Siddhartha

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Siddhartha (1981)

152 pages

Published Nov. 6, 1981

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4 stars (3 reviews)

Siddhartha: An Indian novel (German: Siddhartha: Eine Indische Dichtung; German: [ziˈdaʁta] (listen)) is a 1922 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 9th novel, was written in German, in a simple, lyrical style. It was published in the U.S. in 1951 and became influential during the 1960s. Hesse dedicated the first part of it to Romain Rolland and the second part to Wilhelm Gundert, his cousin. The word Siddhartha is made up of two words in Sanskrit language, siddha (achieved) + artha (what was searched for), which together means "he who has found meaning (of existence)" or "he who has attained his goals". In fact, the Buddha's own name, before his renunciation, was Siddhartha Gautama, prince of Kapilavastu. In this book, the Buddha is referred to as "Gotama".

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, …

reviewed Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

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