Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peter Camenzind | 1904 | Hermann Hesse | Buy |
| 2 | Beneath the Wheel / The Prodigy | 1906 | Hermann Hesse | Buy |
| 3 | Gertrude | 1910 | Hermann Hesse | Buy |
| 4 | Rosshalde | 1914 | Hermann Hesse | Buy |
| 5 | In the Old Sun | 1914 | Hermann Hesse | Buy |
| 6 | Knulp / Three Tales from the Life of Knulp | 1915 | Hermann Hesse | Buy |
| 7 | Demian | 1919 | Hermann Hesse | Buy |
| 8 | Klingsor’s Last Summer | 1919 | Hermann Hesse | Buy |
| 9 | Siddhartha | 1922 | Hermann Hesse | Buy |
| 10 | The Steppenwolf | 1927 | Hermann Hesse | Buy |
| 11 | Narcissus and Goldmund /Death and the Lover | 1930 | Hermann Hesse | Buy |
| 12 | The Journey to the East | 1932 | Hermann Hesse | Buy |
| 13 | The Glass Bead Game / Magister Ludi | 1943 | Hermann Hesse | Buy |
Hermann Hesse wrote novels over a span of nearly four decades, beginning with Peter Camenzind in 1904 and ending with The Glass Bead Game in 1943. His earlier novels tend to be autobiographical and focus on young men at odds with bourgeois society, while his later works are more experimental and philosophical.
Siddhartha (1922) remains his most widely read book, a short novel about a young Brahmin’s search for enlightenment. The Steppenwolf (1927) takes a very different approach, following a middle-aged intellectual who feels split between respectability and chaos. The Glass Bead Game (1943) is a long, complex novel set in a future scholarly community. Together, these novels trace Hesse’s own intellectual development from romantic idealism to a more syncretic worldview.