Read this when
Steppenwolf
Too deep for small talk, too lonely for your own good? Harry Haller thought he was half man, half wolf. Turns out he was just a lot of people who'd never learned to dance. 🐺
Who it's for
Harry Haller's sense of being split between a refined 'human' and a savage 'wolf', despising bourgeois comfort while longing for it, gives shape to a kind of intellectual loneliness that many readers recognize but rarely see written down.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Hermann Hesse's 1927 novel presents the records of Harry Haller, a middle-aged man who feels torn between a refined, spiritual self and a solitary, wolf-like nature, framed by a preface from his landlady's nephew. Harry receives a pamphlet, the Treatise on the Steppenwolf, that describes his inner conflict uncannily.
Where to find it
Public domain in the US (German original 1927; Basil Creighton's 1929 translation). Free on Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks (Creighton translation). Also in print (revised Creighton translation).
Before you start
Heads up: Sustained suicidal thoughts.
Age: Ages 16+
Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, “On Reason and Passion”
