Classic Review: SIDDHARTHA

Siddhartha: An Indic Poem by Hermann Hesse is my Classics Club Spin selection for this Fall. The book/poem was published in German by Hermann Hesse in 1922 and translated into English by Hilde Rosner in 1951. The title of the book I read/listened to had the particular wording you see on the cover photo which included "An Indic Poem" on it. I found it interesting since I don't think of the book as a poem since it appears to be written in prose and I've never seen the word "Indic" before. Both require a bit of research. Let me see... 

A.I. was my only willing helper on the question of poetry. It said Siddhartha is poetry: "because of its lyrical prose, symbolic exploration of spiritual awakening, and focus on emotional truth over historical fact." Hmm. That is unsatisfying but I guess I will admit that the book is very lyrical. I wonder, and this is just a guess, if some of the poetry was lost in translation? I'll never know.

Secondly, the word "Indic" just means anything relating to India, its culture or its languages. When I typed it into my search bar, the computer kept correcting my spelling to Indian. Methinks they are essentially the same word.

Now that I've gotten past the title, what is the book about? In this story Siddhartha is the son of a wealthy Brahmin who decides to leave home to seek spiritual fulfillment. first he tried the life of the Sumanas who starved themselves to try and empty themselves and their desires. Next he listened to the teachings of the Gotama Buddha but he left this because he realized true understanding comes from personal insights, not just listening to another wise person. At this point Siddhartha tries the worldly life full of riches, sex, and fine clothes and food. Eventually he became disgusted with himself and left everything again. Lastly he found answers from the ferryman who taught Siddhartha to listen to the wisdom of the river. He ended up seeing the wisdom of the river as an illusion that all things in the world are connected to one another. In this life Siddhartha finally found peace.

Years ago I was asked by an English teacher to put together sets of world lit books for her classes so she could have several groups or book clubs within her class. I selected Siddhartha as one of those books, representing Indian Lit, even though I'd never read it. Later I asked my husband, who had read the book in high school, what it was about. He said it was the story of a man's search for meaning. For some reason that answer put me off reading it personally. If it spoke to him as a man, how would I, a woman, relate to it? Well it's taken me over a decade, but I've finally read it and honestly I'm not sure I made such a good choice for that long ago class book club. Why? Because I wonder at the maturity of sophomore boys to attempt to understand the underlying message of the book without them getting hung up on the sexual bits. Ha!

After completing the book I did a tiny bit of research about the author and the book on Wikipedia. What I learned led me all the way forward to my husband and why he read the book in high school. 

In his lifetime Hesse was a well-known and influential author in the German-speaking world. He won the Nobel Prize in 1946 and this still didn't catapult him to a broader readership. In the 1950s his popularity began to fade. By the time of his death in 1962 his works were relatively unread in the USA. A memorial to the author in the NYT stated that his work was largely "inaccessible" to American readers.

The situation changed in the mid-1960s when his works suddenly became bestsellers in the United States, with many of the novels republished in inexpensive paperback editions. The revival in popularity of Hesse's works has been credited to their association with some of the popular themes of the 1960s counterculture (or hippie) movement. In particular, the quest-for-enlightenment themes of Siddhartha, resonated with those espousing counter-cultural ideals. The "magic theatre" sequences in Steppenwolf were interpreted by some as drug-induced psychedelia, although there is no evidence that Hesse ever took psychedelic drugs or recommended their use. In large part, the Hesse boom in the United States can be traced back to enthusiastic writings by two influential counterculture figures: Colin Wilson and Timothy Leary. (Wikipedia)

When I shared this information with my husband his eyes lit up. He told me that the teacher that assigned Siddhartha to his class was the Art teacher, tapped to teach one section of English Lit. Likely this teacher, a big guy with a burly beard, was a product of the 60s and the Hippy generation. He, no doubt, read the book just a generation before he introduced his classes to it. Honestly, me reading Siddhartha led my husband down a rabbit hole which ended up with him looking up teacher in an old yearbook. Over the years, Don and I  have had many fun moments with literature and our day spent reminiscing about Siddhartha was one of them.

So why read Siddhartha? If any book still has a lot to say to its readers over 100 years after it was written, Siddhartha is that book.

My rating: 4 stars.

-Anne