Siddhartha

About This Book

Published in 1922, Siddhartha is a novel by Hermann Hesse (1877–1962) that follows the spiritual journey of an Indian man named Siddhartha during the time of Gautama Buddha. Siddhartha, the son of a Brahmin, rejects the asceticism of the wandering samanas, meets the Buddha but declines to become his follower, and instead immerses himself in the world of the senses — love, commerce, and pleasure — before at last finding enlightenment by the river, where a humble ferryman helps him hear the unity of all things in the water's voice. Written in lyrical, meditative prose, Siddhartha became a worldwide bestseller in the 1960s and remains one of the most read works of spiritual literature in the West. Hesse received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. The novel is in the public domain in many jurisdictions.

Excerpt

In the shade of the house, in the sunshine on the river bank by the boats, in the shade of the sallow wood and the fig tree, Siddhartha, the handsome Brahmin's son, grew up with his friend Govinda.— Opening of Siddhartha

What Critics Say

A more potent medicine than the New Testament.— Henry Miller

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