this: "A man should be proud of suffering. All suffering is a reminder of our high estate." [Very] fine! Eighty years before Nietzsche. But that is not the sentence I meant. Wait a moment, here I have it. This: "Most men will not swim before they are able to." Isn't it witty? Naturally, they won't swim! They are born for the solid earth, not for water. And naturally they won't think. They are made for life, not for thought. Yes, and he who thinks, what's more, he who makes thought his business, he may go far in it, but he has bartered the solid earth for the water all the same, and one day he will drown.' (p.21)

--(less)

6 likes · like · see review

Dec 20, 2008 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Hermann Hesse is not a story teller in the classical sense. Most authors use subtle (or less subtle) symbols and images laced into and hidden inside the events and personalities of a story. Hesse and his philosophy are much more in your face. His stories seem more like allegories, the events and the personalities are of little consequence when compared with the thoughts and realizations formed by the characters he uses. Siddhartha was the only book by Hesse I had previously read, and what makes...more Hermann Hesse is not a story teller in the classical sense. Most authors use subtle (or less subtle) symbols and images laced into and hidden inside the events and personalities of a story. Hesse and his philosophy are much more in your face. His stories seem more like allegories, the events and the personalities are of little consequence when compared with the thoughts and realizations formed by the characters he uses. Siddhartha was the only book by Hesse I had previously read, and what makes that story so wonderful is the simplicity of the actual events that prove to explain a whole philosophy on life. There are certainly long lectures and verbose passages expounding various theories and approaches to life, but they are presented with a directness that belies the complexity of the ideas being discussed. Steppenwolf is a novel that presents a compelling and beautiful vision of what life is and means, but it lacks the charming and captivating clarity of Siddhartha. The protagonist and narrator in the story rants about all the complex thoughts racing through his confused and conflicted mind for the first 50 odd pages without being properly introduced to his audience, it reminded me a lot of Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground, except that Hesse fails to achieve the seething sarcasm and complex interplay between the author and reader that makes Dostoyevsky's piece so captivating. The first 50 pages were a struggle to read, not because they were too hard to understand, but because they were a written characterization of a character we had only briefly encountered. This hints at what I find is Hesse's biggest shortcoming, he seems not to trust his readers to draw conclusions from a characters actions. He seems to need to spell every detail of his philosophy out to the reader in actual words. This leads to a dense style that often feels like a lecture rather than a novel. After the initial 50 pages Hesse's talent as a story teller fights its way through his need to explain his very spiritual way of viewing the world, the mechanism that Hesse turns this treatise into a more engaging novel is an intriguing female character. The main protagonist who has come to reject life and all the pleasantries and insincerities he so despises, is met with a character who despite her aversion to everyday life, uses her energy not to brood and despair but to live. The last 150 pages of the book flew by and better illuminated the concept of eternity and the laughable transience of life on earth than the oppressive discourse of the first 50 pages. (less)

3 likes · like · see review

Dec 22, 2011 Brandon rated it 5 of 5 stars

TO-NIGHT AT THE MAGIC THEATRE. FOR MADMEN ONLY! PRICE OF ADMITTANCE: YOUR MIND. NOT FOR EVERYBODY.

Imagine getting an invitation like this one; an invitation that is only for people who aren't a cog in the machine of what we call society; only for people who are allergic to the status quo. Take a journey into a world where one moment you pass by an old wall, where on a Gothic doorway flashing neon letters suddenly appear that say, "MAGIC THEATRE. ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY. FOR MADMEN ONLY!" Harr...more TO-NIGHT AT THE MAGIC THEATRE. FOR MADMEN ONLY! PRICE OF ADMITTANCE: YOUR MIND. NOT FOR EVERYBODY.

Imagine getting an invitation like this one; an invitation that is only for people who aren't a cog in the machine of what we call society; only for people who are allergic to the status quo. Take a journey into a world where one moment you pass by an old wall, where on a Gothic doorway flashing neon letters suddenly appear that say, "MAGIC THEATRE. ENTRANCE NOT FOR EVERYBODY. FOR MADMEN ONLY!" Harry Haller lives in this world--a world that he feels he doesn't belong in. He is a middle-aged, intellectual man that is as introverted as they come. He ruminates about everything from war to society. But there's something odd about Harry; something peculiar that separates him from society: he is what's called a Steppenwolf. He believes that deep inside himself lie both a human and a wolf, both battling to be in control. Whenever Harry wants to behave in a civilized manner, he believes the wolf takes over the human part of him and prevents him from being normal. And the physical ailments that take over his body are most of the time overwhelming; he experiences painful convulsions, devastating aches, and wrenching insomnia--all because he is a Steppenwolf. The pain and depression, which Harry declares that every true artist experiences in his life, is so extreme that it's forced him to contemplate suicide many times. He promises himself that when he reaches his fiftieth birthday, he will finally do it--he will finally kill himself and free his eternal soul from the curse of being a Steppenwolf.

When Harry thinks all is lost, that there is no hope for him in bourgeois society, something inspiring happens: he meets the free-spirited Hermine, who turns out to be his ray of light in his darkest hour. Whereas Harry is depressing, Hermine is titillating; whereas he is spiraling towards death, she is climbing up the mountain of life; and whereas he is firmly shackled to his beliefs, she is willing to try anything new. Hermine takes Harry under her wing, grooming him for a new and exciting life. She exposes him to new people, and lets his soul take in the joys of life.

But one day, when Harry finally gets an invitation to the For Madmen Only Theatre, he enters a whole new world--a surreal world where when one enters, he will never leave the same. Fantastic and peculiar events occur in this magical theatre, and Harry's Steppenwolf soul is put to the test. Will the unexpected juxtapositions and unorthodox events that happen in this theatre change Harry for the good? Read this life changing novel by Hermann Hesse, and experience the wonderful world of Harry Haller for yourself. Become mad, become unexpected, and become open-minded. Because remember: Hesse's theatre is "For Madmen Only!"(less)

1 like · like · see review

Mar 22, 2011 Ben rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: german-lit, favorites

Is everybody in? Is everybody in? Is everybody in? The ceremony's about to begin...

Center the Steppenwolf in Times Square and watch him writhe, observe his bared teeth peel the flesh from his own body, destroy himself and maybe, if fate embraces him warmly, listen to his laughing.

The philosophical discourse of Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf is like a dark molasses, glacially penetrating your mind. But Hesse's tone and style is melodious, enticing the average reader to continue his plunge into the r...more Is everybody in? Is everybody in? Is everybody in? The ceremony's about to begin...

Center the Steppenwolf in Times Square and watch him writhe, observe his bared teeth peel the flesh from his own body, destroy himself and maybe, if fate embraces him warmly, listen to his laughing.

The philosophical discourse of Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf is like a dark molasses, glacially penetrating your mind. But Hesse's tone and style is melodious, enticing the average reader to continue his plunge into the realm of Harry Haller's madness. There are three distinct narrative perspectives employed throughout the book. First, we are introduced to the inconsequential character of Harry's tenant mate, the landlord's nephew. His preface bids us welcome to Haller's narrative when we would have otherwise passed it by without thinking of it again. Second, we delve into the meat of the pages composed by Haller himself, composing his own story and trip into peace. Then there's "The Steppenwolf Treatise" whose author we do not know for certain. Each narrative has a distinct tone and style, a unique perspective on the character and turmoil of Harry Haller. How fortunate the reader.

Hesse devotes Steppenwolf to the realization and destruction of dualism. In the preface we are introduced to the idea of two overlapping generations and the sorrowful outcasts who don't belong to one or the other, to the mix of human spirit and the Steppenwolf, the opposite and complimentary pairing of Harry and Hermine, Old Harry and New Harry...Real Harry and Fake Harry. And the unbearable suffering infecting and spreading in this story for Harry, who, with Hermine, are labeled as suicides, beings whose destiny cannot end under any other circumstance than death. In his isolation and denial of fickle trivialities of the present culture; in his abstinence from the Bourgeois Compromise of balance between saintliness and profligacy, he yearns for death, to discover the ultimate capacity of human endurance and to martyr himself at the alter of what is valuable.

I am the Steppenwolf - or maybe the American puppy. I related to Harry's suffering but mostly in angst. I bark at advertisements for inconsequential trinkets, for transient fascinations and abhor how much of our resources, and our selves, we invest in them. Where is our escape? How can we reverse this absurdity? If Hesse is right, and the bliss of the middle class is in the contented compromise, afraid to brush the walls of happy extremities lining the corridor of our existence; for their sake there will be no reversal. How does Harry cope with this hopeless realization? How do we?

"You are to live and learn to laugh. You are to learn to listen to the cursed radio music of life and to reverence the spirit behind it and to laugh at its distortions."

This is not a story of inevitable hell.

WAKE UP! You can't remember where it was had this dream stopped?(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 17, 2007 Leila Ismail rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book really spoke to me - it examines the two sides of human nature - uninhibited primal urges and intellectual human endeavour... Hesse himself was torn between the two (and also examines this in Narziss and Goldmund) - at once loathing himself for succumbing to lust and hedonism, and at the same time deriding himself and others for intellectual snobbery and emotional aloofness. It is a novel about not belonging - feeling alone even whilst in a crowd - which is something we have all experi...more

4 likes · like · see review

May 11, 2007 Gardner rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

best passage of the book:

Whereupon it occurred to me--so it is with everyone. Just as I dress and go out to visit the professor and exchange a few more or less insincere compliments with him, without really wanting to at all, so it is with the majority of men day by day and hour by hour in their daily lives and affairs. Without really wanting to at all, they pay calls and carry on conversations, sit out their lives at desks and on office chairs; and it is all compulsory, mechanical and against t...more

2 likes · like · see review

Feb 11, 2009 Chuck rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first time I read this book I felt like it had been written for me, and I was young enough that it made a strong impression on my sense of self. The second time I read it I realized that Hesse pulled off the amazing feat of writing a book that appeals to many but feels very personal. I feel more ownership of this story than I have any right to, but its my story and I love Hesse for that.

5 likes · like · see review

Aug 05, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1920s, philosophy, the-germans, the-supernatural, translation, magic-exists, 1001-books-you-must-read

Yes, this book creeped me out slightly, and yes, some of the philosophy puzzled me at times, but BLOODY HELL I love this book. Harry Haller shares many of my own sentiments about the pointlessness of existence, and his inner monologues are brilliantly dark and insightful.

*HERE BE SPOILERS*

Favourite Character: Hermine. A bisexual cross-dressing courtesan of sorts who brings Harry back from the brink of suicide, despite having her own demons to face. She pretty much made this book for me.

Favourit...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 30, 2008 Ara rated it 4 of 5 stars

"The devil is the spirit, and we are his unhappy children. We have fallen out of nature, and hang suspended in space"

This book is a diving weight that pulls you down into a vivid alternate world. After a while spent in its depths, you lose track of time and realize you're out of air. You abruptly close the book, but it's too late. You're overcome. You turn on the TV, but the despair is still there. You walk around the grocery, but still the loneliness sits inside you. You want philosophical dram...more

1 like · like · see review

Oct 21, 2008 Tim rated it 2 of 5 stars

So I think if this book captures you in the first few pages it's for you. Otherwise it's a 100 page slog until something, anything happens. There were some vignettes in the last 10 pages that were especially good. I realize that the truths this book espouses are not obvious to some people, but it was not particularly profound for me. It was like spending an evening with an especially irritating hipster as he gradually realizes that life isn't as crap as he thought.
But there is much discussion of...more

8 likes · like · see review

Mar 02, 2007 Jay rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Folks

He's Hesse. If you've never read him, you probably weren't in Literature classes in college. I like this book. I'm not actually a huge Hesse fan, but this book and I get along. I think the trouble with Hesse is he wrote at the age of 40 after an incredible life. You probably won't get a lot of what is there till you're also around 40. So you have to read him over and over and see what else is there. When you're in high school though, frankly I think you'll find him dull and almost like a poor ma...more

3 likes · like · see review

Jan 08, 2013 Alexis Medina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, makes-me-think-a-lot

Delightful. This is the kind of book that requires you to be truly honest with you. It's very well written, a lovely prose. This novel was like a reminiscent reading of Dostoesvky's Notes From The Underground. The Steppenwolf is about dealing with your inner conflicts, diving into your soul and swimming across everything that leads you to be the way you are.

1 like · like · see review

Apr 07, 2013 Ian Drew Forsyth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: madness, magic, my-top-thirty, dissident-fiction, countercultures, consciousness, burning-desires

The ending's something to behold.
Some quotes:
"Self hate is really the same thing as sheer egotism, and in the long run breeds the same cruel isolation and despair."
"Now there are times when a whole generation is caught in this way between two ages, two modes of life, with the consequences that it loses all power to understand itself and has no standard, no security, no simple acquiescence."
"I always hated and despised...this carefully preserved optimism of the middle classes, this fat and prospe...more The ending's something to behold.
Some quotes:
"Self hate is really the same thing as sheer egotism, and in the long run breeds the same cruel isolation and despair."
"Now there are times when a whole generation is caught in this way between two ages, two modes of life, with the consequences that it loses all power to understand itself and has no standard, no security, no simple acquiescence."
"I always hated and despised...this carefully preserved optimism of the middle classes, this fat and prosperous brood of mediocrity."
"With the yearning after a new orientation for an age that has lost its bearings."
"For all extreme individuation turns against itself, intent upon its own destruction."
"For those outside of the bourgeoisie live in the atmosphere of these magical possibilities."
"As a body everyone is single, as a soul never."
"Yes, I understood the invitation to madness and the jettison of reason and the escape from the clogs of convention in surrender to the unbridled surge of spirit and fantasy."
"How can you say that you've taken any trouble to live when you won't even dance?"
"You have always done the difficult and complicated things and the simple ones you haven't even learned."
"You learned people and artists have, no doubt, all sorts of superior things in your heads; but you're human beings like the rest of us, and we, too, have our dreams and fancies."
"It's a poor fellow who can't take his pleasure without asking other people's permission."
"That is perhaps true, but truths like that--that we must all soon be dead and so it is all one and the same--make the whole of life flat and stupid. Are we then to throw everything up and renounce the spirit altogether and all effort and all that is human and let ambition and money rule forever while we await the next mobilization over a glass of beer?"
"Every one risks being laughed at when he addresses a girl. That's always at stake. So take the risk, Harry, and if the worst come to the worst let yourself be laughed at."
“You are here in a school of humor. You are to learn to laugh. Now, true humor begins when a man ceases to take himself seriously.”
"Of course, what we are doing isn't rational. It's childishness, just as war is childishness on a gigantic scale. In time, mankind will learn to keep its numbers in check by rational means. Meanwhile, we are meeting an intolerable situation in a rather irrational way."
"You are willing to die, you coward, but not to live."

(less)

like · see review

Apr 07, 2013 Tram rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Oh man, I don't know how to review this. It was just amazingly rich and complex. It's a story about disillusionment, finding or perhaps not finding the self, personality, love, the importance of Humor, hope. Steppenwolf is part philosophical treatise, part psychological exploration, all humanity. It shows how to live, but it leaves the life completely up to the reader. I was left feeling an immense sense of freedom, even though filled with a considerable amount of "happysad" as another reader pu...more

like · see review

Feb 05, 2013 Sheila Elisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

El Lobo Estepario sin duda hoy atrapo mi noche volviendo a recordar esas viejas frases como "Sólo para locos" todavía resuena en mi memoria y Harry Haller, tenia el tipo de un ermitaño que se apartaba por voluntad propia de la aplastante realidad de las guerras creando un análisis de su ser describiéndose como una dualidad, es decir la del hombre y la del lobo, ambos contradictorios, ambos luchando por imponerse sobre el otro. Pero a través de la lectura me doy cuenta que ambos en realidad son e...more

like · see review

Jan 19, 2013 Guy Portman rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Published in 1927, Steppenwolf is a complex and influential book that achieved cult status in the 1960’s when it was embraced by the counter-culture as a reaction against the modern world. The psychological impact of this highly original and thought provoking work continues to resonate even to this day.

The book’s central character is a reclusive intellectual by the name of Harry Haller. Harry, who is in the midst of a prolonged and severe mid-life crisis, not only despises his bourgeois existenc...more Published in 1927, Steppenwolf is a complex and influential book that achieved cult status in the 1960’s when it was embraced by the counter-culture as a reaction against the modern world. The psychological impact of this highly original and thought provoking work continues to resonate even to this day.

The book’s central character is a reclusive intellectual by the name of Harry Haller. Harry, who is in the midst of a prolonged and severe mid-life crisis, not only despises his bourgeois existence, but is also afflicted by physical ailments including gout, in addition to suffering from a mental illness that has tarnished his very soul. So incapable is Harry of embracing all that life has to offer that he is continually deliberating on the potential benefits of suicide.

Ever obsessed with his condition, the introverted academic has surmised that his character is made up of two separate and non-reconcilable parts, one of which is human and the other wolf. Harry believes that the human elements of his psyche consist of the aesthetic and intellectual attributes, whilst the wolf, which he names Steppenwolf is responsible for the uncontrollable part of his nature; his impulses, instincts and urges. This conclusion causes Harry great distress and contributes to his overwhelming sense of self-loathing and increasing disdain for life.

One night after a solitary visit to a drinking establishment, Harry comes across a lengthy pamphlet that refutes his theory as being oversimplified, stating that in reality an individual is made up of a multiplicity of souls, a concept incidentally embraced by Nietzsche. In typical fashion Harry deliberates upon the pamphlet’s theory before rejecting its contents. The course of Harry’s life is set for change however when shortly thereafter he meets the mysterious Hermione, who introduces him to dancing. A belated sexual education through a girl named Maria follows, before events culminate in a masked ball and a trip to a magic theatre, where sequentially Harry is confronted with his various selves. These selves connect with his memories from childhood, sexual inhibitions and even his reaction against a modern world in a scene where he finds himself shooting at cars.

Steppenwolf is essentially an autobiographical account of the examination of the development of a character. It has been argued that the author wrote this narrative for self-therapeutic purposes, in order to rid his soul of the negativity that had blighted it and that one of the book’s characters, a non-judgmental and liberal musician by the name of Pablo is in essence a psychotherapist. Certainly there is an existential philosophical aspect to the book, both in the manner in which Haller probes his psyche and the role of ‘the immortals’, the author Goethe and Haller’s own hero Mozart, whom he meets in one of the sequences at the magic theatre, when a relaxed, benign and accepting Mozart is soaring contentedly through the sky, Haller clutching to his hair; surely symbolic of freedom in a timeless reality, a world that has transcended our own.

The book has been compared to a sonata, not only because it consists of three distinct parts, but also because the prose is flowing, rhythmic and poetic, giving Steppenwolf an almost magical quality. Though there are many aspects of this diverse, profound and intellectual book that can be deliberated upon, it is above all the fact that people have been able to identify with the main character’s self-hatred and inability to accept life that is the reason for Steppenwolf’s lasting legacy.(less)

like · see review

Nov 25, 2012 Nicole Mendes rated it 1 of 5 stars

Where to begin, where to begin... For starters, this book will not make you a better person for having read it. It will not change your life positively. It will not inspire you to be a better person.

Why not?

Because Harry Haller, the protagonist, is the most whiny, pretentious, arrogant, self-pitying character you can possibly encounter. He thinks he has such a difficult life. His wife left him (pretty sure this event happened and is not just a figment of my imagination), he has no friends, and G...more Where to begin, where to begin... For starters, this book will not make you a better person for having read it. It will not change your life positively. It will not inspire you to be a better person.

Why not?

Because Harry Haller, the protagonist, is the most whiny, pretentious, arrogant, self-pitying character you can possibly encounter. He thinks he has such a difficult life. His wife left him (pretty sure this event happened and is not just a figment of my imagination), he has no friends, and Germany is heading into another war. Nobody on Earth has ever suffered through these catastrophes, right? Oh wait, things like this happen to people every day and somehow they don't spend every moment whining about how much their life sucks while doing nothing to change it. Germany heading into war is obviously not Harry's fault, but his wife leaving him and him having no friends certainly is. Why is it his fault? Read the first sentence in this paragraph again if you're confused. He think he's better than everybody else because he's just so intellectual and so sensitive. I think I need to vomit now.

Going into an in-detail summary would kill me and scorch my soul for eternity, so I'll be short and concise. Basically, Harry begins the book all alone. He then meets an acquaintance and insults him for the stupidest reason imaginable. Later on, he goes into a bar (I think) and meets Hermine, the main female protagonist. Hermine is much younger than Harry. He agrees to do everything Hermine says for as long as she wants because hey, he has nothing better to do. Hermine goes on a mission to change him and make him a person who cares more. How does she go about doing this? She finds him a lover, Maria, who is around the same age as Hermine. I was grossed out reading about them having sex, but honestly, Harry having sex with anybody would gross me out. Anyway, he also meets Pablo, the sexy saxophone player who has drugs. He kisses Hermine sometime and awakens something. I got to admit, I liked Hermine and Pablo okay. Hermine wasn't weak and Pablo was sexy. Better than all the others.

The second half of this book is pure fuckery. If I had had any respect for the first half, I would have lost it all in the second half. Pablo gives Harry and company some drugs and invites them to his "theatre". In other words, the characters go on an acid trip that lasts about a hundred pages, if I remember correctly. It wasn't even fun. Even Harry on drugs is boring. Let's see, he meets Mozart and Goethe, and they tell him to live life or something. He then meets his old school friend and they go around shooting everybody who is in a car. He meets a chess player who plays holographic chess. Then he catches Hermine and Pablo in bed together and stabs her. Because he killed Hermine and took the game too seriously, he had to go to court. At the end of the book, he realizes he needs to learn to be happier. The end. Good riddance Don't come back. EVER.

Yeah, but if I really hate Steppenwolf this much, I should have stopped reading it and moved on to something I like, right? Wrong. I was forced to read it for my grade eleven English class. Yep, it's one of those books. I was so miserable reading this book I have decided to compile all my rage into this review. It doesn't help that we read Catcher In The Rye before Steppenwolf. Catcher was okay. This book... not so much. I know Steppenwolf came first, but it seems to take all the negative attributes of Holden Caulfield and crank them up to eleven with Harry Haller. At least Holden had the excuse of being an angsty teenager. Yeah, the angst doesn't fly so well once you're in your fifties. This book put me to sleep.

Maybe I would have liked it more if I wasn't sixteen when I read it. I mean, how much can a teenager really relate to a depressed, secluded, intellectual man in his fifties? I definitely wasn't in the target audience was there a target audience? Nevertheless, I read it when I read it and absolutely hated every dreary second of it. I will not be revisiting this novel when I am older. (less)

3 likes · like · see review

Sep 27, 2012 Emma rated it 4 of 5 stars

The book "Steppenwolf" by Herman Hesse was a very mentally invigorating read. I enjoyed this book partly because I have a soft-spot for oldies, but because it also got me thinking about life as a whole and my purpose, which is exactly what books written by philosophers are supposed to do. In this book a man named Harry moves into an apartment in an average city. This man is unhappy with life, and feels like he is just going through the motions. For that reason, he describes himself as a half-man...more

like · see review

Aug 03, 2012 Nikolay Dyulgerov rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first book I read by Hermann Hesse. It made me borrow another one from the library.
Quite philosophical but still not hard to read, compared to Camus for example (personal opinion; I'm a big fan of Camus though).
Hermann Hesse wrote in the preface of this edition that Steppenwolf is one of his most misunderstood works. Reading this before starting to read the book itself makes you wonder just what in the world is going to happen in this book? And after you read it, you'll understand that it ju...more

1 like · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads Librari...: combine new edition of added book	2	26	Aug 03, 2012 07:46am
ketabi dar khore tavajoh	1	34	Oct 07, 2008 03:11am

combine
Other Editions (197)

More editions...

Genres

Classics

510 users

Literature

209 users

European Literature > German Literature

187 users

Novels

91 users

Cultural > Germany

41 users

Literature > 20th Century

34 users

Psychology

32 users

Literary Fiction

26 users

Fantasy

19 users

Classics > Modern Classics

19 users

See top shelves...

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best known works include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game (also known as Magister Ludi) which explore an individual's search for spirituality outside society.

Hesse was born in the Black Forest town of Calw to a Christian missionary family. Both of his parents served...more

More about Hermann Hesse...

Books by Hermann Hesse

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Trivia About Steppenwolf

26 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from Steppenwolf

“You are willing to die, you coward, but not to live.” — 182 people liked it

“In eternity there is no time, only an instant long enough for a joke.” — 164 people liked it

More quotes…

title link	preview: Steppenwolf
avg rating	preview: Steppenwolf Goodreads rating: 4.05 (41190 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16631.Steppenwolf?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347752205l/16631.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16631.Steppenwolf?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse[/url]

Steppenwolf

Friend Reviews

Community Reviews

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website