Books for Prep | |
by: Hermann Hesse  Amazon.com's Price: $8.95 Prices subject to change.Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping.
Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 833.91 EAN: 9780811200684 Edition: Part One ISBN: 081120068X Label: New Directions Publishing Corporation Manufacturer: New Directions Publishing Corporation Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 122 Publication Date: January 01, 1951 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation Studio: New Directions Publishing Corporation Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: In the shade of a banyan tree, a grizzled ferryman sits listening to the river. Some say he's a sage. He was once a wandering shramana and, briefly, like thousands of others, he followed Gotama the Buddha, enraptured by his sermons. But this man, Siddhartha, was not a follower of any but his own soul. Born the son of a Brahmin, Siddhartha was blessed in appearance, intelligence, and charisma. In order to find meaning in life, he discarded his promising future for the life of a wandering ascetic. Still, true happiness evaded him. Then a life of pleasure and titillation merely eroded away his spiritual gains until he was just like all the other "child people," dragged around by his desires. Like Hermann Hesse's other creations of struggling young men, Siddhartha has a good dose of European angst and stubborn individualism. His final epiphany challenges both the Buddhist and the Hindu ideals of enlightenment. Neither a practitioner nor a devotee, neither meditating nor reciting, Siddhartha comes to blend in with the world, resonating with the rhythms of nature, bending the reader's ear down to hear answers from the river. In this translation Sherab Chodzin Kohn captures the slow, spare lyricism of Siddhartha's search, putting her version on par with Hilda Rosner's standard edition. --Brian Bruya Product Description: A young Indian mystic, a contemporary of Buddha, sacrifices everything to search for the true meaning of life. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Samsara is nirvana There are some books everyone talks about but nobody reads. And then, there are books everyone reads but nobody understands. "Siddhartha" by Hermann Hesse seems to be one of those. I didn't expect much from this book after reading about it on the web. I expected it to be a really bad hippie book about some libertine who callously abandons his wife and kid, and then expects to "learn from the river", or whatever. I definitely didn't expect it to be Buddhist. Actually reading the book was therefore ... Read More Rating: - GreatSiddhartha, a bildungsroman by Herman Hesse, first published in 1922, is simply one of the greatest books ever written. I say that not because I agree with its essential philosophy (which is problematic in some of its over-simplicity), a predisposition that far too often accounts for why critics recommend or do not recommend a work of art, but because it is the embodiment of one of the oldest maxims that defines great literature: saying the most in the least amount of words. Technically, the book ... Read More Rating: - Hari OmThank you Mr. Hesse for writing this novel. The dvine spark that exists in the main character is something that everyone should be able to identify with. Being captivated by the pages of this book puts us in touch with the divinity that lies within us all. Throughout the book, the resolute spirit, the capacity for the character to live his life with abandon is always there. It is hard for this book to end and one wishes that Sidhartha continues on. Perhaps we can all bring Siddhartha with us ... Read More Rating:  - A rambling spiritual adventure...On a whim I picked this one up, knowing of it and recognizing the book title. I knew nothing of what the book was about, except what I could surmise from the cover. I was a little put off initially with the way Hesse wrote, kind of flighty with nothing too concrete or definite. Is it a spiritual quest, a personal quest and so on. Then as Siddhartha grows older within the book we begin to see the natural progression from one mental/spiritual situation to the next. We see him go from ... Read More Rating: - A must read for any spiritual seekerA journey through the life of a man with a single purpose: to find his own truth. Knowing that the only way to discover life's greatest mysteries is to go through the heart of them alone, he finds himself living one extreme after another until he finally rests in the balance. The ending will either leave you glowing or pondering, but either way you will not regret taking the time to read this remarkable tale. 
In association with Amazon.com | |