Siddhartha: Literary Touchstone Edition [Paperback]

Hermann Hesse (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2005

This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition™ includes a glossary and reader’s notes to help the modern reader contend both with Hesse’s philosophical points and Siddhartha’s journey. First published in 1922, Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha is the tale of a young Indian priest who searches for personal enlightenment throughout his life. Although steeped in the mysticism of Hindu traditions, this classic is, above all, about Siddhartha’s search for independence from all teachings and freedom from all earthly knowledge. Siddhartha struggles with ignorance, prayer, loyalty, friendship, and desire during his quest for the essence of human existence, all the while seeking to understand truth through his experiences. His growth and revelations have enthralled and inspired readers for decades.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Siddhartha's life takes him on a journey toward enlightenment. Afire with youthful idealism, the Brahmin joins a group of ascetics, fasting and living without possessions. Meeting Gotama the Buddha, he comes to feel this is not the right path, though he also declines joining the Buddha's followers. He reenters the world, hoping to learn of his own nature, but instead slips gradually into hedonism and materialism. Surfeited and disgusted, he flees from his possessions to become a ferryman's apprentice, learning what lessons he can from the river itself. Herman Hesse's 1922 Bildungsroman parallels the life of Buddha and seems to argue that lessons of this sort cannot be taught but come from one's own struggle to find truth. Noted actor Derek Jacobi interprets this material wonderfully, and the package, despite abridging a Nobel prize winner's prose, can be highly recommended.AJohn Hiett, Iowa City P.L.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"No living English-speaking actor outshines Derek Jacobi, nor any audiobook reader for that matter. He sings, rather than speaks, with extraordinary lyricism, expressiveness and depth...Jacobi approached the text with a direct, childlike fervor. He brings home the subtleties of Siddhartha's inner journey with amazing clarity and resonance, which he makes more exciting than the most thrilling thriller." -- AudioFile, October/November 1998 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 118 pages
• Publisher: Prestwick House, Inc. (July 1, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 1580493904
• ISBN-13: 978-1580493901
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (119 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,164,452 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Translation is filled with grammatical errors, October 20, 2009

By 

Ben Gilworth "bengilworth" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Siddhartha: An Indian Tale (Paperback)

The layout and cover are beautifully done. Hesse's book is a masterpiece. The translation also has a kind of poetry that I suspect is close to the German, however there are a fair number grammatical errors or typos in this edition - it seems they used spell check so the typos aren't obvious, but I can't go more than a few paragraphs without having to read a sentence a few times to figure out which word was left out or spell-checked into the wrong word. 'Learned' becomes 'Leaned', 'that' becomes 'That', 'ice' becomes 'icy', 'breaths' becomes 'breathes', commas break sentences in ways that unintentionally change meaning, etc... These are just some examples from a few pages chosen at random. This problem is consistent throughout the book. There is even an instance where a question left by the translator, in German, is sitting IN THE TEXT in a sentence, which is just absurd.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and Special, October 24, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Siddhartha (Mondo Folktales) (Audio Cassette)

I read this book when I was 19. I am now 51. Having just discovered Amazon Books, I was "surfing" and searching out titles that came to memory. I also read the lyrical version in German in those now distant days, and spent much time looking for "Suleika", or "Zuleika". It brought me great peace of mind at that time, as I had to interrupt my college days in order to enter the Army and go to Vietnam. The book reads like the flowing river, and is in some ways an eternal story of search for meaning in life and realization. Like Sidhartha our search for meaning often ends at the beginning. Ultimately, we return to the basic and simple truths that were there when we were born. Growing up is a kind of struggle. Sidhartha is a story of idealism and virtue that survives ignorance, futility and evil. If in the end, we retain that idealism, our lives can be heroic and our conscience pure. Sometimes, I remember and recall the words: "From Sidhartha to Sidhartha is my coming and my going." It is a book of haunting beauty and depth of meaning. W. H. L./Bellevue

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Right book wrong translation, May 7, 2009

By 

Patty "Menagerie" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Siddhartha (Paperback)

Siddhartha

I highly recommend this book but not this translation. The awkward sentence structures and many typographic errors get in the way of the reading. This is a story which should flow and unfold not stutter and stammer.