Demian

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE • HERMANN HESSE • Author of Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game • A powerful coming-of-age story with a “depth of understanding rare in contemporary fiction” (Saturday Review)

The first English translation of the celebrated novel now revitalized for modern readers

Praised by Thomas Mann as “electrifying” and “unforgettable,” Demian is a Hermann Hesse masterwork. Its lyrical voice and gripping tale of self-discovery have profoundly impacted readers worldwide since World War I. In this new edition, the original English translation by NH Priday—beautiful and pitch-perfect for the period—is clarified, corrected, and polished to vibrant new life by American editor-translator Aldwin Grey.

IT IS THE TURN of a new century in prewar Germany. A shy and tormented youth, Emil Sinclair, faces a terrifying fork in his path. One road leads to the pious, permitted “bright” world of his parents and sisters, the other to the seductive, forbidden “dark” world of the devil. Appearing and vanishing from his life like a daemon is Max Demian. This mysterious, confident guide may yet help Sinclair find the way to his true self. Wrought out with page-turning prose, vivid symbolism, and a style that makes readers feel Hesse is “speaking directly to them” (The New Yorker), Demian is a psychological masterpiece.

“[Hesse’s language is] a poetry of the inner self.” —The New York Times Book Review

Published in the USA