Reviews

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

salichen's review against another edition

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5.0

soo gut!! Das beste von Hesse welches ich bis jetzt gelesen habe. Ich denke es ist diese Art von Buch, dir man alle paar Jahre wieder lesen kann und jedes Mal erfährt und lernt man neue Dinge, vielleicht auch Sachen die man beim ersten Lesen nicht gesehen oder nicht verstanden hat. Hab jede Seite genossen und empfehle es definitiv weiter. Gerade die zweite Hälfte des Buches ist Gefühlt ein Fiebertraum, aber super geschrieben. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

panimarta's review against another edition

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3.0

3,5

balkisreads's review against another edition

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5.0

La verdad es que me sorprendió bastante lo mucho que me gusto, porque no es el tipo de libro al que usualmente gravito

dirk_'s review against another edition

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4.0

It starts out quite depressing and dreary but it redeems itself in the second half.

spo0kyayden's review against another edition

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3.0

A very strong 3.8

I feel like this will be one of my all time favorites after reading it again. I am a Hesse Stan!

“When I have neither pleasure nor pain and have been breathing for a while the lukewarm insipid air of these so called good and tolerable days, I feel so bad in my childish soul that I smash my moldering lyre of thanksgiving in the face of the slumbering god of contentment and would rather feel the very devil burn in me than this warmth of a well-heated room. A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal and sterile life. I have a mad impulse to smash something, a warehouse, perhaps, or a cathedral, or myself, to commit outrages, to pull off the wigs of a few revered idols...”
― Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf

thyyyyyyyyyy's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

florencebrino's review against another edition

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5.0

Solitude is independence. It had been my wish and with the years I had attained it. It was cold. Oh, cold enough! But it was also still, wonderfully still and vast like the cold stillness of space in which the stars revolve.

I wrote a review a couple of weeks ago and I am still not sure about sharing it. It is too personal. This book is so close to my heart and my first review reflects that; a little too much. I mean, I didn't know what to expect and it blew me away. It is a fascinating work about nearly everything. Everything I care about, everything I dislike, everything I want, everything I love. Even knowing that, clearly, the protagonist doesn't have all the stability of the world, are his statements that implausible?
Nonetheless, it is not all about his pessimist (yet real) points of view on life and society; there is also hope. Just a line, actually, but it is there. More than enough.
So, I am going to leave it at that for now, and share what I think is a beautifully written and crucial passage.
I could not bear this tame, lying, well-mannered life any longer. And since it appeared that I could not bear my loneliness any longer either, since my own company had become so unspeakably hateful and nauseous, since I struggled for breath in a vacuum and suffocated in hell, what way out was left me? There was none. I thought of my father and mother, of the sacred flame of my youth long extinct, of the thousand joys and labors and aims of my life. Nothing of them all was left me, not even repentance, nothing but agony and nausea. Never had the clinging to mere life seemed so grievous as now.
...More and more plainly, with a wildly beating heart, I felt the dread of all dreads, the fear of death. Yes, I was horribly afraid of death. Although I saw no other way out, although nausea, agony and despair threatened to engulf me; although life had no allurement and nothing to give me either of joy or hope, I shuddered all the same with an unspeakable horror of a gaping wound in a condemned man's flesh.


Dec 30, 13
* Also on my blog.

gustafauno's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

teranmbaker05's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

fabioescudero's review against another edition

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4.0

Es un buen libro, con un mensaje de descubrimiento personal que atraviesa y moviliza, con unas frases geniales, como "Estos inmortales no dieron la espalda a la vida si no que construyeron mundos admirables mediante una sublimación amorosa de las menudencias que, también, componen la existencia". Por supuesto es muy distinto llegar a este libro en la adolescencia que en la madurez, y en distintas edades creo que llega e influencia de distintas formas (ninguna mejor, solo diferentes).
Si tengo que criticar algo es que en algunas partes siento una apología del suicidio, lo cual puede ser muy peligroso si no se sabe interpretar correctamente.