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Siddhartha

Hermann Hesse

4.04 · Rating details · 614,507 ratings · 18,809 reviews

Herman Hesse's classic novel has delighted, inspired, and influenced generations of readers, writers, and thinkers. In this story of a wealthy Indian Brahmin who casts off a life of privilege to seek spiritual fulfillment. Hesse synthesizes disparate philosophies--Eastern religions, Jungian archetypes, Western individualism--into a unique vision of life as expressed throug ...more

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Published (first published 1922)

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Jun 22, 2010 Kemper rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: famous-books, 100, sky-cake

So there’s a damn dirty hippie in India named Siddhartha who is supposed to be seeking spiritual enlightenment, but instead of going to a good Christian church like a normal person, he wanders around the woods for a while with some other damn dirty hippies. After he meets Buddha, he finally gets tired of being broke-ass and homeless, and he goes into town where he makes a pile of money. This is good because everyone knows that engaging in capitalism is the only proper way to go through life. As ...more

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Aug 15, 2010 Stephen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, ebooks, religion-spirituality, literature, easton-press, life-changers, classics-european

My apologies if this review reeks of "GUSHness." However, it gave me that ONE-OF-A-KIND reading experience that doesn't come along often and so I think it is certainly worthy of the praise I shall heep upon it. Beautifully written and a deeply personal story, Hesse has created the ultimate expression of the journey of self-discovery.

The book details the story of Siddhartha, the young and brilliant son of a Brahmin in ancient India. The Brahmin are the uber revered caste comprised of poets, ...more

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Jan 10, 2017 Sean Barrs rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5-star-reads, favourites, modernist-movement, spirituality-buddhism

MY BEST BOOK OF 2017!

In life we all look for meaning, we all look for something to give us a purpose and, in essence, a reason to actually be alive. Nobody wants to get to the end of their journey and realise it was all for nothing, and that their days were utterly wasted. So how do we find this meaning?

“One must find the source within one's own Self, one must possess it. Everything else was seeking -- a detour, an error.”

We must find our own peace. Siddhartha followed the teachings of ...more

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Oct 03, 2009 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, 1001-book, classics, philosophy, german, fiction

717. Siddhartha. Eine indische Dichtung = Siddhartha, Herman Hesse

Siddhartha is a novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha. The book, Hesse's ninth novel, was written in German, in a simple, lyrical style. It was published in the U.S. in 1951 and became influential during the 1960's.

سیذارتا - هرمان هسه (اساطیر، فردوس) ادبیات آلمانی؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه دسامبر سال 2007 میلادی

عنوان: سیذارتا؛ 717. Siddhartha. Eine indische Dichtung = Siddhartha, Herman Hesse

Siddhartha is a novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha. The book, Hesse's ninth novel, was written in German, in a simple, lyrical style. It was published in the U.S. in 1951 and became influential during the 1960's.

سیذارتا - هرمان هسه (اساطیر، فردوس) ادبیات آلمانی؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه دسامبر سال 2007 میلادی

عنوان: سیذارتا؛ هرمان هسه؛ مترجم: پرویز داریوش؛ تهران، پرنیان، 1340، در 160ص؛ چاپ دوم تهران، آبان، 1355، در 160ص؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، فرزان 1362؛ تهران، اساطیر، 1367، 1373؛ چاپ ششم 1375، در 134ص؛ چاپ هفتم 1381؛ چاپ یازدهم 1394؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان آلمانی زبان - سده 20م

مترجم: امیرفریدون گرکانی؛ تهران، فردوس، 1373؛ در 155ص، چاپ سوم 1376؛ چهارم 1381؛ ششم 1385؛ چاپ هفتم 1387؛ شابک 9645509114؛ چاپ هشتم 1388؛ شابک 9789643204143؛ تهران، جامی، 1392، در 152ص؛ شابک 9786001760884؛

مترجم: محمد بقایی؛ تهران، نشر آرمین، 1374، در 225ص؛

مترجم: پرویز چشمه خاور؛ تهران، نشر گلپونه، 1376، در 167ص؛ شابک 9646663044؛

مترجم: سروش حبیبی؛ تهران، ققنوس، 1385، در 174ص؛ چاپ دوم 1386؛ چاپ سوم 1387؛ شابک 9789643116286؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، ماهی، 1394؛ در 144ص؛ شابک 9789642092338؛

هشدار: اگر میخواهدی خود کتاب را بخوانید، از خوانش ریویو خودداری فرمایید

سدهرتها، داستان برهمن زاده ی جوانی ست، که به همراه دوست برهمنش، برای جستجوی حقیقت، و دانستن وظیفه ی انسان در زمین، خانه ی پدر و مادر را ترک میگوید، به مرتاضان جنگل میپیوندد.؛ در جنگل، به فن ریاضت و تفکر، به شیوه ی مرتاضان، میپردازد، میکوشد تا نفس، و موانع راه نیل به حقیقت را، در خود از بین ببرد.؛ ولی هرچه بیش، پیش میرود، و هرچه بیشتر نفسش را تحت انقیاد درمیآورد، میبیند به همان اندازه، از حقیقت به دور افتاده است.؛ میفهمد که ریاضت، راه وصول به مطلوب نیست.؛ در آن هنگام میشنود، که کسی به نام «گوتاما» یا «بودا»، به آخرین مرحله ی کمال انسانی رسیده، موعظه میگوید، مردم، به دور او گرد آمده اند.؛ «سدهرتها» و دوستش، برای دیدن بودای اعظم، گروه مرتاضان را ترک میکنند، آنها «بودا» را میبینند، و از مشاهده ی پیکر، رفتار و طرز نگاه او، شگفت زده میشوند.؛ به مواعظ آن دانشمند یگانه، گوش فرا میدهند.؛ «بودا» از درد و رنج سخن میگوید؛ جهان را جز رنج نمیبیند.؛ دوستش در همان مجلس، سوگند وفاداری به «بودا»، یاد میکند.؛ ولی «سدهرتها» به گفته ها و آموزه های «گوتامای بودا»، باور ندارد؛ روز دیگر، «بودا» را از اندیشه های خود آگاه میکند.؛ به «بودا» میگوید: رستگاری چیزی نیست که بتوان با آموزش، آن را به دست آورد.؛ از آن به بعد، خواهان خویشتن خود میشود.؛ در صدد نفی نفس خویش برنمیآید.؛ از روسپی شهر، درس عشق و لذات را فرا میگیرد.؛ با بازرگانی، دوست و همکار میشود.؛ باز، همه چیز را کنار میگذارد، و در صدد خودکشی برمیآید.؛ میخواهد خود را به رود بیندازد.؛ از رود، صدای آواز "ام" یا «روح کلمات» را میشنود.؛ بخواب میرود.؛ پس از بیداری، نیروی دیگری در خود مییابد.؛ همه چیز زیبا، خوب و دوست داشتنی، شده است.؛ در کنار رود میماند.؛ شاگرد قایقران پیری میشود.؛ قایقران، فن گوش فرادادن به آواز رود را، به او یاد میدهد.؛ همسرش، پسرش را پیش او میآورد.؛ اما همسرش، با نیش ماری مسموم میشود.؛ «سدهرتها»، با آمدن پسر، خود را شاد مییابد.؛ ولی ناصبوری پسر، زندگی او و قایقران را بهم میزند.؛ آنگاه روزی پسر، پدر را به باد دشنام میگیرد، و کلبه را ترک میکند؛ «سدهرتها»، برای یافتن پسر، میخواهد از رود بگذرد.؛ رود به او میخندد.؛ او آواز و هزارآواز رود را میشنود.؛ به جنگل میرود، تا با ابدیت و وحدانیت جهان یکی شود.؛ در راه، دوستش «گوویندا» را، پیر و سالخورده میبیند.؛ با بوسه ای، او را از جاودانی و یگانگی جهان، باخبر میکند

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 28/05/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی ...more

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Dec 22, 2012 Sanjay Gautam rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It was the book I read it four years back. And to tell the truth I did not liked it much at the time. I thought this guy has written a book for western audience who are not familiar with the 'philosophy of karma and dharma', or rather, in general, the basic philosophy of India, who after reading it will realize something esoteric. And so it seemed to me a book containing wisdom that didn't touched me. And I finished it with the verdict: contains wisdom, but lacks depth, boring at times, and do n ...more

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Oct 23, 2012 Paquita Maria Sanchez rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

If I could turn back time*or perhaps pass through some portal which brings me face-to-face with my 14-year-old self, there are so many books I would recommend to little me, grabbing my shoulders to shake my malnourished frame and insisting that I get to reading them as soon as effin possible instead of waiting until I'm too old and cynical and hyper-critical to appreciate and relate to what they have to say. If this ever is/was the case, this time-warp, today I would probably see a lot more nove If I could turn back time*or perhaps pass through some portal which brings me face-to-face with my 14-year-old self, there are so many books I would recommend to little me, grabbing my shoulders to shake my malnourished frame and insisting that I get to reading them as soon as effin possible instead of waiting until I'm too old and cynical and hyper-critical to appreciate and relate to what they have to say. If this ever is/was the case, this time-warp, today I would probably see a lot more novels as earth-shattering and brain-splattering magic rather than, well, pretty good stuff that I interrupted much better reading over the last two days to absorb for no good reason save for the mild satisfaction of completing a task.

The main wrong idea I had about this novel--which had quite a bit to do with it taking so long for me to get around to reading it--is that it's specifically about the Buddha. (I don't have to explain the reason for that misconception, right? Cool, moving on.) I thought maybe it was like a biography or some sort of weird Hessian alt-history or, well...honestly, I didn't think about it very far beyond that, and even those assumptions were fuzzily formed and essentially microscopic. Fortunately, Hesse takes his novel in a much more engaging direction by focusing in on a formerly devout and self-restricting member of the Samana movement who falls in love with a real Playboy Bunny™ of a gal, a lusty little obsession which quickly moves him away from his faith and into her privates. Drugs, drink, gambling, greed, and fornication ensue for years. And years. And years. And years.

Some of you may be familiar with the place he eventually finds himself: remorse, self-hatred, what-if's, what if not's, physical illness, years of wasted time, obsessive reflection i.e. largely pointless yet still horrifyingly circular cap-D Dwelling, nothing to show for your indulgences, spiritually crushing and tooth-grinding depression, et mofuggin' cetera.

Was there still any kind of filth he had not soiled himself with, a sin or foolish act he had not committed, a dreariness of the soul he had not brought upon himself? Was it still at all possible to be alive?

A dark place, no doubt. Unfortunately, this is the point where the book I was at first mildly bored with and then fully engaged in suddenly became just really fucking irritating. Hesse takes the word-slash-concept "Om" and uses it as the ultimate--and probably shortest named--deus ex machina of all time in my personal brain library's dusty archives. After spending unnumbered decades living like Robery Downey Sheen, our protagonist sits by a river for, I dunno, a couple of minutes reciting "Om" before it just miraculously all comes back to him and he's all enlightened and at peace again and shit (this is not even remotely the end of the novel, so please don't spoiler-mark me out of spite). So wait, what? Not for nothin', but if I have even a mildly snaggle-toothed hangover, I practically require endless supplies of coffee and 800mg ibuprofen, an animal and/or person to cuddle with, liquid b12 drops, at least an entire season of some television drama to fall into, and various plush surfaces to flail about on as I frantically loop Stuart Smalley quotes in my head just to keep the demons at bay. Sure, I am not enlightened and I know I sound like a total wimp right now, especially compared to one so self-disciplined as a monk-type, but I'd say his story of basically spending half a lifetime dipped in chocolately booze pools with naked bodies slithering all around him while he passed the glass n' rolled up dollar bill around gives new meaning to the phrase "falling off the wagon." Then again, I guess being at one with the spiritual path could be sorta like riding a bike, maybe? I don't suppose my hair turns white from shock every time I hear about an Amish kid returning to his village après Rumspringa. Anyway, my point is that everything just happened so fast and I wasn't ready.

All this nitpicking makes it sound like I didn't like the book, even though I pretty much did. Trite as the whole "setting free the bird" image was (as in, one character literally sets free a bird on the day her lover decides to leave her because it's symbolic), my heartstrings did play a purdy song when Siddhartha and his gal split ways, and everything that happened after the whole Om Affair did snap me back into the story. I particularly dug the ending, as there was ambiguity in a lot of the right places, and the very last scene was quite lovely. Read it, young me. Read it right after you get the almanac back from Biff. Oh, and speaking of the almanac, you're definitely gonna want to hold on to that thing because, honey, let me tell you a little something about the world economy in the early 21st century...

*Haha, Cher's totally stuck in your head now. Sucker. ...more

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May 26, 2007 J.G. Keely rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: germany, novella, philosophy, reviewed, asia

By the latter part of the 19th Century, the colonial spread of European powers across the world was in full swing. The British ruled India and Australia and had gone to war with China to force opium on the population. Africa, South America, and the Philippines had been portioned out for Western rule and control of resources.

But tyranny does not travel only in one direction, from conqueror to subject. When Medieval European knights returned from the crusades, they brought with them mathematical p ...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Nandakishore Varma rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Most religions know of it as "Enlightenment" - when the individual transcends himself and sees himself as one with the ultimate reality. It can be theistic (the Aham Brahma Asmi - "I am the Brahman" or Tat Tvam Asi - "Thou Art That" of Hinduism) or atheistic (the Buddhist Nirvana, based on the Anatman - "non-soul"); but the person who achieves it, according to all sources, is caught up in profound rapture. To reach this stage, one has to tread an arduous path. Carl Gustav Jung called the process Most religions know of it as "Enlightenment" - when the individual transcends himself and sees himself as one with the ultimate reality. It can be theistic (the Aham Brahma Asmi - "I am the Brahman" or Tat Tvam Asi - "Thou Art That" of Hinduism) or atheistic (the Buddhist Nirvana, based on the Anatman - "non-soul"); but the person who achieves it, according to all sources, is caught up in profound rapture. To reach this stage, one has to tread an arduous path. Carl Gustav Jung called the process "individuation": Joseph Campbell called it "the hero's journey". Herman Hesse's eponymous protagonist of Siddhartha is a man who embarks on this enterprise.

Siddhartha, the handsome Brahmin youth who apparently has everything, is dissatisfied with life: with the whole pointlessness of it. He leaves home with his friend Govinda and joins a group of ascetics (the Samanas) who have made renunciation a way of life. However, the true seeker he is, Siddhartha finds that simple renunciation does not work for him: he joins the Buddha in pursuit of enlightenment. However, he soon understands that whatever knowledge he must possess, must be experiential.

Leaving Govinda to become a Buddhist ascetic, Siddhartha buries himself in the sensual world across the river, where Kamala the courtesan trains him up in the pleasures of the flesh and Kamaswami the merchant instructs him in the secrets of commerce. Siddhartha soon tires of these too: he returns to the river in penury (not knowing that his child is growing within Kamala), and is taken up by the aged boatman Vasudeva as a helper.

Here, ferrying people across the river, Siddhartha finally attains enlightenment - not from a great teacher, not from years of penanace and not even from the kindly Vasudeva (even though he points the way) - but from the river. Kamala's death and his son's abandonment of the stranger father completes his education, as distress turns to peace. Then it's time for Vasudeva, the mentor, to disappear - leaving his student alone with the river.

What the river told Siddhartha

The river flows, and becomes one with the ocean. The vapour from the ocean form into clouds, and descend on the mountains, becoming the river. The river keeps on flowing: it is inconstant, ever-renewing, never the same - yet it is eternal. The river flows, and the river is. On its surface, you can see the faces of all your loved ones: whether alive, dead or yet to be born. In the roar of the river, if you listen carefully, you can hear the sacred AUM - the first syllable outward, the second one inward, the third one silence...and the fourth one, the all encompassing silence which bears the sound of the cosmic ocean in its womb.

Highly recommended. ...more

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Apr 15, 2014 Himanshu rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Those looking for a quick spiritual tour

Shelves: to-re-read, reviewed, unforgettables

Has it ever happened to you that you are standing, facing a magnificent, breathtaking view, in solitude, and a strong wind hits you in the face? You try to stay still, with eyes closed and then an involuntary smile comes across your face? This book was like that.

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Nov 02, 2007 John rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I taught this book to juniors, and when I did I became frustrated with a student when I introduced it, because he let his classmates know that he'd already read it and it sucked. I'm happy to report, now that we've finished it, that his comments didn't seem to hurt the class's opinion of the book too badly. In fact, that student himself said it was pretty good and that he'd only skimmed it the last time he read it. Lousy kids.... Another student said it was his favorite book that we'd read so fa I taught this book to juniors, and when I did I became frustrated with a student when I introduced it, because he let his classmates know that he'd already read it and it sucked. I'm happy to report, now that we've finished it, that his comments didn't seem to hurt the class's opinion of the book too badly. In fact, that student himself said it was pretty good and that he'd only skimmed it the last time he read it. Lousy kids.... Another student said it was his favorite book that we'd read so far. And that it made him want to quit school and start living. I guess that's praise for the book...

The book is divided pretty neatly into thirds, and that's how we broke it up as a class. The first third is the main character (who is a contemporary of Siddhartha Gotama, the Buddha) as a youth; he is smart and talented and loved by all. He's a prodigy in all things intellectual and religious, but he's not satisfied, he's not happy. So he ends up pursuing a spiritual path through extreme self-deprivation. This part is easy enough for my students, as they're young themselves, and part of Siddhartha's growing up is leaving home and striking out on his own path. They're really (I hope) in much the same circumstance, starting to find a path for themselves that may be independent from their parents.

The second portion of the novel is harder. Siddhartha gives up his ascetic way of life and now indulges in all the pleasures he formerly eschewed. He learns all about sex from a courtesan, he becomes a wealthy businessman, eventually he becomes a conoisseur of fine food and wine, and a heavy gambler to boot. He loses himself in this life and eventually realizes how unhappy he is. His religious training, of course, always told him that these things were worthless, and he finds that these comforts do not, in fact, make him happy. I figured the students would find this far harder to relate to than I did, but as so often I am, I was wrong. By and large, they seemed to like this section as well as--or better than--the first. Maybe it was all the sex (not that it was even remotely graphic), even though they didn't actually know what a courtesan is. Many of them come from wealthy backgrounds, so maybe they have first-hand experience (sort of) in the ways that wealth isn't really satisfying. Or maybe they've just heard that over and over in our culture, that money doesn't buy happiness. Anyway, they seemed to like it well enough.

The third section was almost certainly a harder sell. It was hard for me to sell myself on it! But Siddhartha leaves his life of luxury, nearly commits suicide over his unhappiness, and ends up becoming a simple (or not-so-simple) ferryman on a river. This section is far more full of more-or-less eastern (a touch of curry: it's eastern-flavored, with strong hints of Nietzsche as well) thought and spirituality. It's tougher to really understand or get into, though the essence isn't that hard: you have to experience things for yourself, and real wisdom can be the result of this experience, but it's not really possible to communicate that wisdom. That's your Reader's Digest condesnsed version, which I shouldn't even give because it's necessarily a distortion. Read the book if you want to know it. Anyway, to round out my discussion of class discussion, I think the momentum from the earlier parts of the book carried us through, as they seemed to like the book as a whole and liked even the more dense third section as well. ...more

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Jul 14, 2020 Greta rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: best-reviews, classics

The Hippy version of „The Alchemist”

The book summed up in a picture

In 1922 the German novelist Hermann Hesse published an allegorical tale playing in India, when Buddha was still around. His main character is Siddhartha, who searches for total spiritual enlightenment. Doing so he experiments with different teachers and religions, as well as material striving, to approach Nirvana. When those teachings prove unsatisfactory, he turns his search inwards, achieving total spiritual understanding.

Main ...more

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Aug 12, 2018 Matthew rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018, hoopla, audio, library, classic, spiritual

For years, and when I say years it is actually more like decades, I have seen this classic book from time to time but I have never read it. It's not a very long book, but I just never took the time to try it out. One of my Goodreads groups is reading it this month, so I figured that now is as good a time as any to give it a go.

I decided to listen to it and it kind of felt like I was listening to a story around the campfire. The biggest thing it reminded me of was when I was a kid at the museum ...more

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Nov 15, 2011 William2 rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: germany, 20-ce, fiction, translation

Set on the Gangetic Plain some 2,600 years ago, Siddhartha is about one man's search for enlightenment. Siddhartha, son of a Brahmin, even in the presence of Gautama Buddha himself, is unable to find a way if it depends on the teachings of others. There is, Siddhartha comes to believe, no single illuminated path for all men and women to follow. We must each of us make our own mistakes. We must all suffer, and no warning against it will ever help us. For to live some kind of bizarre life of comfo ...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Fabian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Uber popular & widely read in high schools & colleges all over the US, there is a goldmine of true, deep (om... indescribable?) philosophy in Siddhartha—a constant string of meditation & a neverending search through a thick forest of abstraction. The world is Westernized by the wise writer, and his easy prose is easy to follow, although the concepts take a while to sink in (I mean, how can a person really be devoid of love? How can possessions, even the indispensable ones, be so discardable? How ...more

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Mar 20, 2017 Jokoloyo rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Lately, even before I read this book, I was noticing some book opinion that "I-would-like-this-book-better-at-my-younger-age", especially Cecily's review about The Alchemist that I couldn't agree more. I cannot help myself comparing this book with The Alchemist, although Siddharta is the better one. I believe if I read this ten years ago, I could appreciate more about the plot. But there is a Catch-22 situation: ten years ago, I don't know enough to appreciate the Vedic jargons on the book.

The ...more

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Jan 12, 2021 Fergus rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Hesse never really made the grade with this one in my young mind. I read it in 1973, and found it compounded my youthful confusion. Simply put, it conflicted jarringly with an insight I had been blessed - or cursed - with three years earlier.

That insight was that the purity of Being is insulted by our widespread profligacy.

Call it ontological if you prefer, but following Heidegger I saw the Crown of Being as the very germ and goal of a spiritual quest.

Stephane Mallarme spins an imaginative simi ...more

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Aug 28, 2015 Jonathan Ashleigh rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: recent

Hermann Hesse writes as though his words are god's perspective, but I don't believe in god... And, for the most part, I think god is boring. I believe most people like this book because they think they will look dumb if they don't. ...more

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May 23, 2010 Dan Schwent rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, oldies

Siddhartha rejects his life as a Brahman's son and goes out into the world in a quest for enlightenment, to live as an ascetic. After meeting Buddha, Siddhartha rejects the ascetic life for a more material one, the life of a merchant, learning the ways of love from a courtesan, and in time leaves that life behind as well. Will Siddhartha ever find what he is looking for?

Normally, a Nobel prize winning book wouldn't get a second look from me. I'm more into people getting pistol whipped and big mo ...more

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Jun 27, 2014 Duane rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014-book-challenge, german, rated-books, reviewed-books

What is the meaning of life? I don't know, and you're not going to find the answer in this book, although I've read some reviews of readers who claim it changed their lives, so there you go. ...more

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Jul 05, 2020 Lea rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: faith-spirituality, fiction, philosophy, psychology-psychotherapy, ebook, classic, recommended

“Your soul is the whole world”

A lot of people for the longest time recommended me this book. I have to say I’m slightly disappointed with the experience of reading it, maybe because my expectations were so high, as all of the wise and profound people I know seem to admire it. When I was younger (high school) I’ve read Steppenwolf and I was in complete awe of Hesse’s writing, and I regarded him as one of most sagacious writers I’ve ever come across. Later on (in college) I attempted to read The G ...more

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Nov 17, 2008 Sheila rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

When I edited my high school newspaper, we produced a popular feature called “Phot-O-pinion” where we asked a question about a (sometimes) pressing topic, quoted the student or teacher and snapped their pic. For one issue, at the suggestion of my journalism teacher, I asked teachers to name a book that changed their lives. I can’t remember all the responses, but without hesitation, one teacher told me, “Siddhartha, because it showed me a completely different perspective on life.”

A few months lat When I edited my high school newspaper, we produced a popular feature called “Phot-O-pinion” where we asked a question about a (sometimes) pressing topic, quoted the student or teacher and snapped their pic. For one issue, at the suggestion of my journalism teacher, I asked teachers to name a book that changed their lives. I can’t remember all the responses, but without hesitation, one teacher told me, “Siddhartha, because it showed me a completely different perspective on life.”

A few months later, one of my favorite teachers passed out a few books for everyone on the last day of English class. “You should read these books at least once in your life,” she said. She passed out Confessions of An English Opium-Eater by Thomas DeQuincey, The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, Civil War Poetry and Prose by Walt Whitman, Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche and Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.

I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t read all of them just yet, but I finally got around to picking up Siddhartha and, well, it ended up changing my life. I think if I read this after my high school graduation I would have stopped after a certain page. I think if I read this on some breaks from college I would have tired of some of its overwrought philosophical pretenses. But for various reasons, now was the right time for me to read it. I don’t want to go into detail why it changed my life because the beauty of the book is that you can take what you want from it. I wouldn’t have learned anything from the book if I tell you exactly why it changed my life. I won’t be giving up every single material possession I own after reading this book, but I will be thinking differently about what really matters in life and how to deal with (and ultimately transcend/learn from) disappointment, rejection, and anything else that makes life suck sometimes.

A quote from one of my favorite passages:

“At times he heard within him a soft, gentle voice, which reminded him quietly, complained quietly, so that he could hardly hear it. Then he suddenly saw clearly that he was leading a strange life, that he was doing many things that were only a game, that he was quite cheerful and sometimes experienced pleasure, but that real life was flowing past him and did not touch him.” ...more

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Nov 07, 2013 Megha rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: just-like-that

Old pre-read review

Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are ...more

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Mar 11, 2018 Glenn Sumi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, not-usa-can-uk, nobel-winners, 1900-1960

Hermann Hesse’s 1922 book feels absolutely timeless and ageless – almost like a religious or spiritual text, not a work of fiction.

It’s about the lifelong journey of Siddhartha, a Brahmin’s son who leaves the comfort and intellectual stimulation of his home life to become a wandering ascetic, renouncing all possessions. After meeting the famous Buddha, Gautama, he realizes he wants or needs more, and so crosses a river with the help of a ferryman (who lets him ride for free - saying he’ll be ba ...more

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Jan 01, 2009 Matthieu rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Eh.

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Aug 27, 2018 Nat K rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-books, spirituality-religion-philosophy

"Nothing was and nothing will be: everything is, and everything is present and has existence."

I feel strangely ambivalent towards this book. I neither liked nor disliked it. I read it, but can’t say it affected me at a deeper level. Siddhartha decides to seek enlightenment via practicing asceticism**.

I can’t pretend to begin to understand the need for this at all. Siddartha does this for several years; he freezes in the icy rain, he doesn’t sleep, he feels immense hunger. His mind and body are ...more

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Jun 08, 2018 Montzalee Wittmann rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Siddhartha
By: Hermann Hesse
Narrated by: Christopher Preece
This is an audible book I requested and the review is voluntary.
This is the first time I actually understand this book. I have read this book before a few times but it is a difficult book to read. For me, it is hard to stay focused and follow what is going on at times. With this audible book, with this narrator, I finally got the flow of the book! That's a big plus. Once I understood the basics of what was going on, I understood more. Do ...more

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Mar 28, 2018 Χαρά Ζ. rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

**Siddharta**

My love for Hesse grows with each book. I fell completely helpless while reading it, i wanted to cry, i felt lighter, i kept thinking about my life, i kept thinking about Siddharta's life. This is spiritual, honest, beautiful, balanced, unique in every way. This is a book about a boy trying to find out who he is, this is a book about sins and regrets and sacred thoughts and sacred acts of love and kindness and sacred acts of hatred. I loved this, adored this, felt along with this. I ...more

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Jun 23, 2013 Florencia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: religions-myths-and-other-stories, german-austrian, philosophyland

* There may be a little spoiler *

The time: an old one. The place: India.
There's this guy named Siddhartha, who was everyone's love and joy. A wise and decent young man who inspired everyone around him, but himself. He was not content with his life and everything around it, spiritually speaking. He felt it was not enough. And why wasn't it enough? I don't know, but it is in human nature to wonder about the essence of things, like the existence of God, of any god. He was in a better position, tho ...more

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Mar 18, 2017 Samra Yusuf rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nobel-writers

How happy we are with the life we are so busy in living?
And how busy we are in thinking all other worldly doings than life itself….
And here Hermann’s Sidhartha points a score over us.
When we look back into years that have passed, the moments that are gone, the memories fading away swiftly, and new ones forming in their place with equal swift, what all these counts are wanting is the incidence of inner-peace. It might be there, ensnared, crumpled, and terse but we never partook the uttermost sens How happy we are with the life we are so busy in living?
And how busy we are in thinking all other worldly doings than life itself….
And here Hermann’s Sidhartha points a score over us.
When we look back into years that have passed, the moments that are gone, the memories fading away swiftly, and new ones forming in their place with equal swift, what all these counts are wanting is the incidence of inner-peace. It might be there, ensnared, crumpled, and terse but we never partook the uttermost sense of being at peace...did we?
The novella drags along three main themes, of enlightenment, inner-peace and Love..
Sidhartha is never at peace with heart, continually in search of enlightenment and always in midst of loved-or-not-loved. His transformative journeys from a Hindu to ascetic to Samana to Buddhist to ferry man and a man-enlightened Is encapsulated with such brilliance and precision that nothing is left untouched neither is said unnecessary.
Hermann proves to be annoying at certain moments no doubt, the immaturities of Sidhartha’s resolves, the allegedly high claims of him to be superior over others, the insatiable quest of something apparently of no existence and unnecessary philosophy-loaded dialogues of every other person are just tainting the sheer beauty of rhetoric.
coming toward the essential philosophy preached in whole story,
Siddhartha proposes that one must find “unity” in all of the world: “And all of the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world.” (135)
This approach completely dismisses the reality that life is of constant conflict and one’s goal should be to struggle against injustice – rather than ignoring it. This philosophy inherently teaches passivity, which is dangerous and destructive. Sure Siddhartha may have achieved peace next to the river, but the merchant continued to rob, the elites continued to exploit, and the poor continued to go hungry. In this light, Siddhartha’s world outlook is both naïve and hardly instrumentive to bringing about a better world.
The world we can make a better place to live in, better than some imaginary eternal happy fields, and better than the scriptures proposes it to be...

...more

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May 02, 2011 Jessaka rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy, my-college-years, 60s-culture, buddhism

Siddhartha was a seeker, but at one time he was into materialism, hedonistic living. Perhaps, that too, was seeking. Then he heard about enlightenment and wanted it, so he believed that becoming a Buddhist was the way.

I was once a seeker. I was first a Christian, then an atheist, next a Buddhist, a Neo-Hindu, a Unitarian Universalist, and now I just have a few beliefs, mostly Native American.

I liked the ending of Siddharta's life best, where he was a ferryman. It felt like he, too, gave up his ...more

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About Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse

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Hermann Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize for 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.

In his time, Hesse was a popular and influential author in the German-speaking world; worldwide fame only c ...more

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Quotes from Siddhartha

“Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.” — 1957 likes

“When someone seeks," said Siddhartha, "then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.” — 1268 likes

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