To read the book online (if you haven't already bought it on ebay), click here
Siddhartha" is a short, simple tale of a man’s quest to achieve enlightenment and happiness. Over twelve short chapters the reader follows Siddhartha through his time as a young adult, to his exploration of spirituality as a travelling ascetic, to his delvings in lust, business, and greed, to his time as an old man. At each stage of his life Siddhartha yearns for nirvana, finally achieving it only after realizing that it’s all of life’s experiences that form it, not the teachings of any one man.
Hermann Hesse wrote "Siddhartha" during a period in his life in which he suffered what he described as a "sickness with life". He claimed to be unable to complete the book because he had not experienced the kind of nirvana that Siddhartha, the main character, wants to achieve — so Hesse surrounded himself with sacred Buddhist and Hindu teachings and lived as a recluse in order to complete this work.
It's a rich and colorful novel about the search for self-knowledge. It has remained an influential text in new Western spirituality until today, a hundred years after its first publication in 1922. It is a book that will linger in your mind and spirit for the rest of your life. My only regret it that did not find the time to read it until my retirement, but I have made up for it by having read it several times since - and so might you.
