Steppenwolf: A Novel (Picador Modern Classics)

This is a very interesting book about the Steppenwolf, a man who believes himself to be half Harry and half wolf.It is a gripping story filled with unexpected strange incidents and fantastic characters.

I purchased the Picador Modern Classic edition; and am very pleased with it. These editions are compact hardback books - smaller than the average paperback. The print may be too small for some, but I haven't struggled with reading it; and due to the size of these editions, they are easy to carry and read anywhere.

PLEASE make sure you read the description of the size. This book is ridiculously small and fat which completely ruins the reading experience. An absolute shame considering the genius of this work. DO NOT read in this size it is uncomfortable, ugly and insulting towards the work of Hesse. I was going to give this to a friend as a gift but I was forced order a new one as soon as I saw it. What an awful format. No space to highlight or write around either. Do NOT buy.

Don't wait for a plot or any driving narrative, this piece of classic literature makes you work for meaning. Strangely satisfying.

Very clearly this book is a classic for a reason. In my opinion it speaks great honesty about 'anomie', as Emile Durkheim would put it, and the human condition. Some really sage lessons for all manner of people here, but for intellectuals of a melancholic and misanthropic sentiment then this book must be read. It will not bring hope, but it may bring acceptance, and that's valuable.

Hesse was fifty when he wrote this book and to me that's the key. The main character, Harry Haller is approaching fifty and is going through a crisis in his life, hence this is not the stuff for college kids to read as they apparently did back in the 1960s. How could a twenty-five year old possibly understand the problems of a fifty year old???Harry was, in my opinion, suffering from depression; in the author's note written in 1961, Hesse states that this is a story of "a disease and crisis" and ultimately a healing. Harry Haller did not feel that he fit in with society, he felt contempt for life and for bourgeois society, for the modern world. His safety valve was his razor, the knowledge that he could commit suicide whenever he wanted. Bring it on life! The emergency door is always open!What happened next is open to debate. How much of what Harry experiences after meeting Hermine (was she real?) and Maria and Pablo - how much of all that was real to Harry? I have no idea. Reading this book was a wonderful experience despite the ups and downs, but I don't claim to fully understand it. Kinda like life, I guess.