I am now reading Hermann Hesse’s Glass Bead Game. I am about one quarter thorough.
This is my forth book by Hesse. Previously I have read Journey to the East, Steppenwolf, and Siddhartha.

I love Hesse’s works. I should like him less then I do, since I find that his writing is often flawed and can be awkward, at times he lectures rather the tells a story (IE – “Treatise on the Steppenwolf” in the novel “Steppenwolf”). Yet I find his ideas, characters and pacing to be compelling and intellectually seductive.

This book seems to visit his common themes, the different, sometimes opposite aspects of human personality, art and culture, among many others.

The plot of this one seems unusual. It is a mix of utopian science fiction, aesthetic commentary and bildungsroman, all centering around a very odd intellectual game.

I also enjoy Hesse, I have not visited his writing for many years. Steppenwolf affected me greatly, but I was fairly young when I read it, I should re visit that one. But thank you for your comments about "Glass Bead Game". I am not familiar with this novel at all, from your discription is sounds interesting and I might have to check it out.

i read glass bead game some time ago. it is a somewhat difficult book. it was his last of course and it took him 10 years to complete.

my favorite is steppenwolf. i reread this every 10 years or so. harry is complex as each of us are complex. i like his idea that we are not simply one person but a thousand individual ones being awakened at times. i also of course fell in love with hermine. he treats that relation ship well and hermine's gift of marie is rather neat.

herman is truely not for everone, for madmen only!
david

As I move through this book I agree it is somewhat difficult and in parts more of a philosophical essay then fiction. Yet as I posted earlier, I am very much enjoying it.

"Siddhartha" is still my favorite Hesse work. I found it to be the best written in both structure and in an aesthetic sense. The passage where the main character jumps into the river and remembers the "word", is to me, one of the most moving in all of literature.

i also liked sidhartha a lot. and i sort of put it together with journey to the east. it has been some time since i have read them but they have a good place in my memory.
i particularly remember the criticism that the person receives from the "guild" when they remind him that when he passed a certain church he didn't stop in and pray.
whenever i travel i try to pray in the churches that i pass. i remember being in greece and walking in this park when i noticed a rather strange building off to the side. i went to it and entered and was in a very old greek church. the chapel was probably of the size of a large room. and i prayed to the god that i have lost, that man has lost, and perhaps must loose since he is ever moving on.

dej102716 wrote:i also liked sidhartha a lot. and i sort of put it together with journey to the East. It has been some time since i have read them but they have a good place in my memory.
i particularly remember the criticism that the person receives from the "guild" when they remind him that when he passed a certain church he didn't stop in and pray.
whenever i travel i try to pray in the churches that i pass. i remember being in greece and walking in this park when i noticed a rather strange building off to the side. i went to it and entered and was in a very old greek church. the chapel was probably of the size of a large room. and i prayed to the god that i have lost, that man has lost, and perhaps must loose since he is ever moving on.

Early in the "Glass Bead Game" The Journeyers to the East" and "The League" are mentioned. Presumably both books take place in the same universe. However the "Glass Bead Game" seems to take place in a more realistic setting as opposed to the very allegorical, less grounded world of "Journey to the East".

Narziss and Goldmund is another excellent book by Hesse. The Glass Bead Game has echoes of Carl Jung, the Secret of the Golden Flower, and the game of go.

also liked Narziss and Goldmund. i would be interested in the connection that you see between jung and glass bead game. hesse was treated throughout his life for i believe depression and may in fact have been treated by jung.
if this keeps up i may want to re read glass bead game. however i seem to recall my reaction that hesse himself was not sure what he wanted to do with this book. 10 years writing is a long time. davud

I have not yet read "Narziss and Goldmund". It will get to it, I think that sooner rather then later.

My understanding of Jung is spotty and superficial at best, but I believe that some of the themes found in "Steppenwolf", multiple parts ofa person's persona, the feminine image as part of a male's psyche, etc.