"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 o...
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Sep 30, 2011
Dan
rated it: 
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 Step More...
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 Step More...
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May 20, 2010
Paquita Maria
rated it:
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."
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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."
More...
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(25 people liked it)
Dec 25, 2007
Kirstie
rated it: 
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 More...
One thing I think Hesse was obsessed with a little is the duality of life-the light and the dark side. Steppenwolf takes you More...
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(20 people liked it)
May 25, 2010
Erin
rated it:
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! More...
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! More...
Apr 17, 2009
Peter
rated it: 
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 More...
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 More...
Feb 11, 2012
Liam
rated it:
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 pic More...
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 pic More...
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Mar 20, 2011
Rajat
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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 restric More...
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 restric More...
Nov 21, 2011
William
rated it: 
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 b
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(2 people liked it)
Dec 20, 2008
Mark
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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
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May 25, 2011
Ben
rated it:
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 contin More...
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 contin More...
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(2 people liked it)
Sep 17, 2007
Leila
rated it:
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
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(3 people liked it)
Dec 16, 2009
Gardner
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
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(2 people liked it)
Feb 11, 2009
Chuck
rated it:
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.
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(4 people liked it)
Nov 30, 2008
Ara
rated it:
"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 w More...
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 w More...
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Oct 21, 2008
Tim
rated it:
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 discuss More...
But there is much discuss More...
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(3 people liked it)
Mar 02, 2007
Jay
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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
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Nov 22, 2011
Vince
rated it: 
I was quite excited to get this book in the post because of various recommendations, its fame and the premise of a lone outsider part man part beast seemed interesting. The first part of the book was engaging as the Steppenwolf outlined his condition in minute detail and I could relate a lot to it. The meeting with the professor was brilliant and I laughed my arse off when he cuts through all the bourgeois bullshit with his REAL thought of things, tells it as it is and leaves.
But from the More...
But from the More...
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Nov 09, 2011
Lexi
rated it:
I feel like Hermine.
Up until we meet Hermine in Hesse's Steppenwolf, I really had no idea where he was going. Mostly the first half of the book is just rambling dissertations on the internal psyche of an older man who spends too much time alone.
But, when Hesse introduced Hermine, his tale started to click. I think that Hesse's book didn't initially connect with me because he tells his story through Harry Haller. I just don't identify with this guy. Half man and half wo More...
Up until we meet Hermine in Hesse's Steppenwolf, I really had no idea where he was going. Mostly the first half of the book is just rambling dissertations on the internal psyche of an older man who spends too much time alone.
But, when Hesse introduced Hermine, his tale started to click. I think that Hesse's book didn't initially connect with me because he tells his story through Harry Haller. I just don't identify with this guy. Half man and half wo More...
Oct 19, 2011
Lillie
rated it:
This book was definitely a tour through all the dark places of the human soul. You don't think you will, but I think anyone will recognize parts of themselves in Harry.
Parts of this book are hard to read because it feels so personal and you don't want to face it, but it also feels necessary. So for those reasons it can be hard to say you ''like'' this book because it makes you uncomfortable. I will say that it is the best book I've read in years.
There are times in this book where e More...
Parts of this book are hard to read because it feels so personal and you don't want to face it, but it also feels necessary. So for those reasons it can be hard to say you ''like'' this book because it makes you uncomfortable. I will say that it is the best book I've read in years.
There are times in this book where e More...
Oct 16, 2011
Travis
rated it:
I picked up a copy of this book about 15 years ago, sometime in the middle of high school in one of those pre-internet attempts at appearing cultured and elite or something. And it sat on a shelf. Then I went to college and it sat on a shelf some more. Then my parents renovated and it went into the garage for a bit. Then the basement. Then a box. Then, while cleaning out boxes in the basement, I found my copy in pristine condition, and, with nothing better to do during the dog days of summer, ca
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Oct 02, 2011
Nick
rated it:
Good stuff. As I usually feel for Hesse. Will definitely have to go back and re-read most of the ones of his I've already read, and the ones I've not yet read.
I suppose one could view some of the quotes below "spoilers"
p. 17-18: Yes, and he who thinks, what's more, he who makes thought is 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.
31: For what I always hated and detested and curs More...
I suppose one could view some of the quotes below "spoilers"
p. 17-18: Yes, and he who thinks, what's more, he who makes thought is 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.
31: For what I always hated and detested and curs More...
Sep 29, 2011
Evan
rated it:
Der Steppenhipster
Our protagonist, Henry Haller, is introduced in a brief preface by Haller’s landlord’s nephew. The preface is largely expository and not all that interesting. This novel takes a good 100 pages before it really drags the reader in; that’s when I start finding more and more notes and dog-eared pages. Haller is plagued with a “sickness of the times.” At the end of the preface, the nephew tells us that the story is “an attempt to present the sickness itself in its a More...
Our protagonist, Henry Haller, is introduced in a brief preface by Haller’s landlord’s nephew. The preface is largely expository and not all that interesting. This novel takes a good 100 pages before it really drags the reader in; that’s when I start finding more and more notes and dog-eared pages. Haller is plagued with a “sickness of the times.” At the end of the preface, the nephew tells us that the story is “an attempt to present the sickness itself in its a More...
Aug 31, 2011
Jeremy
rated it:
Steppenwolf is ostensibly the story of a middle-aged, intellectual, world-weary lodger whose papers are left in an ordinary middle-class home. Its real purpose, however, appears to be to expound Hesse’s philosophy of life as the “Wolf of the Steppes” recounts his encounters with carefree lovely maidens, jazz-playing drug-dealers, and a mystical carnival where Mozart and the rest of the Immortals come to life. The Steppenwolf feels himself split into two pieces: the beastly wolf who laughs at the
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Jul 27, 2011
The first 75 pages of this book are extraordinarily philosophically dense and written in a very challenging prose style that makes the actual story difficult to wade through and follow concretely from scene to scene. However, all of this changes dramatically upon the introduction of Hermine into Haller's previously dark, intellectually confining life. With Hermine, everything that once was dull, lifeless and, well, honestly, boring, (including the narrative style) becomes lively, mysteriously
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Jul 27, 2011
Matti
rated it:
AROSUSI
Ensimmäinen kolmasosa kirjasta ei kulkenut oikein minnekään, sisältö oli lähinnä tyhjänpäivästä eksistentialistista pohdintaa, itsesäälin värittämää paikallaan pyörimistä. Alun kertojanvaihdos oli myös hämmentävä, varsinkin kun ensimmäiseen kertojaan ei koskaan palattu. Ajatukset lähtivät lukiessa väistämättä harhailemaan ihan muihin asioihin.
Loppua kohden tarina alkoi sitten hieman muuttua kiinnostavammaksi, mutta eipä siitä juuri käteen muuta jäänyt kuin ajatus siitä että ihmi More...
Ensimmäinen kolmasosa kirjasta ei kulkenut oikein minnekään, sisältö oli lähinnä tyhjänpäivästä eksistentialistista pohdintaa, itsesäälin värittämää paikallaan pyörimistä. Alun kertojanvaihdos oli myös hämmentävä, varsinkin kun ensimmäiseen kertojaan ei koskaan palattu. Ajatukset lähtivät lukiessa väistämättä harhailemaan ihan muihin asioihin.
Loppua kohden tarina alkoi sitten hieman muuttua kiinnostavammaksi, mutta eipä siitä juuri käteen muuta jäänyt kuin ajatus siitä että ihmi More...
Jul 25, 2011
Adriane
rated it:
Known as an autobiographical novel by German-born author Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf depicts the surreal lengths one Harry Haller must traverse to transform himself from a jaded and lonely suicide into a holistic man, capable of embracing life even in his graying years. Instrumental in his conversion is a strange and lovely girl who, despite being his equal intellectually, becomes his spiritual guru, leading him through measures of dance, music and pleasure that he has always denied himself, to
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Jul 15, 2011
Nancy
rated it:
The first 75 pages of this book are extraordinarily philosophically dense and written in a very challenging prose style that makes the actual story difficult to wade through and follow concretely from scene to scene. However, all of this changes dramatically upon the introduction of Hermine into Haller's previously dark, intellectually confining life. With Hermine, everything that once was dull, lifeless and, well, honestly, boring, (including the narrative style) becomes lively, mysteriously en
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Mar 14, 2011
Ljubomir
rated it:
While reading Steppenwolf, the text often set me wandering in thought, only to find either the very ideas I just entertained or other, older ones, expressed a few pages ahead. I have rarely felt a book to be so close to me. Of course, I did not agree with everything, but at these moments I merely thought those questions and views on which I had a different opinion would make for an interesting discussion with Harry.
The first part of Steppenwolf is basically a building up, a portrayal More...
The first part of Steppenwolf is basically a building up, a portrayal More...
Feb 08, 2011
Michael
rated it:
This book, about a wolfish man in revolt against everything including himself, feels as strange and disorienting today as it must have felt when it was first published in 1927. It is virtually impossible to summarize Hesse's short novel: suffice it to say that it is a story within a story within a story, and ranges from surreal ballroom dancing to apocalyptic scenes of mayhem and murder. Goethe and Mozart feature as characters-- indeed, the novel ends with the "ghastly laughter" of t
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Dec 31, 2010
Kate
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Finishing Steppenwolf marks the completion of a goal I set myself back in my 20's: to read all of Nobel Prize Winning author Hermann Hesse's novels. Within a few years, I'd read them all--with the exception of this one. I tried, but surprisingly couldn't get into it. I say surprisingly, because I had no problem slogging through the dense and lengthy Magister Ludi. Later I learned that Hesse himself had commented that, as he had written Steppenwolf when he was 50, and the main character, Harry
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