Are you young or young at heart? Does your soul feel as though it's being crushed by weight of religion, education, or the world of commerce? Does it feel to you that your experience of this soul-crushing weight is incommunicable; that no one else feels or understands it as you do? Do you long for a world that is sensitive to souls like yours, and which is capable of holding a space for it to grow into?

If any of these are true for you, then you need to read Hermann Hesse.

Who is Hermann Hesse?

Hesse was a German novelist and poet who lived from 1877 to 1962. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956. And at least for a time he was the most widely read and translated European author in the 20th century. But more important than all of that, Hesse knew how you feel. Because he felt that way, too.

Hesse was born to Pietist (ultra-conservative Protestant) parents. His father worked in Hesse's maternal grandfather's religious publishing house. Their ambition for their son was for him to become a minister of the faith.

Hesse was not so sure about that. He was bright and individualistic and rebelled against his strict upbringing.

This caused no end of consternation for his parents. And when, at the age of fourteen, he didn't show up for classes one day at the elite boarding school they had sent him to, his mom's reaction was to write in her diary, “I was very relieved when I finally got the feeling . . . that he was in God’s merciful hands.”

Nice.

And when Hesse later turned up, very much alive, his parents put him in a mental institute.

Double nice.

Hesse managed to talk his way out of the institute and complete high school. And after several years working in bookshops he discovered he could write.

Struggling with authentic spirituality

Writing became Hesse's way of processing his conflicts with the world. Much of his work is autobiographical, involving feelings and situations that Hesse experienced himself, in various stages of his life. From the beginning he was never able to accommodate himself to the roles that most people fit themselves into: student, employee, husband, parent. For Hesse, all of these roles were like straightjackets for the soul. He tried them all, but none of them seemed to fit him.

His stories can be read as attempts to understand why. The characters experience a spiritual need for authenticity. They will submit themselves to spiritual disciplines, but not to worldly ones. And, despite many insights, they are never successful at bridging the gap between their spiritual selves and the world at large. Their attempts typically end in failure or tragedy.

Some commenters have suggested that this is due to an immaturity they are never able to grow out of — a kind of spiritual "Peter Pan syndrome." My own view is that this misses the most important point in Hesse's writing, which is that there is a genuine gap between an authentic spirituality and worldly institutions. Conventional spirituality — even the Pietism of Hesse's parents — can sit comfortably with the conventions of family, work, and society. But authentic spirituality — the earnest quest for one's own self — cannot. This is what Hesse discovered in his own life. The institutions of the secular world can tolerate only so much authentic truth seeking.

Moreover, they are constructed around an entirely different set of goals and ideals. Whereas the goal of authentic spirituality is self-discovery, the goal of commerce is an orderly exchange of goods and services. And whereas the goal of a spiritual education is self-knoweldge, the goal of a worldly education is to be able to function in the worlds of commerce and politics. There's a genuine conflict here — a gap that wants to be bridged — and Hesse's characters repeatedly try to bridge it, to no avail.

Must one choose between the two worlds? Or is it possible that the secular world could be made friendly to authentic spirituality? Could a civilization take, as its highest goal, the authentic spiritual development of individuals? What would that look like?

You won't find an answer to that question in Hesse. But you will find validation for your own experience, and much wisdom as well.

Where to start?

Where to start if you've never read Hesse?

Most people start with his later novels, which begin with Demian. Hesse wrote Demian after WWI. It's primarily about a young man's spiritual seeking but it has something to say about the war, as well.

If you're attracted to Eastern philosophy, Siddharta is another good starting point. And if you're inclined to walk on the wild side you might like Steppenwolf, which became popular in the countercultural movements of the 1960s.

Happy reading!