The Steppenwolf

by Hermann Hesse, Kurt Beals (Translator)

Overview

Steppenwolf is the profoundly memorable and affecting story of Harry Heller which embodies one of Hesse's most personally felt themes -- the wrenching conflict between the needs of the flesh and of the spirit. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, Hermann Hesse commands a prominent place in the ranks of modern literature s masters.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781324036821
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	01/03/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	196,205
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

HERMANN HESSE was born in 1877 in Calw, Germany. He grew to become a celebrated author and the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1946. As the son of missionaries, he developed a fascination with self-discovery and spiritual explorations, an interest also likely due in part to his lifelong struggle with depression, which led him to study Sigmund Freud and, later, to undergo psychoanalysis with Carl Jung. In 1912 he moved to Switzerland, where he wrote his best-known books, including the classic Siddhartha; composed poetry; and painted landscapes. He passed away in 1962 in Montagnola, Switzerland. Hesse is one of the most widely translated authors of the twentieth century; his work continues to have influence worldwide.


Kurt Beals is visiting associate professor of German and humanities fellow in literary translation at the University of Richmond. He has translated works by Jenny Erpenbeck, Hermann Hesse, Reiner Stach, Regina Ullmann, and Anja Utler, among others. He lives in Virginia.

Editorial Reviews

While it's good for a titter to picture Peter Weller in full RoboCop gear reading Hesse's classic novel of intellectual absorption with the primeval, it is not entirely necessary for full appreciation of his reading. Weller, who has a Midwestern folksy personability, reads Hesse less as a work of great literature than a philosophical manual, meant to be studied for personal improvement. Hesse can be forbidding, even for the teenage readers who often discover literature through him, so Weller wisely renders his novel familiar, comfortable and friendly. Currently wrapping up a Ph.D. at UCLA in Italian Renaissance art history, Weller has clearly been taking lessons in sounding professorial-entirely apropos here. (Apr.)

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Publishers Weekly

"Kurt Beals’s splendid translation of this offbeat classic succeeds at once in conveying Hermann Hesse’s German cadence in elegant English and in rendering the novel’s dissonances more accessible for our times: the ambivalent, existential, dark, humorous, and magical elements within and surrounding protagonist Harry Haller. Together with the translator’s dexterous introduction for a new generation of readers and those curious to revisit the book’s multiple layers to unravel its fascinating possibilities, it is emphatically THE Steppenwolf."

Doreen Densky

"An English-language translation that highlights both the thoughtfulness and, ultimately, the sheer personal power of the original. Beals has managed the considerable feat of making a cult classic of twentieth-century literature feel completely alive for the twenty-first."

Open Letters Monthly - Steve Donoghue

"A sharp, erudite new translation of Hesse’s moody classic."

Susan Bernofsky

"Kurt Beals makes this 1927 classic of psychedelic dreams sparkle in new technicolor splendor. Talk to your doctor about possible side effects."

Martin Puchner

"Hesse is a writer of suggestion, of nuance, of spiritual intimation."—The Christian Science Monitor

"For all its savagely articulate descriptions of torment and isolation, it is most eloquent about something less glamorous but far more important: healing."—The Guardian

From the Publisher

Hesse's philosophical novel about a loner who feels divided in his soul and alienated from life was a cult classic of the 1960s’ counterculture. Peter Weller’s voice is dry, deep, almost harsh, and through much of the book, his tone is cutting, sardonic, even angry. That's a fitting take on the protagonist, Haller, but it's too much, and the tone would be better with some variation. Weller’s voice softens when Haller interacts with others, and in some of the dialogue he brings out a rhythmic lilt that is quite engaging. While a bit uneven, by and large, Weller does this dreamlike yet dour book justice. W.M. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

OCT/NOV 08 - AudioFile