pwh@gatech.UUCP (08/22/83)
In my humble opinion, Siddhartha is a wonderful, short, tight, allegorical
pastry of a book and one of Hesse's (pronounced Hess-ah, like yessuh if you're
from the South) best. Journey to the East is also a fine work; especially
poignant for Youth in Search of Fulfillment (like me!).
I hear that the The Glass Bead is very good too but can't give you first
hand experience on that one.
Stay mystical,
phil hutto
CSNET pwh@gatech INTERNET pwh.gatech@udel-relay
UUCP ...!{allegra, sb1, ut-ngp, duke!mcnc!msdc}!gatech!pwheric@aplvax.UUCP (08/23/83)
I have enjoyed both "Magister Ludi" (sp?) and "Narcissus and Goldman". It has been some time since I have read each, so I really don't have a critique, but I seem to remember both of them as being thought-provoking, and I prefered both to "Siddhartha" and "Beneath the Wheel". The latter, by the way, is great reading for high school students, being the trials and tribulations of a student. eric ...!seismo!umcp-cs!aplvax!eric
hanss@microsoft.UUCP (Hans Spiller) (08/24/83)
I have read most of Hesse's work--'The Glass Bead Game' is unquestionably
his best. Obviously my opinion, but the people that give Nobel prizes
in literature agree. Hesse said it was the synthesis of everything he
tried to say in all his other books. It certainly says a lot about a
lot of things. It is also published as 'Magister Ludi', but I can't
imagine anybody that understands the point of the book and catches the
double entendre that the 'The Glass Bead Game' is, calling it anything
else. The book is filled with such things, and impressively a lot of
them work (like the title) even after translation. Anybody else catch
'Sinicism' (sp), referring to the study of China by jaded scholars?
The glass bead game, if you were wondering, is about academia. So is
much of the rest of the book.
I am a slow reader, and it is fairly big (~~500 pages) and demands more
attention than some of his lighter stuff. Nevertheless, I read it in a
single sitting, if you don't count catnaps.
-Hans Spiller
{decvax,uw-beaver}!microsoft!hanssdjo@sdchema.UUCP (Denise O'jibway) (08/24/83)
Magister Ludi or The Glass Bead Game is one of my all time favorite books and by far my favorite by Hesse. The scope of the novel is broad yet it is rich in detail. I find it hard to describe. It is the story of one man's life and his involvement with the "Ultimate University". This is one of those books that I did not want to end and now I reread it every so often because it just gets better.
randy@umcp-cs.UUCP (08/27/83)
To me, "Magister Ludi/The Glass Bead Game" is the logical extension of the earlier "Siddhartha" (sp?), "Narcissus", etc. At one point, I went on a binge, reading every Hesse I could get my hands on. All are of a piece except for "Steppenwolf", a truly unique book. This is one of the few novels that keeps haunting me. For example, it contains one of the most intriguing pieces on humans and laughter that I've ever seen. -- Randy Trigg ...!seismo!umcp-cs!randy (Usenet) randy.umcp-cs@udel-relay (Arpanet)