Demian

Demian

We listened to Demian on a long car journey. It is a very dense, complex piece of writing...but we greatly enjoyed it! We still have a few chapters left, and we tried to listen to it on the hifi at home but it's the type of story that works best in the car - just you in the pod with the narrator! It would make a good companion on a long flight, for example. The introduction, giving biographical information about Hesse, was also useful. I'd remembered him from school (Siddhartha) but didn't know much about his life. The story of Demian is interesting, because the path it's going to follow isn't obvious. The imagery and characterisations are well-drawn, I think - certainly I have pictures in my head as the narrator relates the story (I hasten to add that I am the passenger in the car!). In short, it's worth investing the time in Demian.

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Moralist sounding Narration overdoes the story for me

Demian is marked as “Cain” of the story “Cain and Able”. Using that story as a jumping off point this is a reversal of “chosen ones” born with secret knowledge. Demian is a kind of guide for Emil Sinclair. If you read Carl Jung, you’ll quickly see that much of the story was drawn from that. The problem for me isnt so much the story but the telling of it. Something about the Jeff Woodman’s reading for this book was off. It feels very pretentious especially when there isn’t a story being told but Emil Sinclair’s thoughts being hashed out. I wanted to vomit in these sections - reminded me of narration on Christian Right Wing radio. So, for me, a better narrator who could temper the story without coming off as preachy would have served this project better. I usually am careful listening to the audible reading samples, I missed this one. Listen to Carl Jung’s “Memories, Dreams and Reflections” instead. You’ll get the exact story with far greater depth and insight and far superior narration.

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amazing

hard to understand but really such an amazing story that really is personal. thanks kim namjoon #btsarmy

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Books that make you a better person.

This book is a guide and a journey in which you will re-discover yourself, beliefs, religion, and maturity..

No doubt this book must be read more than once through your life...

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changed me

this little book has taken me six months to get through. every so often, a passage or phrase would hit me a little too closely to home, and i would need to put it down. i don't even have the words to explain why this book has affected me so deeply, but i know it's one i'll be returning to again and again over the course of my life. thank you, namjoon, for the recommendation.

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Love this book - Found the reader irritating.

So,
This is a classic. I read it and re-read it a zillion times from HS forward. I still really love it. The reader made it a slog at some points....I did not care for his interpretative vocal choices.
Just me probably!

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Omg. I can't even...

Absolutely new favorite book, an absolute master piece, and the reader's performance is amazing too., but God, this book...

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From a fan of Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse has a way of taking one through a journey that is less about time and space, and more about ideas. in "Demian," lead character Sinclair begins in a pious German-Christian home, but ends up somewhere in the light-dark swirl of Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Jung, and Gnosticism. Demian follows the same pattern as Hesse's book "Siddhartha," though the settings and symbols differ. the character begins unsatisfied in piety. makes his way through loneliness, and near suicide. accepts their inner darkness within. and then finds Nirvana (or Eden) in the middle. As Hesse's psychiatrist, it is apparent Carl Jung had a profound effect on Hesse.

This book is fantastic. if you're a lover of Nietzsche, Jung, or Gnosticism, you'll love this book.

A new favorite

Having already read many of Hesse's works, steppenwolf, n & g, Glass Bead Game among others it is refreshing to read his earlier Demian. In it are many familiar at themes he went on to explore throughout his career society v the individual, morality v sensuality, the master and apprentice, transformation, and transcendence. Here they are clear and simply expressed without the adornment of his later works.

Spiritual journey

A spiritual novel narrated by a voice seems coming directly from your soul,can anything be more magnificenly fair?