Siddhartha

Siddhartha is the most important and adorable work of the Nobel Laureate Herman Hesse. This was nominated as one of America's best-loved novels by PBS's The Great American Read. Originally published in 1922, Siddhartha has been translated by many translators and published by many publishers from time to time.

As the son of a Brahmin, Siddhartha enjoys comfort and privilege while sequestered in his home village. However, as he grows older, his heart is moved by a burning desire to acquire wisdom and new experiences. Telling his father his intentions, Siddhartha and his childhood friend, Govinda, leave the safety of home to join the Samanas, a group of wandering ascetics.

As Hermann Hesse's novel unfolds, we follow Siddhartha in his search for meaning and truth in a world of sorrow and suffering. Drawing on both Hindu and Buddhist teachings, Siddhartha expertly explores the tension between the doctrinal dictates of organized religion and the inner promptings of the soul. As Siddhartha grows older, a fundamental truth gradually becomes apparent both to him and to us: there is no single path to self-growth, no one formula for how to live life. Hesse challenges our ideas of what it means to lead a spiritual life, to strive after and to achieve meaningful self-growth through blind adherence to a religion, philosophy, or indeed any system of belief.

We should, rather, seek to seize hold of the reality of each moment, which is always new, alive, and forever changing. Hesse uses the potent symbol of a river to convey this sense of vibrancy and flux. The particular brilliance of this novel is the way in which its profound message is delivered through a prose that flows as naturally and shimmeringly as the surface of the river beside which Siddhartha spends the final years of his life.