Emil Sinclair boasts of a theft that he has not committed and subsequently finds himself blackmailed by a bully. He turns to Max Demian, in whom he finds a friend and spiritual mentor.

This strangely self-possessed figure is able to lure him out of his ordinary home-life and convince him of an alternative to the world of corruption and evil.

Published shortly after the First World War and before Siddharta and Steppenwolf, Demian marks a significant turning point in Hesse's literary career. It is the first time Hermann Hesse used the novel overtly as a means to explore ideas of the self, the meaning and purpose of existence, as well as his own ideas and interpretations of theosophy and Eastern Philosophy. As such it is ranked among the finest of his works.

Translated from the German by W.J. Strachan

‘Beautifully written, it has a seriousness as compelling as as that of The Waste Land . . . the work of a major writer.’ – Observer

‘One can neither date nor doubt the sincerity of the hero’s search for satisfaction or the quality of the spirit that lies behind it.’ – Times Literary Supplement

‘Hesse’s style is individual and his view of the world strikingly original.’ – Sunday Telegraph

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HERMANN HESSE (1877-1963) is counted among the leading thinkers of the twentieth century. Born in Germany and raised in a Black Forest town, he rebelled against a stern monastic education, he worked as a locksmith and a bookseller before embarking on a 65-year writing career. Having traveled as far as India, he settled in Switzerland in 1911 in opposition to German militarism. Awarded the Nobel Prize in 1946, he died in 1963 aged eighty-five