Customer Reviews

Rosshalde

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In Rosshalde, Hesse draws on his own life experience to describe the feelings of resigned loneliness surrounding the loveless marriage of painter Johann Veraguth and his wife, Adele. The famous painter lives alone in his studio on the same grounds as the house harboring his wife and son. This estate, Rosshalde, becomes the serene backdrop for the melancholy tale of a man whose love for his son has kept him in a stagnant state of resignation. A visit from an old friend finally stirs the emotions that have long been lurking inside of Veraguth, granting him the insight he will need to be free of his own self-made prison. Lyrical and deeply sad, Rosshalde is not Hesse's best work, but it may indeed be his most emotionally sincere.

In this short but unexpectedly brilliant novel, Hesse crafts a landscape of feelings, terrors, and dreams that reflects itself both in the artistic visions of the story's main character and in the dissembling beauty of the story's setting, the estate Rosshalde. Exposing layer after layer of secret thoughts and frustrations, this book is a rich tapestry of all the colors that belong to the palette of human experience.

The tale begins amidst a failing marriage, a blooming career, and a poisonous atmosphere of thoughts unspoken and wishes unfulfilled. Johann Veraguth and his wife Adele live just a short walk away from each other at the artist's splendid country estate, though their souls have drifted worlds apart. The only connection between them, a spoiled but charming child, Pierre, rather than bringing them together in a time of crisis, becomes a thorn in their side--the one love in both of their lives, and yet the most painful physical reminder of their lost marital happiness. Then a glimmer of light shines on Johann's miserable life: the promise of a new life, a death and rebirth. How the man learns to understand his selfishness and his error, how he comes to grasp the full meaning of his search for beauty and happiness, becomes the horrifyingly honest and candidly autobiographical plot of this book.

Though perhaps not as uplifting as _Siddhartha_ or as epiphanic as _Journey to the East_, this book far outshines Hesse's other works in its unflinching depiction of mental struggle, of discontent, depression, and self-criticism. The way Hesse explores each character's soul--especially in the uncanny synthesis of childish naivete and prophetically mature understanding in Pierre's nightmarish daydreams--is sublime. His final portrayal of hope for an end to self-annihilating unhappiness is not pessimistic, but real and heartfelt.

The pain and yearning in this book is real and heartfelt, and the ultimate hope it breathes equally so. Read it slowly, take in the landscape of Hesse's painting, and leave it with a resolve to live your life, to be you.

I've read most Hesse's work, and after long and hard deliberation(not really) I have found Rosshalde to just barely beat out The Steppenwolf. We know Hesse as being a very mystical writer, but this book is vibrantly real, and moving. If you want to understand Hesse as a person, and not as a writer, this is the book to read- it is similar to events that occured in his life. The question is then asked, should the artist(and this I mean writers, musicians, etc.) have a typical family? This is a question that will never be answered with a yes or no, but this book is accurate in exposing both sides of the battle.

Although "Rosshalde" is a good book, it is not one of Hesse's best books. It lacks the acuity and depth of some of his other later works such as "Steppenwolf," "Demian" and "Narcissus and Goldmund." The strong point of the book, however, is that it makes the reader realize how precious life is and how one should not waste it in unhappiness.

Hesse tells a somewhat autobiographical story about a person who must make a choice between happiness and his family. The protagonist, Johann Veraguth, loves his child, Pierre, immensely. Estranged from his wife and despised by his oldest child, Albert, he cannot endure living a life devoid of love. For years, the only enjoyment the painter experiences is his love for Pierre and for his work. (And, as Hesse illustrates, sometimes his love for his work makes him emotionally unavailable to the child.) The story accurately describes the emotions of a person who must make a choice between two exclusive desires. Does he choose to pursue his dreams or to stay with his child? Only the reader will find out.

Good but most definitely not one of Hesse's best. If you're a big Hesse fan like I am you will probably like it just because it has that Hesse style of writing. However, if you have never read a Hesse book before I would not recommend this one to start. Try Steppen Wolf, Journey To The East, or Siddhartha first. This book has the absence of the mind bending and thought provoking aspect Hesse's other books have. Rosshalde is mainly a long drawn out story about a couple whose only reason for living in the same general area is there littlest boy and how this couple fights for the affection, and even ownership, of this little boy. There is a lot more to the story then just that but since I hate to ruin stories this is all I am going to say about this book. So as I said before, if you love Hesse you will probably like this book, but if you don't like Hesse or have never read his works, read another one of his more acclaimed books.

A German/Swiss poet and mystic, Hesse was influenced by Jung's ideas of the unconcious and the collective unconscious, and later by Buddhist philosophy. In "Rosshalde", the protaganist Veraguth, a world-renowned painter, is suffering creative block. His marriage is breaking down, and he and his wife stay together out of love for Rosshalde, their beautiful country estate, and devotion to their young son, Pierre. Veraguth's problems seem beyond cure-until enexpected tragedy forces him to come to terms with himself, and so to find peace at last.

In my opinion, this novel (which was based on Hesse's first divorce) is not only one of my favorite Hesse novels but also my top favorite out of all of his early novels. The majority of his pre-'Demian' books are good but just not very complex or memorable. This one, which I read in one day, is the tops. It's a beautiful novel about the painter Johann Veraguth, who is spending what he thinks will be an uneventful Summer at his beautiful estate Rosshalde, when his estranged wife Adele and their older son Albert (whom he loathes) show up. Veraguth had been looking forward to spending Summer catching up with an old friend of his, who has just returned from India and is now gently pressuring Veraguth to return there with him. The one light left in his life after all of these conflicting forces converge on Rosshalde is his precious younger son Pierre, who was conceived and born during a brief reconciliation between Veraguth and Adele, when Albert was very sick about six years ago. Veraguth had been all ready to leave with his friend, but he does not want to abandon Pierre, leaving him with Adele, whom he doesn't like or trust, or the stuck-up Albert. Adele goes so low as to repeatedly use Pierre as emotional blackmail, saying Veraguth will never see his favorite child ever again if he goes off to India.

One day Pierre gets very violently ill, and his illness takes up much of the rest of the book. There's less time for his estranged parents to be constantly fighting once they're taking care of this delirious little boy around the clock. A few times Pierre appears to be improving, but never for very long. This condition is so serious it eventually leads Adele to completely change her tune and declare that if Pierre recovers, Veraguth can take him with him to India and have permanent custody of him. The ending of the book is quite beautiful, poignant, and bittersweet, and full of the hope of begining again. The final line also reminds me very much of the last line of the Chekhov story 'Lady with Lapdog.'

I hate to be the one to disagree with the majority here, but I found this book to be very disappointing. Having read my share of Hesse, I found the author failing to distance his personal emotions from his main character (even though the book was based on Hesse's own domestic turmoil). Hesse's books have always read more poetically when written from the first person narrative (Gertrude, A Journey to the East, Peter Carmenzind) or from the second person narrative (Magister Ludi, Steppenwolf). In this novel, the writing is simple but often unimmaginative for Hesse. I mean, when was the last time you read a novel where the climax last word of a chapter was "vomited"?

What results is a great sense of bitterness and personal angst, but an angst so private, that the reader cannot longer share in it. Maybe it was this novel which caused Hesse to look down upon all of his writing prior to going through psychoanalysis and writing "Demian".

Hermann Hesse's "Rosshalde" is a slow tale that meanders through the moods and thoughts of its main character Johann Veraguth. Although written in 1914, it was not translated into English until Ralph Manheim's 1970 version was published. The number of characters in the piece is small. Veraguth's family, his wife Adele, his sons Albert and Pierre and the butler Robert are the major ones with the doctor and his friend Otto Burkhardt being the others. There is another silent character which is the glorious paintings that are so meticulously described that they seem real, as if hanging on a gallery wall. In 1914, divorce had a different social status than the common occurrence of modern divorce. Perhaps this is why the book seems to start as it ends. We are interested in what the painter's life in India will hold and the paintings it will inspire. Instead, Hesse takes 200 pages and then closes the book like a silent door. In the end, "Rosshalde" impresses as the prelude to a book that never quite arrived. It is of note in the light of the author's other accomplishments, but hardly a masterpiece in its own right. Enjoy!

One of the most complete exercises in writing I have had the pleasure of reading. Hesse was truely a master of the writtern word, and this book seems to be little more than a display of that talent for the sake of it. Hesse wastes not a single word in the short narrative, nor does he include a single detail that is superfluous. If you enjoy writing as an art form, this work will prove immensely satisfyin