Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth - Couverture souple

In Demian, one of the great writers of the twentieth century tells the dramatic story of young, docile Emil Sinclair's descent--led by precocious shoolmate Max Demian--into a secret and dangerous world of petty crime and revolt against convention and eventual awakening to selfhood.

"The electrifying influence exercised on a whole generation just after the First World War by Demian...is unforgettable. With uncanny accuracy this poetic work struck the nerve of the times and called forth grateful rapture from a whole youthful generation who believed that an interpreter of their innermost life had risen from their own midst."
-- From the Introduction by Thomas Mann

'Hesse is not a traditional teller of tales but a novelist of ideas and a moralist of a high order...The autobiographical undercurrent gives Demian an Existentialist intensity and a depth of understanding that are rare in contemporary fiction.' --Saturday Review

'Beautifully written, it has a seriousness as compelling as as that of The Waste Land . . . the work of a major writer.' --Observer

'One can neither date nor doubt the sincerity of the hero s search for satisfaction or the quality of the spirit that lies behind it.' --Times Literary Supplement