Steppenwolf

Written by Hermann Hesse

Narrated by Peter Weller

Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine. With its blend of Eastern mysticism and Western culture, Hesse's best-known and most autobiographical work, originally published in English in 1929, Steppenwolf continues to speak to our souls and marks it as a classic of modern literature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Apr 15, 2008
• ISBN: 9781602833753

Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse was born in 1877. His books include Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Goldmund, and Magister Ludi. He died in 1962.

Reviews for Steppenwolf

[zottel-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Nach 25 Jahren habe ich das Buch wieder gelesen – und habe es völlig anders wahrgenommen als damals.Als Teenager war ich völlig fasziniert, teilte Hallers Weltverachtung, fühlte mich selbst als Steppenwolf und las begierig und staunend die mystischen Anteile, fand dort ungeheure Weisheit. Heute kommen mir die antibürgerlichen Aspekte etwas zu theatralisch vor, und Weisheit und Faszination finde ich weniger im magischen Theater (obwohl es mich weiterhin begeisterte) als in der Lebensweisheit Hermines, im Weg des Steppenwolfs heraus aus Eigenbrötlerei und Vereinsamung: Das Ganzwerden, das er zum Ende des Buches längst nicht vervollständigt hat, das Gesundwerden trotz Verzweiflung an der Menschheit, der Humor.Auch wenn ich die Geschichte vom Steppenwolf heute bei weitem nicht mehr so vergöttere wie damals: Ein Erlebnis bleibt sie allemal. Unbedingte Empfehlung!

[charlie68_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A strange narrative with strange forebodings and odd ending. Still not sure what it is about, writing's good though.

[jonfaith · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was meaningful in my early 20s; I don't have any inclination for a reread.

[schmerguls · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

1179. Steppenwolf, by Hermann Hesse (4 Aug 1972) This was also a Hesse work which I did not appreciate.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Bevreemdend verhaal, vooral het slot, ligt in de lijn van absurd theater. Gaat vooral over midlifecrisis en strijd tegen burgerlijkheid. 3 perspectieven, dus aansluiting bij modernisme.

[maxernst11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Bevreemdend verhaal, vooral het slot, ligt in de lijn van absurd theater. Gaat vooral over midlifecrisis en strijd tegen burgerlijkheid. 3 perspectieven, dus aansluiting bij modernisme.

[bzbooks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The title of this novel by Hermann Hesse refers to the main character, Harry Haller, who is described at first as an individual that is caught between two extremes, surrender to god or asceticism depicted by a man and surrender to physical corruption or lust depicted by the wolf.
Haller, having been raised in a comfortable bourgeoisie existence, finds himself unable to fully surrender to either side yet hateful of the lukewarm middle state of his origin. He is brought to the verge of suicide by the conflict but feels there must be more to life and determines to
explore it fully before his end despite the pain.

Hesse then introduces the notion that all men are more than a single or even dual nature but are instead the combination of a great many souls and that the integration of these parts is the path to unity. He makes the point that the goal is to expand to incorporate all these selves not to collapse these selves into a single entity.

Through his interaction with the characters of Hermine, Maria, and Pable, Haller explores this idea and Hesse's conception of individuals whom he terms "immortals" which seem to represent the type of life that one should aim for to reach this unity. Such individuals strive for greatness and immortality through self expression even though they are not rewarded in life or even interested in money or fame. The self expression lives on after death so they never truly die. He provides the examples of Mozart and his music.

[haidji-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[allgenresbookworm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When I first tried to read this in my early twenties, I had a dreadful time with it and abandoned it early on as I did not have the life experience to fully understand what Hermann Hesse was writing about. Now, almost twenty years later, I am transfixed and can identify with Harry Haller. Not an easy read and parts still went over my head but a must read none the less! We are all in some aspect The Steppenwolf. Hermann Hesse has created another brilliant novel.

[amelia_smith-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this book a long time ago, as a teenager, and thought it was the best thing ever. Re-reading it in my 20s, I could see where people felt it was a bit juvenile, but still it really hit the spot back then.

[gmillar_8 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

What a load of pretentious intellectual masturbation in far too many words. The reader didn't help either. I couldn't get past the first disc.

[booksfordinner · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautiful Herman Hesse. One of my all-timers. I think I'll go blow my brains out now.

[questbird · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The tale of a man in his fifties who has reached a nadir in his life, a point of despair, from which the only exit is death or transformation of life. He undergoes a number of experiences to effect this transformation. This is the second Hesse book I've read (The Glass Bead Game was the other). His writing is earnest, but clear, and his concern is life and how it should be lived.

[trilliams · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure if Steppenwolf is me in 25 years or me now. I am sure, though, that this book is amazing. For madmen only.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An important book to many, but the dream images were too insubstantial to really grab me.

[dinadansfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The sinister wolf of European legend is the metaphor used by this existential tale with an alienated central character. A good novel for young men who are seeking an identity in the distant, electronic world we now inhabit. My favourite Hesse novel.

[imaginationzombie · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Hope pulled through despair like a thread on a needle... life is for madman only, indeed. This book is surreal, entertaining, as well as nourishing. Just excellent.

[jvioland_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Disappointing. I had expected a better work from Hesse.

[william345 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The novel starts well with a preface by the young man of the house where the Steppenwolf (Harry Haller) is lodging, but then bogs down in a long disquisition on Harry's suffering called "The Treatise on the Steppenwolf." I found these pages turgid and thought they might easily be skipped. It's not until Harry enters a dance hall around page 95 that we meet Hermine, who becomes a matriarchal-figure for him; Maria, who becomes his lover; and Pablo, the impresario who leads the band and become's Harry's drug supplier. Hermine and Harry are soul mates with a death wish. They do not see the possibility of peace in this world, but only after death, which is supposed to bring them release and fulfillment. The culmination of the book is a great ball where Harry dances until dawn and the subsequent psychedelic drug fest known as The Magic Theater--For Madmen Only. I can see why the novel was so popular during the 1960s. There is liberal guiltless consumption of street drugs, mind-blowing sex (straight), cross dressing, and passages in the so-called Magic Theater where Harry is clearly tripping. The book is a novel of ideas and it is a strange freestyle combination of Buddhism and Christianity that informs its spiritual quest. Read this roman philosophique, at least its first hundred pages, as a period piece. The material of the first half to my mind does not transcend its time of its composition, the mid-1920s, i.e. decadent Weimar Germany. In these early pages author Hesse is taken up with a number of ideas: Freudian psychoanalysis; Decartesian mind-body "dualism"; Jungian archetypes and the collective unconcious; Einstein's theory of relativity; everything Nietszche; and a lot of literature in which the double or doppleganger runs amok. (Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson are some English-language examples). But then we get to page 95. Thank God.

[reichec · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Erroneously described as a “poetic” work, Steppenwolf would sit more aptly in the genre of fantasy writing. It is a kind of Bildungsroman for the middle-aged, detailing one man’s journey from suicidal despair to existential enlightenment via a series of unbelievable relationships and events.First published in Germany in 1927, it is intriguing that in much later editions the author felt compelled to include an explanatory note, penned in 1961, apparently in an attempt to address the “misunderstandings” about his work. Yet Hesse’s note is little more explicit in meaning than the text of the novel. Its greatest asset is for the exhortation, “May everyone find in it what strikes a chord in him and is of some use to him!”, a suggestion that could easily be inserted below the copyright statement of any novel.Be that as it may, there is plenty in Steppenwolf to strike a chord with the reader, particularly the early stages of the narrator (and self-styled “Steppenwolf”) Harry Haller’s own account and his discovery of a “Treatise on the Steppenwolf”. It intimately examines themes of alienation, suicide, intellectualism and the nature of the personality.Harry sets himself, and all other intellectuals, apart from the “bourgeoisie”, even suggesting that intellectuals are “a superfluous, irresponsible lot of talented chatterboxes for whom reality had no meaning”. Moments like these and the mode of Harry’s later redemption carry the appearance of the anti-intellectualism prevalent in 21st century politics. Yet paradoxically, Steppenwolf is littered with intellectual conceit, relying heavily on an assumed familiarity with the works of Goethe and Mozart.The latter half of the book chronicles Harry’s escape from ennui through a carnival of bars, belles and balls, and concludes with a sequence of experiences in a kind of theatre of the mind, in which he relives and improves upon his youthful fantasies. This final stage was irritating and distracting. If it was the author’s intention to offer an alternative to existential despair, he would have done better to inject it with a little more realism.Also irritating was the method of Harry’s rescue from despair by the temptress Hermine and her associates, aided by Harry’s mindless compliance. Harry’s redemption would have been far more satisfying if he had found the means and motivation within himself.In spite of these irritations and Hesse’s bouts of self-indulgence, this is a book rich with ideas and a fascinating vehicle for self-reflection. While the text itself is largely humorless, the author’s suggestion that humour is the key to coming to terms with the world is tantalising, although finding humour on the brink of despair is likely to be difficult. Ultimately, Steppenwolf is a parable that it is never too late to turn your life around and, through personal growth and learning, find hope and new meaning in the world.

[miaculpa-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well, that was an unexpected read. I read this because it was one of those classic novels that you can tell people that you've read and make you sound intelligent and well-read (that's the theory anyway). "Steppenwolf" starts very, very slowly and more than once I was tempted to cast it aside and read a cricket book instead. However I persevered and (spoiler alert) found the ending strange and incomprehensible.

[b.masonjudy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Steppenwolf came at the right time. Harry Heller's manuscript explicates the struggle to live in the tension between the finite and eternity without falling back on platitudes, rather acknowledging the multiplicity of experience and the ease of death versus the struggle to live. In fact, it seems to me that this manuscript could only end with a phantasmagoric episode that leaves as many questions as answers. It's the pursuit of those questions that has tremendous value.

[corinnet-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

An example of a great inner conflict, where the civilized side of Harry Haller is in direct clash with the primitive wolf inside him, bringing him at times close to peril. The powerful Hermine reconciles the two sides a bit when she teaches him to dance, but then also deepens his conflict in regard to his relation with Maria and Pablo. A bit suffocating, but a potent drama, with clear influences from Carl Gustave Jung’s vision in action.

[achromatic-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It’s no Glass Bead Game or Siddhartha, or at least it didn’t apply to me as much; though - it is a self acknowledged novel about being an ageing man. Basically, I understand why it was alt- popular, but really I think the magic theater scene at the end could have been tied into the rest of the story better and it would have been a much better read.

Tldr: a depressed academic guy who had disconnected from the world meets a depressed hedonistic girl and they learn from each other. It’s more than that but you get the idea.

Herman Hesse anticipates the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope? Yeah, I’ll shut up

[flydodofly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

30 Jahre später lese ich das Buch wieder - ich kann es mir kaum vorstellen - was habe ich damals darüber gedacht? Was hätte ich überhaupt denken können? Leider ist die Erinnerung weg. Ich verstehe und spüre jetzt die Stimmung und die Idee ziemlich genau, da ich bald 50 werde. Das Lesen hat mir große Freude bereitet, insbesondere weil ich im Original lesen könnte. Ich habe ein Bibliotheksexemplar gelesen, habe mir aber jetzt eins bestellt, es ist so ein Buch das man zuhause haben möchte. Es strahlt Ideen und kann immer wieder genommen und gelesen werden.

[shanaqui_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I don't know if anyone else has this, but when I graduated with my English lit degree I thought, right. I've done it. I have in my hands the key to any text, anywhere, and damn it I will appreciate every text for something about it, whether it be the brilliance of the writing or the social context or just having fun ripping it apart. And then I got onto my MA and discovered I was wrong, of course, that I could still find any given book stultifyingly boring regardless of any merit I tried to find within its pages. I'm looking at you, Mists of Avalon.

Well, yeah. That's me and Steppenwolf, too. It's a good chunk of I-don't-get-it -- I mean, I understand Hermann Hesse's intentions and all that, but maybe he's right that I'm too young for it. The prose is just boring, which might be partly the translator's fault (my edition is ancient and does not name the translator). Well, actually, I found the content kind of boring, too. Yep, even the drugs and sex and so on.

So. Chalk that down to a one-star due to not-for-me.

[kirstiecat · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've read a few of Hesse's novels and I keep coming back to Steppenwolf time and time again. It's not as if books like Demian and Beneath the Wheel aren't worthwhile, either. It's just that there is something so grabbing and memorable about Steppenwolf. I was truly changed after I read this and I can't really say that for the majority of the books I've read.

One thing I think Hesse was obsessed with a little is the duality of life-the light and the dark side. Steppenwolf takes you to some dark carnival like dreams and forces you to see that life is incredibly complex. Someone like Hesse cannot live a simple life. He sees both and so do his protagonists. They all go through similar issues, temptations, even vices. There's a theme running through them that goes beyond good and evil...this is much more at the heart of the Earth's revolving center. Though I haven't yet read everything that Hesse has written, I'm pretty sure that nowhere has he developed this theme better than in Steppenwolf. It isn't just the characters that he gains a handle on but also his ideas overall.


It affected my dreams and my waking life. It changed the way I saw life and the world. There is an undercurrent to this tide that some resist and ignore. Others fall in love with it instead.

[k_fox_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Many a contemporary book has used a similar premise of the mysteriously signed doorway. A hugely intriging novel, entering into mind, matter & finally a masquerade.

[florasuncle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

At last, 35 years after the event, I get round to reading this cult novel of the 60s. If I’d read it when I was 15 it would have blown me away, but I think - for me - its time is well passed now.

[mic1836 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Der deutsche Paul Coelho vermied kontroverse Standpunkte und trotzdem wurde dieses Buch in den 60ern zu einem Rebellen- oder Individualistenroman hochstilisiert. Der Soundtrack zum Kultfilm "Easy Rider" tat wohl sein übriges. Dabei werden hier keine heiligen Kühe geschlachtet. Der Protagonist greift oberflächlich die üblichen Verdächtigen an, Journalisten, Philister, Mitläufer, Spießer. Diese Entrüstung bleibt auf einem so einfachen Niveau, dass jeder Vertreter dieser Gruppen sie sofort am Stammtisch bekräftigen würde, weil er sich instinktiv nicht zu den Attackierten zählen würde. Und sie finden dabei deftigere Worte und entrüsten sich auf unterhaltsamere Weise als Hesse in seinem manierierten Schreibstil.Neben der 0815-Gesellschaftskritik gibts noch das spirituelle Geschwafel, Hesses Signatur. Zum Beispiel, dass Menschen viel komplizierter sind, als man sprachlich überhaupt beschreiben kann, und wir deshalb irreführende psychologische Vereinfachungen vornehmen. Dies und viele andere Kalenderweisheiten taugen leider nicht zum Weltklassiker-Status. Und wo Hesse ausgefallene Ideen zu haben scheint, sind diese von anderen, größeren Autoren ausgeliehen. So nimmt Hesse den prägnanten Aphorismus von Nietzsche (z.B. Nr 157 aus "Jenseits von Gut und Böse": "Der Gedanke an den Selbstmord ist ein starkes Trostmittel: mit ihm kommt man gut über manche böse Nacht hinweg.") und verschmiert ihn gierig über viele Seiten hinweg, lässt den Protagonisten endlos darüber schwafeln, bis man sich wünscht, Hesse wäre nie mit Nietzsches Ideen in Kontakt gekommen.Ich verstehe ja, dass viele sich mit den Ansichten und dem Protagonisten in diesem Buch identifizieren können. Aber Hesse lässt ja kaum Spielraum für Widerspruch. Er geht keine Risiken ein. Ein wirklich gutes Buch sollte den Leser herausfordern, reizen. Es gibt keine Szene, bei der der Leser gezwungen wird, in sich zu gehen und seine eigene Einstellung zu überprüfen. Hesse geht bei allem auf Nummer sicher. Das gibt dem ganzen eine schleimige Note und erinnert mich an evangelische Pastorenpredigten.Anders als Dostojewski in "Aufzeichnungen aus dem Kellerloch" zieht Hesse seinen Protagonisten Harry (fastehste? Hermann - Harry :D:D) nicht durch den Kakao, sondern lässt ihn wie Ebenezer Scrooge auf eine Reihe von "einfachen Leuten" treffen, die ihn etwas lockerer werden lassen. Der Kitsch-Faktor wird dadurch enorm erhöht: die edlen Wilden bringen dem einsiedlerischen Kauz bei, das Leben trotz aller Fehler zu genießen. Die Heiligen Mozart und Goethe fungieren als Geister der gegenwärtigen oder der vergangenen Weihnacht, nerven mit ihren onkelhaften Bemerkungen. Zum Ende hin wirds psychedelischer. War es das, was die Hippies so an dem Buch mochten? Harry betritt eine Art Untergrundclub und fühlt sich wohl, so vereint mit der hedonistischen Unterschicht, die er sonst eigentlich verachtet. Die Szenen wirken kleinkariert. Auf die heutige Zeit übertragen zieht er sich ein T-Shirt mit Wolfsmotiv an, schmeißt ein Paar Teile und tanzt mit Glowsticks zu irgendwelchem Eurotrance. Aber Hesse schreibt dem ganzen einen hohen spirituellen Wert zu. Hesse war also der geistige Urvater der Loveparade. Später betritt Harry ein Kuriositätenkabinett, das wie das Holodeck auf Raumschiff Enterprise funktioniert. Echt anmutende Szenarien, die ihm wie Gleichnisse tiefe Wahrheiten vermitteln sollen oder ihn an Schlüsselerlebnisse in seinem Leben zurückerinnern. Ich muss zugeben, das hat mir gut gefallen. Leider kommt bald wieder der passiv aggressive Geist von Mozart hinzu und macht Harry klar, dass er immer noch nicht cool genug für das alles sei. Aufgrund des extrem guten aber unbegründeten Weltrufs ist dieser Roman leider die Blaupause für eine Menge Schrott geworden, der wie eine Plage durch die Bestsellerlisten zieht. Generationen von Schülern werden geradezu verdorben, da sich das Rezept dieses Buchs besonders einfach vermitteln lässt. Als gelungenere Romane über verkopfte Outsider empfehle ich das schon erwähnte "Aufzeichnungen aus dem Kellerloch" sowie Canettis "Die Blendung". Und Philosophisch und spirituell liegen mir die Schriften von Nietzsche und Henry Miller näher als Hermann "Dr Motte" Hesse.