Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse - 1963 Modern Library ed.

Harry Haller is a man divided: part bourgeois intellectual, part untamed wolf of the steppes. Nearing fifty, he wanders the streets of a provincial German town, drowning in self-loathing and contempt for the mediocrity surrounding him. He contemplates suicide on his fiftieth birthday—until a mysterious tract, the Treatise on the Steppenwolf, reveals that his dual nature is merely an illusion. Human identity, it suggests, is not split in two but shattered into thousands of fragments. Enter Hermine, a beguiling woman who becomes his guide through the sensual underworld he's denied himself. Alongside her companions, she initiates Harry into the world of dance, jazz, laughter, and abandon. His journey culminates in the Magic Theater, a surreal hall of mirrors where he confronts the multiplicity of his own soul. Hermann Hesse's *Steppenwolf* is a feverish exploration of alienation, identity, and transformation. Written during the chaos of Weimar Germany, it captures the spiritual crisis of modern humanity—the struggle between intellect and instinct, order and chaos, death and rebirth. Part philosophical novel, part psychedelic vision, it remains a timeless meditation on what it means to be truly alive. - Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse. Translated from the German by Basil Creighton Printed 1963, The Modern Library / Random House, New York Hardcover. Approx. 5x7in, 246pp. Has a blue star on the front endpapers (see photo). Otherwise in good vintage condition.