Monday 14 July 2008

My Thoughts: Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse


I wasn't to sure if I wanted to read this novel, but it was part of the Noble Spiral (I get sent one Noble winning book roughly each month then pass it on to the next participant) so I had to give it a go.

The book has a simple enough plot, Siddartha is a Brahmin but he wishes to push his philosphy further, he is seeking peace and being at one with the world. As he journeys through life in various guises his philosophy changes as he understands more about himself and the world around him. Underneath this simple plot is all the philisophical discussions and theories. The ideas are mainly centred around Buddhism and drawn out from this way of living.

The novel is not really my type of thing, it reminded me of the type of 'clever' books I read at University and I'm sure it would be a great text to study, I feel that had I known more about Buddhism, India at that time and the author I probably would have got a lot more out of the novel. Having said that the book was highly readable, mainly down to the beautiful use of language, it certainly descerves it's subtitle 'An Indian Poem'.


Challenges:







If you have reviewed this book please leave a link to your review and I'll add you to mine.

1 comment:

Ramya said...

Hey.. I just finished reading Siddhartha for the Classics Challenge as well.
http://addicted-to-books.blogspot.com/2008/08/siddhartha.html
that's the link to my post.. would love to hear your comments!