Siddhartha - An Indian Tale  (English, Undefined, Hesse Hermann)

Siddhartha is an allegory and a philosophical novel by Hermann Hesse. Rooted in Buddhist doctrines, it tells the story of a man who seeks enlightenment during the time of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.

Summary of the Book

During the age of the Buddha, a Brahmin man named Siddhartha leaves his home in search of spiritual meaning. He is not alone in this search as his friend Govinda joins him. Their search brings them to Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha. Govinda is impressed by the Buddha and immediately joins his school. Siddhartha decides to go his own way and believes that he cannot find enlightenment if he submits to a teacher. He later runs into a beautiful woman named Kamala. He falls in love with her, but she refuses his advances. She tells him that she will only submit to his desires if he returns to her with wealth. Forgetting his quest, Siddhartha begins to crave wealth just to gain Kamala’s love. He finds the wealth he desires and lives with Kamala as her lover for several years until he again meets his old friend Govinda. Now a wandering Buddhist, Govinda re-awakens Siddhartha’s quest for spiritual meaning and the remorseful man goes to a ferryman he once met to spend his life by the river. The years pass, and again Govinda comes to meet him. This time, Siddhartha must decide whether he has the answers he has sought for an entire lifetime. This is Herman Hesse’s most famous book and a monumental work on the human spirit and the meaning of life.

About Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse was a German writer, poet, novelist and painter, also remembered for Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game.

Hesse’s foray into writing began when he started working in the bookshop in Tübingen, delving into his own work by the evening and choosing the books over friends. He was inspired by Nietzsche, Goethe, Lessing, Schiller and Greek mythology, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, and the Goethe Prize.