Siddhartha: Illustrated Edition

By Hermann Hesse

Seeking spiritual enlightenment, the young Brahmin Siddhartha renounces all earthly possessions to become a wandering Samana. When neither the ascetic life nor the teachings of Gautama, the Buddha, bring him fulfillment, Siddhartha is tempted into worldly ways through his love for the beautiful Kamala. Soon disgusted with his wanton life, Siddhartha embraces humility and embarks on a personal quest to find the hidden Buddha within himself and all the world.
 
The story of Siddhartha and his odyssey of spiritual self-discovery has inspired readers for nearly a century. This colorfully illustrated edition captures the wisdom and serene beauty of Hermann Hesse’s timeless tale.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fall River Press
• Release date: Oct 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781435166929

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 Siddhartha

[greeniezona · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book has been on my shelves for quite some time, but I became even more interested in it when I learned that it is one of the few books Andrew has read that I have not! So it was an easy inclusion for my TBR pile challenge, and to be the first I read from that list.

My livejournal friends predicted I would like this book, and they were right. Really, what I knew about Buddhism is mostly limited to what I read in a year's subscription to Tricycle magazine, and reading the first two books in Osamu Tezuka's Buddha series. (I really need to get the next one!) That is to say -- not much.

Siddhartha is a very enjoyable, fairly quick read. Like the title character, I've come from an intellectual background and would like to believe that the secret of life could be taught by book or by some great teacher, but suspect also that it must be lived. Though as a mother, I am frustrated by the repeated teachings of detachment by Western Buddhist men. Perhaps I should seek out a Buddhist mother as an example. Or I could simply acknowledge that I am not Buddhist and move on. Or perhaps, like Siddhartha, I need to live in the muck of attachment a while longer, and hope that lesson is realized in my life at a later date.

It is a beautiful book with lovely ideas. I will definitely keep it on my shelf to reread at a later date.

[arwid-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fantastic book.

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

Prachtige parabel, zij het soms iets te pathetisch. Ook Bildungsroman: alle stadia en ervaringen van het menselijke leven komen aan bod. Centrale boodschap aan ons westerlingen: "Zoeken is niet vinden".

[reluctanttechie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Considered a classic, but very repetitive in English. Perhaps it is better in the original German. It touches on the paradoxes of life and is difficult to truly understand, which I guess is the point.

[razinha-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I seem to remember writing a book report for this in junior high or high school, but I don't recall that I ever actually read it. I wonder what the then me, being naive and impressionable, would have thought if I had read it. I know that I couldn't then, as now, read into a book and pull out what the author was thinking - or at least make up some nonsense about what I think the author was thinking. Regardless, the current me found this to be rather simple and preachy...with yet another, "oh, please" ending.

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

I liked this much more than I expected to. As a young man the Brahmin Siddhartha leaves his father to be a samana, a monk of sorts, searching for truth and enlightenment. He then begins to follow one man known as a Buddha. After much time with him, he decides he is ready for something else, knowing nothing of women or the ways of the world. He becomes a successful businessman and a lover--and years later realizes how much of his wisdom and skill has been lost (how to wait, how to fast...). He leaves his lover and business and becomes a ferryman, with the man who ferried him years before. There he gains happiness and wisdom, and knowledge of the cycle and sameness of all life and time.

[killerx-2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Such a slog.

[miguelnunonave · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A spiritual journey, told with immense poetry. A guide to buddhism. Hesse is a marvelous writer.

[auntieclio · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This one goes on the pile of to be again and again books. What a marvelous book about finding the meaning of life. I immediately thought of at least two friends who need to have this in their libraries.

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

Most religions know of it as "Enlightenment" - when the individual transcends himself and sees himself as one with the ultimate reality. It can be theistic (the Aham Brahma Asmi - "I am the Brahman" or Tat Tvam Asi - "Thou Art That" of Hinduism) or atheistic (the Buddhist Nirvana, based on the Anatman - "non-soul"); but the person who achieves it, according to all sources, is caught up in profound rapture. To reach this stage, one has to tread an arduous path. Carl Gustav Jung called the process "individuation": Joseph Campbell called it "the hero's journey". Herman Hesse's eponymous protagonist of Siddhartha is a man who embarks on this enterprise.

Siddhartha, the handsome Brahmin youth who apparently has everything, is dissatisfied with life: with the whole pointlessness of it. He leaves home with his friend Govinda and joins a group of ascetics (the Samanas) who have made renunciation a way of life. However, the true seeker he is, Siddhartha finds that simple renunciation does not work for him: he joins the Buddha in pursuit of enlightenment. However, he soon understands that whatever knowledge he must possess, must be experiential.

Leaving Govinda to become a Buddhist ascetic, Siddhartha buries himself in the sensual world across the river, where Kamala the courtesan trains him up in the pleasures of the flesh and Kamaswami the merchant instructs him in the secrets of commerce. Siddhartha soon tires of these too: he returns to the river in penury (not knowing that his child is growing within Kamala), and is taken up by the aged boatman Vasudeva as a helper.

Here, ferrying people across the river, Siddhartha finally attains enlightenment - not from a great teacher, not from years of penanace and not even from the kindly Vasudeva (even though he points the way) - but from the river. Kamala's death and his son's abandonment of the stranger father completes his education, as distress turns to peace. Then it's time for Vasudeva, the mentor, to disappear - leaving his student alone with the river.

What the river told Siddhartha

The river flows, and becomes one with the ocean. The vapour from the ocean form into clouds, and descend on the mountains, becoming the river. The river keeps on flowing: it is inconstant, ever-renewing, never the same - yet it is eternal. The river flows, and the river is. On its surface, you can see the faces of all your loved ones: whether alive, dead or yet to be born. In the roar of the river, if you listen carefully, you can hear the sacred AUM - the first syllable outward, the second one inward, the third one silence...and the fourth one, the all encompassing silence which bears the sound of the cosmic ocean in its womb.

Highly recommended.

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

The journey to enlightenment travelled by Siddhartha as demonstrated through living his life rather than learning about enlightenment.

[lucy_skywalker · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Indeed, better than Coelho, but it doesn't mean too much, does it?

[blake.rosser · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I love Hesse, one of my favorite authors ever. Not only is the spirtualism/sensualism dichotomy (which forms the major theme of all of his works) one of the more interesting philosophical questions of mankind, but I can't think of any author who has continually revealed his own personal neuroses and self-doubts through their characters. This quality has always provoked a certain empathy, admiration, and even self-recognition when I read his books. As someone concerned with those important questions of life, I can identify with his characters, and, because his characters are so autobiographical, I feel like I can consequently identify with Hesse himself.

One of the more fascinating thought exercises related to Hesse is studying his works as attempts to reconcile these two aspects of life: the ethereal, divine and ecstatic with the corporeal, material and sensual. As brilliant as he was, he never figured out how to do it completely, which is what makes all of his novels ultimately unsatisfying. The interesting part, however, is that each successive novel comes closer to the answer, so that Demian feels by far the least developed, and while Hesse realizes "Nirvana" in Siddhartha, it never feels authentically earned. Steppenwolf feels altogether more on the right track before devolving into a psychedelic madhouse (perhaps precisely because he didn't know where next to take it?), and then Narcissus and Goldmund and The Journey to the East get even closer to the ultimate reconciliation while still falling short. The Glass Bead Game is by far the most developed of his novels and gets tantalizingly close to a "solution" for this problem, but it still leaves the reader vaguely grasping at the "how" of Hesse's prescription.

As obsessed as Hesse was with this issue, he was never able to solve it, and it leaves us with the suspicion that it is an insoluble problem, perhaps THE insoluble issue of humanity. His books are so enjoyable, though, precisely because nobody has ever taken up the question with such earnest seriousness. All of his books leave us unsatisfied, but upon further thought one concludes that they are unsatisfactory only because they so unerringly reflect the great human predicament: the paradox of the divine animal. **Full Disclosure: I can no longer remember concretely, but I suspect that I owe a lot of credit for this analysis to Colin Wilson, from his fantastic The Outsider.**

[jmoncton_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Siddhartha, a young man, leaves his life of wealth and comfort in search of enlightenment. He tries many different paths from living his life in abject poverty as an ascetic to becoming a wealthy merchant and living with a beautiful courtesan. But discouraged that his life still has no meaning he wanders eventually reaching a beautiful calm river. By listening to the water and living a simple life as a ferryman, he achieves nirvana.

I remember reading this is high school because it was on all of those lists of books to read before college. I didn't remember that much from the book other than the overall meaning being waaay over my head. Now decades later, I feel like I can just barely grasp some of the wisdom in this story.

[shofichoudhury · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A man starts his journey to find the meaning and the goal of the life really a great one from herman.

[suzemo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is easily one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read.

Nothing new or amazingly thought provoking (dude leaves his promising life to find meaning as an ascetic, a wealthy and debauched merchant, and then back to a simple living ferryman), but everyone should read it.

[evanroskos_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

i hated this book when we read it in high school. and i hated the people who loved it. and i hated the guy who kept saying that Steppenwolf was better.

But I'm less angry now. It's a good story, though it still feels heavy handed even though it is supposed to be the simple story.

Oh, and Steppenwolf is pretty darn good.

[breathwork-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant. For those on a path of conscious understanding of who and where they are this small book ranks up there with "The alchemist" and "The Prophet". It is beautifully crafted and if you are like me you will return to this book time and time again. In fact, as I have followed my path I have changed and so what I find in the book changes and so reflecting my changed state.

This book is one of those rare gifts that will last and endear itself not for just one but many lifetimes.

[poonamsharma_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

My rating for this book is not reflective of Quality of this book rather my understanding of it. This book left me more confused, I am not sure I understood it all. But, I am not willing to pick it up again either. So there it is, the honest truth.

[raven9167 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I think that honestly this book was too wise for me. I really, honestly tried to "get it," but I don't think I did. Maybe when I have a few more years on me?

[wattsian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this in a few hours on a flight home. Teared up a few times. Still rolling it around in my head.

[justagirlwithabook · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I read this in high school as required reading for an AP Lit class. I actually found this one more interesting and enjoyed it at the time. If I were to read it now, as an adult, I don't know if I would enjoy it quite as much, but that's okay. I do recommend this one for those interested in philosophical reads.

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

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I wasn't really sure what to expect, being nearly 100 years old and translated to English (as well as nearly every other language in the world), but the narration was wonderful and sucked me right in. Siddhartha tells the story of a young Indian man who has decided to reject his comfortable lifestyle to seek enlightenment. At first this journey begins with self denial to find higher fulfillment, but as Siddhartha ages so do his opinions and worldviews. His journey takes him through luxury, love, hatred, desire, denial, and acceptance. Told with wonderful prose, many consider this novel to be the finest moral allegory ever written. Only by failure, does Siddhartha find what he is looking for. Readers will find some aspect of Siddhartha's journey to relate to. “Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”

[carmenere_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you've come to this novella, you, like Siddhartha, may be a seeker. You, like Siddhartha, may be struggling to discover the meaning of life, looking for enlightenment. Perhaps, you may be required to read it, surely, there is a reason this story is assigned reading, right? Well, truthfully, you may not find all the answers here but consider Hesse's poetic prose as a continuation of your personal journey.Like Odysseus, there is much to lure Siddhartha off his path and which deter him from achieving his goal. Still, his associations with Kamala, Kamaswami and Govinda are not wasted moments in Siddhartha's life, rather they are a piece of his learning experience. Surprisingly, it is when Siddhartha struggles the most, when he is at his lowest, the moment he finds his love is not reciprocated that he finds the answer. This is a book to be read and reread and although each read may be different than the last it will surely leave its impression upon your journey.

[msaucier818 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I am not really sure how to rate this book. As a story or novel, it was really nothing special at all. It was more of a parable than anything else. I did enjoy the message, but as a reader, I knew exactly how it was going to work out. Simply put, I am glad I read it because it did make me think about how I view myself and the things that I value. However, it did not have any "wow" factor and overall I would say - meh.

[eadieb-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a beautifully written book about Siddhartha, a young man who goes on a journey of self-discovery. I found this book a lot easier to read than I expected with lots of words about the meaning of our existence. Published in 1951 in the US and became very influential in the 1960's hippie movement. Experience, the totality of conscious events of a human life, is shown as the best way to approach understanding of reality and attain enlightenment. The novel is structured on three of the traditional stages of life (student, householder and recluse). Lesson learned: "it's not just intellectual cognition, not just learning and knowing, but spiritual experience that can be earned only through strict discipline in a selfless life." If you haven't read Siddhartha yet, you should give it a try as it may enlighten you as the direction of your life.

[mamzel_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A short book, this story relates how a young man leaves his home to try and find his place in the world, to find a place of peace. Along the way he learns how to control his body, he meets the Buddha, separates from his childhood friend, learns about physical love from a courtesan, about business, and how to listen to the river from a ferryman. He encounters his friend several times and compares how his search with help from the Buddha has compared to his own.This book is full of peace and I think I will reread it again and again for its gentle wisdom.

[jphamilton-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Back when I was in college in the 1970s, I went on a serious, and predictable, Hermann Hesse reading jag ... and SIDDHARTHA was among those many, many titles. I have reread it many times in the years since then.. Presently, having just finished the book, I'm still glowing from the book's conclusion. Feeling a light and warm breeze, in a garden buzzing with bees, it was my favorite experience with a book in quite some time. These feelings are why I read.

[xuebi-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Siddhartha, by Nobel Prize-winning author Hermann Hesse, tells the story of the spiritual self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha in India during the time of the Buddha. The son of a Brahmin, Siddhartha leaves home on a quest for spiritual enlightenment and how he ultimately finds it. Every event, whether it is staying with some ascetics or living a rich and decadent life, all contribute towards this experience and eventual attainment of enlightenment for Siddhartha.

Written in a simple, lyrical style, Hesse's prose carries the reader along as a river - the very river in which Siddhartha sees the illusory nature of time and the cyclic nature of human experience. Perhaps not the best understanding of Indian philosophy; nevertheless, Siddhartha is an interesting meditation on the nature of life and demonstrates how Hesse himself aimed to cure his Lebenskrankheit by investigating Hindu and Buddhist teachings in which this book shares similar experiences.

I liked it but not as much to warrant a full three stars; maybe more like 2.5-2.7 stars if one can be that precise.

[william345 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really loved this one. It's especially illuminating if you have some understanding of Vedic religion and how that fed developments in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism, though that's not essential. Set on the Gangetic Plain about 2600 years ago, it's about one man's search for enlightenment. This man, Siddhartha, son of a Brahmin, even in the presence of Gautama Buddha himself, is unable to find a way if it depends on the teachings of others. There is, Siddhartha comes to believe, no single illuminated path for all men and women to follow. We must each of us make our own mistakes. We must all suffer, and no warning against it will ever help us. For to live some kind of bizarre life of comfort that prevents suffering also prevents our finding peace. The writing style is very honed down, lean, without abstruse digressions. It fulfills for me that fundamental need that all good fiction must meet: it reveals a completely imagined world. And isn't that what we really require from fiction: that it take us out of ourselves? That it, to paraphrase John Gardner, perpetuate the dream? Highly recommended. I much prefer it to Steppenwolf. Up next Journey to the East and The Glass Bead Game.