Siddharta

144 pages

English language

Published Sept. 23, 2008

ISBN:
978-0-14-118957-4
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4 stars (3 reviews)

Hermann Hesse wrote Siddhartha after he traveled to India in the 1910s. It tells the story of a young boy who travels the country in a quest for spiritual enlightenment in the time of Guatama Buddha. It is a compact, lyrical work, which reads like an allegory about the finding of wisdom.

28 editions

reviewed Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

I wished I enjoyed reading it but it was quite disturbing

2 stars

Kind of fine, and of course a classic in its genre.

But I definitely didn't enjoy the reading with a very slow, nonchalant style, that I recognize in literature following spiritual mentors in their different endeavors.

What was definitely off for me was being plunged into this close world of wise men, whose majority of interactions and evocation of women are systematically related to their beauty (or a wisdom related to beauty), attractive physical appearance, wish for kisses and astonishment at their nice breasts/symbols of fertility or femininity. Nothing wrong with appreciating this in people but come on...

Life is short and there are definitely other books I want to get inspired by in 2024.

I can see many people enjoyed the book, and that is good for them. But if you can expect to be bothered by the same things as me, and you haven't started the book yet, …

3.5

4 stars

Fourth read into Hesse and I can confidently say there’s a schema common to everything he writes. All I can do is marvel at the fact his reused ‘wander to find yourself’ bit has not once bored me. That being said, this is still no GBG or N&G.

avatar for lilith@books.theunseen.city

rated it

5 stars