false 13514 0553377760 9780553377767 527 45 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166557568m/13514.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13514.The_Fairy_Tales_of_Hermann_Hesse 1113469 Hermann Hesse 62491 3885 3 2 false Mon Jul 20 07:40:49 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 18:04:49 -0700 2009
Like any collection of stories, I found some more powerful than others. "Faldum" was by far my favorite, a meditative musing on the impermanence of humanity and its desires as told through the story of a town visited by a magical wish-granter. Others that stuck with me include "Augustus," about a boy who experiences the curse of being loved by everyone, "Dr. Knoegle’s End," a wry cautionary tale about militant vegetarians, and "The Three Linden Trees," about the unshakable loyalty of a set of close brothers.

Anyone familiar with Hesse's broader body work will recognize his more dystopian concerns in tales that look at the evils of technology and war as well as the ways in which the demands of oppressive society cut men off from their spiritual roots. Being less idealistic than I was when I first discovered his work as a teenager, I found these stories didn't impact me as much as some of the more subtle pieces, with the exception of the strangely moving "If The War Continues." In this surreal piece, a man bearing the same name as Hesse's main character from the novel Demian responds to the reduction of his society to a perpetual war state in the most sane and rational way one could possibly imagine.

Recommended for fans of Hesse and the traditional fairy tale genre.
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