Steppenwolf
First published 1927 · German · 256 pages
- Novels
- Fantasy
- Philosophy
- Science and nature
Harry Haller is an educated, middle-aged man in a German city between the wars, who feels himself half human and half wolf, unable to belong to ordinary bourgeois life. Lonely and despairing, he is drawn into a strange world of music, dancing and fantasy through a young woman named Hermine and other unusual companions. The novel mixes realism with dreamlike episodes and a book within the book. It is a bold portrait of a divided self and of modern alienation.
Quotes
barbarous. Every age, every culture, every custom and tradition has its own character, its own weakness and its own strength, its beauties and
Eternity is a mere moment, just long enough for a joke.
Solitude is independence. It had been my wish and with the years I had attained it. It was cold.
Man is not yet a finished creation but rather a challenge of the spirit, a distant possibility dreaded as much as it is desired.