Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair’s Youth
About this ebook
The first English translation of the celebrated novel now revitalized for modern readers
Praised by Thomas Mann as “electrifying” and “unforgettable,” Demian is a Hermann Hesse masterwork. Its lyrical voice and gripping tale of self-discovery have profoundly impacted readers worldwide since World War I. In this new edition, the original English translation by NH Priday—beautiful and pitch-perfect for the period—is clarified, corrected, and polished to vibrant new life by American editor-translator Aldwin Grey.
IT IS THE TURN of a new century in prewar Germany. A shy and tormented youth, Emil Sinclair, faces a terrifying fork in his path. One road leads to the pious, permitted “bright” world of his parents and sisters, the other to the seductive, forbidden “dark” world of the devil. Appearing and vanishing from his life like a daemon is Max Demian. This mysterious, confident guide may yet help Sinclair find the way to his true self. Wrought out with page-turning prose, vivid symbolism, and a style that makes readers feel Hesse is “speaking directly to them” (The New Yorker), Demian is a psychological masterpiece.
“[Hesse’s language is] a poetry of the inner self.”
—The New York Times Book Review
Ratings and reviews
- Flag inappropriate
About the author
Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) was a German-born novelist, essayist, and poet. During World War I, he lived in Switzerland and wrote and edited pacifist writings. Family troubles, the death of his father, and depression led him to seek psychoanalysis with a disciple of Carl Jung, whose philosophies influenced Hesse’s subsequent works and their emphasis on the individual’s search for self. He published his last novel in 1943, and after World War II, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
