Journey to the East ~ Trd Pb

by Hermann Hesse

Journey to the East ~ Trd...

by
Hermann Hesse

book data

1,345 ratings, 3.66 average rating, 73 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		21%
4		35%
3		32%
2		9%
1		1%

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published

August 15th 1989 by HarperCollins Canada / Flamingo (first published 1932)

details

Paperback, 96 pages

characters

H.H., Leo

isbn

0586089063 (isbn13: 9780586089064)

description

In simple, mesmerizing prose, Hermann Hesse tells of a journey both geographic and spiritual. H.H., a German choirmaster, is invited on an expedition …more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 1,737)

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Jul 30, 2008

Dan rated it:

(review of isbn 0312421680)

Read in December, 1993

recommended to Dan by: Jennifer Wallis
recommends it for: Anyone who'd like an introduction to Hesse and who didn't like Siddhartha

Along with "Dubliners" and "Sun Also Rises," I have re-read this book so many times, it's become almost a force of habit. And like those other books, I find myself re-reading it. It is quite short and can be read in one or two sittings. Most people I know who don't like Hesse have read only his "Siddhartha" or his other works. I don't want to give away too much, so I won't recount the story. But I do give it my endorsement.

I'm not sure of the transl...more

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Feb 08, 2010

Patrick Gibson rated it:

(review of isbn 0312421680)

bookshelves: contemporary-literature

Read in February, 2010

If ever the maxim ‘not the destination but the journey’ were true, this would be the perfect example. Not even considering the fact the ‘travelers’ on this journey never make it to the East, which is in fact a metaphor or our own individual passage from solitude to the enlightenment of the communal whole. The community for this particular journey is called The League. And as they transverse through time and space encountering Don Quixote and Noah’s Ark, members of the League such as Mo...more If ever the maxim ‘not the destination but the journey’ were true, this would be the perfect example. Not even considering the fact the ‘travelers’ on this journey never make it to the East, which is in fact a metaphor or our own individual passage from solitude to the enlightenment of the communal whole. The community for this particular journey is called The League. And as they transverse through time and space encountering Don Quixote and Noah’s Ark, members of the League such as Mozart and Hugo Wolf, Paul Klee (and fictional characters from some of Hesses other novels) establish the parameters which one gains happiness by establishing faith in each other.

On the superficial level, a choirmaster named HH has been ostracized from the League for imposing his loss of faith on a servant whose sole raison d’etre was this fellowship and their planned trip to the east. Years latter, as a form of atonement, HH tries to record his experience in the form of this novel. His crisis of faith becomes an insurmountable roadblock leading him to track down the servant named Leo only to find the Journey never ended and it is going on all around him. Through a trial of abject personal abasement, he is restored through the knowledge a singular individual will never germinate into the fruits of a full life without joining the brotherhood of man through religion, science, art or any bond that exploits common vision without sacrificing individuality.

Published a few years after ‘Steppenwolf’ (and immediately following “Narcissus”) this was the end of Hesses bucolic melodramas and the beginning of the final metaphysical novels. Written in mesmerizing prose boarding on poetry, even song, the sheer exuberance of unbridled passion is exhilarating. Probably the most esoteric of his novels (‘Magister Ludi’ would be next), ‘Journey’ is profound and enigmatic.

When I first read this at around age twenty I confessed to friends I didn’t understand it—but loved the language (even in translation). A few years later (for indeed, the complete works of Hesse travel with me no matter where I go) I admitted I finally understood the plot but ‘could it really be that thin?’ Still loved the language. Now, I think I get it. Perhaps like Mahler’s Ninth Symphony it reveals itself endlessly and one must keep its presence close to the heart.
“History is rich in examples of similar kind. The whole of world history often seems to me nothing more than a picture book which portrays humanity’s most powerful and senseless desire—the desire to forget.”
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Sep 26, 2009

Gwen rated it:

(review of isbn 0312421680)

bookshelves: 2009---read

Read in September, 2009

I've had this book for years, with the intention of reading it. In high school, it went over my head. Now, parts still were incomprehensible to me. I had to look on the internet to determine that this was a work of fiction, even though it had a memoir/autobiographical aspect to it. (as the book had no summary)
The Journey to the East was written in 1956 in German and translated into English. It is a story of soul-seaching in a quick story (less than 120 pages).

It is the story o...more

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May 22, 2007

Marc Alan rated it:

(review of isbn 0312421680)

bookshelves: topshelf

Read in April, 2007

Though extremely short the message in this novella is one of Hesse's boldest. Our hero sets out on a journey through space and time in search of "the east" along with a number of famous and not so famous characters from history (including a few of Hesse's own previous works!). After he looses his way he blames the organization for having fallen apart. Somehow Hesse avoids allegory and still gives us a classic on how screwed conciousness is.

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Nov 01, 2009

Aziz rated it:

(review of isbn 0586038264)

bookshelves: literature--german

Owns a copy — Read in November, 2009

recommends it for: Those who have already read Hermann Hesse

I read 'Journey to the East' having read almost all other Hesse novels available in English translation.

And, for me, 'Journey to the East' is both a spiritual and metaphorical culmination of all other works. The novella is relatively short, but still manages to encapsulate what seems like decades of plot-line perfectly. The story transends time and space, leaving the reader both bewildered and utterly divorced from reality.

Riddled with Hesse's archetypical writing techn...more

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Mar 11, 2008

Dan rated it:

(review of isbn 0586038264)

bookshelves: novels

Read in December, 1986

Hesse is a German author who won the Nobel Prize for literature, and whose novels enjoyed a renewed popularity with the hippies in the sixties (as mentioned by Tom Wolfe in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which was where I first read about this novel). Hesse’s narrator writes of his membership in a mystical brotherhood. Because he does not remember everything clearly, and because he is bound by a code of secrecy about some things, he is elliptical with regard to some details about the broth...more

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Feb 02, 2009

Elizabeth rated it:

(review of isbn 0312421680)

Read in February, 2009

What to make of this bizarre account. A wonderful work of imagination not like anything I've read elsewhere. It is especially fun to read in the context of its many allusions to Theosophy and the cult of eclecticism in circa 1935 Germany. The key to appreciating its eccentricity is its conceit in the journey that is all the mind, as the east (as in "The East" / idea) was at that time (and still so much today!) so much a work of so many men's imagination at that time.

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Oct 12, 2009

Jed rated it:

(review of isbn 0312421680)

Hesse seems to be all about some mystical journey to Truth (yeah, capitol t) and is WILDLY out of my leauge if intends to be more than even marginally intelligable. This one is (appears to be) an allegory for christianity, but I didn't even realize it until about halfway through. It's a great story eventually, but to get there you have to get through what seems like a very Ezikiel-esque idea of the church, meaning that it is impossible to understand and possibly drug induced.

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Jul 31, 2009

Katie rated it:

(review of isbn 0374500363)

Read in July, 2009

I haven't read Hesse in years, and this book reminded me why I used to love him so much. He blends heavy philosophical ideas with straight-forward, beautiful language. The story itself is, on the surface, completely surreal, yet the themes and characters are accessible and familiar. And wow! what an ending. It's short, too, like a little piece of brain candy.

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Feb 01, 2009

Gertrude & Victoria rated it:

(review of isbn 0312421680)

bookshelves: german-scandanavian-library

This book, The Journey to the East is Hermann Hesse at his most mysterious. This brief, but bewildering work, is like an abstruse, fantastic dream. It concerns a secret group, of which one, H.H. belongs to, on a journey for the ultimate truth. Here, we find that time and space are immaterial. The group consists of historical figures as well as fictional ones. They start their odyssey with a common purpose, but later find themselves sceptical of the whole idea and come to distrust each other...more

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Oct 26, 2008

Erik Graff rated it:

(review of isbn 0553073621)

bookshelves: literature

Read in June, 1972

recommended to Erik by: no one
recommends it for: everyone

Although the most difficult to comprehend of Hesse's novels, The Journey to the East was, upon reading, one of my favorites as it left me with some vague, yet powerful, apprehension of a vital truth--something like those essential words we find "at the tip of the tongue" but are unable to speak or those aspects of memory we know to be there but cannot recollect.

Now, having substantially wasted my life and being of the same age as its author, I see The Journey as a reflectio...more

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Mar 11, 2010

כשלאנציקלופדיותינו rated it:

(review of isbn 0374500363)

bookshelves: building-the-new-you, do-not-ask-twice-it-is-alright, look-at-me-concentration-hocuspocus, oxytocin-and-vasopressin

Timur yang Tua dan Mistis menjadi semakin memikat di tangan Hesse. Cukup mengejutkan jika untuk novel setipis ini, bisa memberikan kita wawasan akan makna kebeneran sebanyak yang bisa tertulis dalam ribuan jilid ensiklopedi

love it

buku ke-8996

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Nov 17, 2009

Jlhawse rated it:

(review of isbn 0312421680)

Owns a copy

Siddartha will always be the classic, but The Journey to the East tells us of another struggle Hesse puts his characters through with high spiritual implications.

If you're looking to reminisce, Hesse is your man with The Journey to the East.

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Feb 22, 2009

Michelle rated it:

(review of isbn 0312421680)

Read in February, 2009

The novel that helped Robert Greenleaf flesh out his concept for servant-leadership. One of those books you need to read a few times to catch all the symbolism but great overall message. Super quick read!

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Apr 16, 2009

Vohumanu rated it:

(review of isbn 0312421680)

Read in February, 2009

I love this book.

I love how he has an idea and doesn't need to string it out into an epic series.

I love the insight into human nature which few other books offer.

Read it!

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Jul 27, 2007

Andrew Bailey rated it:

(review of isbn 0312421680)

Read in July, 2007

recommends it for: the League

Reading The Journey to the East, I was reminded of Barthelme's Dead Father. Hesse's work is much less absurd, much more rational in delivery. The strangeness is still present, but strangeness is a requirement in displays of faith, which The Journey to the East primarily deals with (also truth but faith and truth usually run a fine line together, breeding in trees and bushes and all manner of other places).

I liked this book, and Hess's writing is usually not my bag. But having recentl...more

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Jan 29, 2009

Laura rated it:

(review of isbn 0312421680)

Revolutionized my world view at a formative time when I was in college. This is why I believe in servant leadership.

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Jun 25, 2009

David rated it:

(review of isbn 0312421680)

Read in July, 2009

More good stuff from Hermann Hesse. Much shorter than I expected but he once again explored the human soul and being in a pilgrimage type setting. I probably enjoyed narcissus & goldman more but this was an enjoyable, quick read.

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