Siddhartha

"[Henry Miller] asked me if I'd ever read Hermann Hesse. I hadn't, but I'd heard about him. Henry told me to read 'Siddhartha'. He had found a translation of it in England, and sent it to me. I read it, and thought, well, this is pretty sugar-candied Buddhism. And I said, 'Oh, gosh, Henry, do I have to?' And he said, 'Yes, you have to.' And so I did it. The first year the novel sold 400 copies. The next year it was about 800. But within 10 years it was selling a quarter of a million a year." - Poets & Writers, May/June 1995 "A product of the first postwar years, it gives a new and significant twist to the great question pervading all these works by Hesse--the question concerning the goal of the spirit....'Siddhartha' permits no prescriptions concerning what one is supposed to love in the world and what one is supposed to despise....In a time in which the representatives of the spirit so frequently enslaved themselves to rulers, he intrepidly maintained the free steadfastness of the spirit." - "The author's stringent, economical phrasing with its careful rhythms lends the book an air of studied antiquity, refreshing, yet, oddly, new." - Kirkus, 10/01/1951 "The clarity of this short tale allows one to look through to its profound depth." - Saturday Review, 12/22/1951 "The cool and strangely simple story makes a beautiful little book, classic in proportion and style; it should be read slowly and with savor, preferably during the lonely hours of the night." - Nation, 11/17/51 "This book has been a particularly great help to those who had attached themselves to the noisy world and leaders of yesterday, and who are sincerely trying to find their own individuality and peace." - 11/18/51