Particularize Of Books Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend
| Title | : | Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend |
| Author | : | Hermann Hesse |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 194 pages |
| Published | : | December 7th 1996 by Suhrkamp Verlag (first published 1919) |
| Categories | : | Romance. Contemporary Romance. Contemporary. Adult. Romantic Suspense. Womens Fiction. Chick Lit. Mystery |
Hermann Hesse
Paperback | Pages: 194 pages Rating: 4.13 | 67511 Users | 3656 Reviews
Narration In Pursuance Of Books Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend
Hermann Hesse's Demian influenced me more than just about any book although I haven't read the novel in twenty years. Through my late teens and early twenties I searched out every Hesse book I could find, including the rarities, journals, letters, etc., going as far as to ferret out European editions in a Berlin bookstore on a solo trip as much influenced by Hesse as cheap airfare. My initial college experiences (three institutions in six semesters) ended badly. I became depressed and, although I had friends, spent much of my time isolated with books. My hostile, unsupportive parents created a tense, unsafe environment. The future looked bleak. I was terrified.But I had Hesse. And many of the Hesse protagonists reminded my sad, desperate ass of myself. I eventually finished college, scraped out an existence, and learned to survive. Later a woman graciously and sympathetically agreed to marry me. We moved to Wisconsin. When packing up the apartment for the trek north I crated the Hesse books and didn't return to the author for twenty years.
A few weeks back I spotted a decent Demian edition, with the Thomas Mann introduction, for a couple bucks at a Borders closing sale. I read the book over seven illness-ridden gray spring days. And while my perceptions of the novel changed, of course, with the passing decades, Hesse's vision once again earned my appreciation.
Sinclair, the novel's narrator, is a German teenager transitioning from the warm, safe glow of his childhood world into a much scarier adulthood. He tries to follow the rules but feels himself called to something other than the town status quo. In school he meets a new student, the mysterious, adult and somewhat feminine Demian. Sinclair, through Demian, learns of the individuals with the “Mark of Cain.” These people are special; they can't feel fulfilled within the normal societal context and must look elsewhere for meaning. Sinclair spends much of his time alone, feels loss and terror, and almost fails out of boarding school. Do you see why this setup was attractive to a teenager who felt like he couldn't stand ten minutes in a room with his parents and couldn't pass his first university courses? I wanted to feel as if my isolation and third-rate social skills had meaning and set me apart with a purpose I couldn't comprehend. Demian and Sinclair separate after graduation and the latter experiments with alcoholic hazes before falling under the influence of a new mentor, the benevolent but drunken and limited church organist Pistorus. Sinclair paints and creates a vision of a bird breaking out of the egg as metaphor for his own process. I wanted so badly to embody that bird, to prove my failures as something deeper than incompetence. Sinclair catches up with Demian near the start of what seems to be the second world war, and when they next part they declare themselves part of a new vanguard who will help reshape the world after the military convulsions.
Demian is flawed. Some passages rely on vague, mythic language that mires in mystical and somewhat frustrating possibilities; in other words, one could accuse Hesse of taking the easy way out by framing Demian's insight as near indescribable. And when Sinclair and Hesse “call” each other the pair somehow telepathically sense the need to meet. This magic, romantic power is easier to describe than anything tangible and even as a teenager I knew this type of interaction was beyond my capabilities and probably bullshit. And when Demian says things like “The new world has begun and the new world will be terrible for those clinging to the old. What will you do?” he benefits from the lack of detail. But none of that mattered to me twenty, twenty-five years back. Hesse portrayed identity-challenged young men who struggled on the edge of mainstream daily existence and hoped for something more. And while I can see the inherent romanticism and frustrating pseudo-spiritualism with older, calmer eyes, I still feel the pull of Hesse's work. Without Demian and similar books I would have lacked a voice for emotions I couldn't articulate on my own; Hesse's work became a framework around which I could see potential self-value at a time in my life when I was precariously close to a feeling worthless. And while I can position Demian as a novel that resonates differently with me at forty-one than at nineteen, I recognize the camaraderie inherent in this book with a part of me that will never completely disappear. Demian is intrinsic to my narrative vocabulary and always will be. The vestiges of Hesse's influences are subtle but still present; while I like to think I would search for meaning in what I do, beyond convention, without ever reading Hesse, his work provided form and foundation, however mystical, on which I could build as I grew older and (hopefully) more capable. Thank you, Mr. Hesse, for being there when I needed you most.
List Books As Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend
| Original Title: | Demian: Die Geschichte einer Jugend |
| ISBN: | 3518367064 (ISBN13: 9783518367063) |
| Edition Language: | German |
| Characters: | Emil Sinclair, Max Demian |
Rating Of Books Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend
Ratings: 4.13 From 67511 Users | 3656 ReviewsCritique Of Books Demian: Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend
_Demian_I read this on a whim, i've read steppenwolf last year and even though i believe it's a great book, i somehow felt distant to it. But with this one Hesse gave to me all the things that i was hoping for. Deep, beautiful and tender. The story is equal to the writing the the writing to the story, everything about this book feels amazing. It's summer and i am busy and too lazy to write a proper review, but i loved it and please give it a try. Be well folks and have a great August <3'All I wanted was to try and realise whatever was in me. Why was that so difficult?'Demian is an odd one. It is about a boy named Emil Sinclair, who is caught between these two 'worlds', the world of his family and the world of 'danger and mystery'. In essence it's like any novel where the protagonist meets a new and fantastic person, like Gatsby, or like Dean Moriarty in 'On the Road' or like Tyler Durden in 'Fight Club'. Demian is that character here: the philosophical, intelligent and bold
I will try not to be (too) emotional and write an objective review, even though Hermann Hesses Demian moved me beyond words and explanations. Maybe because its serene tone and unaggressive intellectualism have a mesmerizing quality, or maybe because, just like Siddhartha some years later, it does not try to challenge or convince you. Or maybe because of the open-minded way in which it sees the world, it tells its story, it reveals its truth. And last but not least, maybe because of the
This book made such a progress in my brain, that at the moment I finished it, I literally threw it in the ground and couldn't speak for half an hour. It made me think of things I have never thought before. Amazing. :D
The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas.For a book full of philoshophical meanings, Demian was quite understandable. The author did a great job to present his character's thinking and feelings, and even the transition from a boy to a man. Okay, so Demian is a book about growing up, finding oneself and one's place and role in the society. The young boy of the book combines only to
Of the four Hesse novels I have now read, I have to say Demian, to the exasperation of those that think it's a work of genius turned out to be a book that I didn't think was that great, and it's for sure my least favourite Hesse. When I think of Steppenwolf I think wow. I simply can't say the same for this. For one thing, I'm not the biggest admirer of the coming of age novel, and for another, I can't stand reading about boarding schools, I just don't like them, the thought of them, in any way
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