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Siddhartha Kindle Edition

by Hermann Hesse (Author), Reading Time (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Siddhartha is an allegorical novel by Hermann Hesse which deals with the spiritual journey of an Indian boy called Siddhartha during the time of the Buddha. The book was written in German, in a simple, yet powerful and lyrical style. It was first published in 1922, after Hesse had spent some time in India in the 1910s.

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About the Author

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known works include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game, which explore an individual's search for spirituality outside society.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07VYRWWR5
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Reading Time
Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
Publication date ‏ : ‎ 31 July 2019
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1.2 MB
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 118 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-2380370454
Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: 275 in Eastern Mystical Philosophy (Books)
- 428 in Philosophy (Books)
- 730 in Buddhism (Kindle Store)

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24,123 ratings

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Ben Holden-Crowther
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Hermann Hesse
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Hermann Hesse (1877-1962) was born in Germany and later became a citizen of Switzerland. As a Western man profoundly affected by the mysticism of Eastern thought, he wrote many novels, stories, and essays that bear a vital spiritual force that has captured the imagination and loyalty of many generations of readers. In 1946, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Glass Bead Game.
Photo by unknown [Dutch National Archives, The Hague, Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Persbureau (ANEFO), 1945-1989 / Public Domain] [CC BY-SA 3.0 nl (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/nl/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons.
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Ben Holden-Crowther
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Golden Classics
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GOLDEN CLASSICS publishes elegant new editions of timeless classics, bringing their wisdom and lessons to readers of all ages. With love, passion and respect for the literary masterpieces of ages past, Golden Classics firmly believes in the value of sharing these masterpieces. They are committed to helping new readers discover and fall in love with them. From gorgeous new editions to collections of profound teachings, Golden Classics offers readers a unique glimpse into the past, featuring stories that transcend the ages to resonate with our deepest emotions and desires.
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Customers find this book thought-provoking, describing it as a spiritual masterpiece that provides insight into life. Moreover, the story focuses on living a full life, and customers appreciate its small size and beautiful design. However, the writing quality receives mixed feedback, with some praising the beautiful prose while others find it poorly translated.

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Readability Thought provoking Story quality Shortness Book design Era Writing quality

85 customers mention ‘Readability’77 positive8 negative

Customers find the book highly readable, describing it as a masterpiece and a joy to read, with several mentioning it's a good read on the train.

"...This book is so good I could read the first 30 pages alone and put the book down a happy man, the remainder is purely icing on the cake!..." Read more

"...It amazes me that a story from Herman Hesse, has such talent and beauty as I've only heard of his name before mentioned in a vague but knowledgeable..." Read more

"An incredibly beautiful,poetic and reflective story...." Read more

"...Take away: Om. Smile. All is one. Love it all." Read more

66 customers mention ‘Thought provoking’62 positive4 negative

Customers find the book thought-provoking, describing it as profound and spiritual, with one customer noting it contains 150 pages of innate wisdom.

"...Beautiful prose, beautiful message and highly recommended indeed. Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page." Read more

"...is well worth reading as it would seem to be one of the most important books ever written. Many thanks Mr. Hesse. xx" Read more

"...The spirituality was captured so well in the characters and a myriad of emotions and personal comes to mind when I think of the searching of self..." Read more

"...a Buddhist all my life this beautifully written book has been an eye opener, and strong influence on the onward spiritual journey for me...." Read more

36 customers mention ‘Story quality’36 positive0 negative

Customers find the story compelling and instructive, describing it as a journey about living a full life.

"...path in life, this book manages to weave a tale that is both captivating and enlightening...." Read more

"An incredibly beautiful,poetic and reflective story...." Read more

"A young man's journey to practical wisdom. With twists and turns through reality. Take away: Om. Smile. All is one. Love it all." Read more

"I loved it. Compelling and plainly written. Lighter in tone than his other work." Read more

15 customers mention ‘Shortness’11 positive4 negative

Customers appreciate the book's brevity, describing it as a great short story and quick read.

"...It's a small book and yet it is a story that is simply told and spiritually uplifting...." Read more

"...A must recommend for every one. Short story but Powerful" Read more

"...However I must admit Siddhartha is worth it; short-ish, very succinct, but a deep story of how a boy with religious monk-hood leanings becomes a..." Read more

"Very irritating format , as few as three words per line and what I would consider poor translation...." Read more

11 customers mention ‘Book design’11 positive0 negative

Customers find the book design beautiful.

"This is a simply stunning and beautiful book...." Read more

"A beautiful, simply written book set in ancient India at the time of the Buddha, wherein Siddhartha (the son of a Brahmin) sets off from home..." Read more

"Amazing book, totally recommend. Such a beautiful and true story about the divine self, it's a must read for everybody and everyone...." Read more

"...The imagery created by the words used is beautiful and enticing to keep you engaged in reading from start to end." Read more

7 customers mention ‘Era’7 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the book's era, describing it as a classic that was well respected in the 60s and 70s.

"...version of various eastern religious traditions, understandably popular in the 60s. A very clunky read, but it has a certain profound beauty" Read more

"Well respected in the 70's,still a valid read now. Book a little on the large size but does not distract from the content." Read more

"...the man in search of meaning for his life has made of this book a timeless classic...." Read more

"...Impeccable vintage classic edition. Arrived very promptly and reasonably priced. Would recommend to anyone!" Read more

55 customers mention ‘Writing quality’35 positive20 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the writing quality of the book, with some praising its beautiful prose while others find it poorly translated and very hard to read.

"...Beautiful prose, beautiful message and highly recommended indeed. Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page." Read more

"Didn't like the narration. Personal choice and not a criticism. I failed to notice that I could pre-sample versions...." Read more

"An incredibly beautiful,poetic and reflective story...." Read more

"After being a Buddhist all my life this beautifully written book has been an eye opener, and strong influence on the onward spiritual journey for me...." Read more

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C.K
The essence of what this book meant to me was...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 August 2021
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After being a Buddhist all my life this beautifully written book has been an eye opener, and strong influence on the onward spiritual journey for me. The author questions the essence of what it is to be a Buddhist and how to practice buddhism. Using the parallel lives of siddhartha and Gautama, Hesse questions whether following a structured path and removing one's self from mainstream society is the only way to enlightenment or like siddhartha whether to live life to its fullest in order to experience the full range of emotion and physical and sensory existence on order to appreciate and gain wisdom to reach enlightened viewpoint of the connectivity and oneness of the universe as suggested in hindu and Buddhist philosophy.
Hesse has studied buddhism thoroughly in order to pose this essential question..... which has haunted me all my life. As someone born into buddhism and struggled to follow it in its proscribed form, is renouncing every day life, family, work the only path to enlightenment? or can we reach our goals as a Buddhist whilst being compelled to lead a worldly life?

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MILLICENT FULLWOOD
Suddhari
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 August 2024
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Recommend

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Jimmy Baginski
A true classic. Naval Ravikant brought me here and I am not disappointed he did.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 December 2020
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A heartwrenching and powerful tale of human experience that spans a man's life searching for enlightenment. He follows his heart and follows no idols or teacher, gives way to his yearning for firsthand knowledge without dogmatic scripture or religious guidance. He simply views nature, his pain and the utterances of his heart to discern the totality of existence. Like with all journeys, he ends up where he started, having learned so much and yet not much more than the simplicity of life itself as of being eternal, connected, whole and free from judgement. His joy and calmness is not through knowledge but through experience ie wisdom. This story is about living a full life, running the full gamet of human temptations and impositions, eschewing remote piety in favour of getting your hands dirty. It's also about taking your own path in life and living your story, synthesising your lessons, from your own firsthand sources. Anyway, I'll be pondering this book for a long time to come. Thank you Naval Ravikant. To anyone reading, check out his podcasts all over the internet.

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7 people found this helpful

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r
A beautiful, simply written book set in ancient India at ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 July 2017
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A beautiful, simply written book set in ancient India at the time of the Buddha, wherein Siddhartha (the son of a Brahmin) sets off from home looking for enlightenment. He travels the countryside, meets different religious groups whose teachings he ends up rejecting, falls in love, has a son who abandons him, becomes rich then gives everything away, becomes a ferryman and eventually sort of understands the meaning of life. The society in which it is set is an alien one, yet I think the appeal of this book lies in the universal resonance of Siddhartha’s search for meaning and the many mistakes he makes along the way. His ultimate revelations have a sense of elegant wisdom:

“I have had to experience so much stupidity, so many vices, so much error, so much nausea, disillusionment, and sorrow, just in order to become a child again and begin anew. I had to experience despair, I had to sink to the greatest mental depths, to thoughts of suicide, in order to experience grace.”

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8 people found this helpful

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A Great Existential Crisis In A Can
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2024
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I loved it. Compelling and plainly written. Lighter in tone than his other work.

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Jane Wilson-Howarth
okay
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 December 2021
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Not as inspiring and and uplifting as I was expecting, given this is considered a classic

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Richie
Narration not for me.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 March 2024
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Didn't like the narration. Personal choice and not a criticism. I failed to notice that I could pre-sample versions. However, I couldn't change my purchase to another narrator.

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Sarugumo
Siddhartha
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 April 2009
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`Siddhartha' is one of those books that is both simple to read and yet powerful and profound at the same time. Following a young Brahmin's son as he tries to find his spiritual path in life, this book manages to weave a tale that is both captivating and enlightening. This book is so good I could read the first 30 pages alone and put the book down a happy man, the remainder is purely icing on the cake! Hesse manages to write in a deceptively simple style that belies the depth to the message he shows us and the skill behind his writing. He won the nobel prize for good reason. This may be a short book, but it is one that will stay with you long after you have read it and will bring you back to rediscover it's delights at regular intervals. Beautiful prose, beautiful message and highly recommended indeed.

Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.

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Rajul Singh
As this story tells us, wisdom cannot be taught.
Reviewed in India on 17 September 2023
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"Siddhartha" means "one who achieved his goals" or "every wish has been satisfied". The name of Buddha, before his renunciation, was Prince Siddhartha Gautama, later after attaining enlightenment he came to be called as Gautama Buddha. The literal meaning of Buddha is one who has attained Bodhi; and bodhi is meant wisdom, so Buddha means “the enlighten one”— the knower.

I had wanted to read Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse for a long time. I am not very fond of spiritual literature, and even shun it many times, but still something in this book caught my attention. I had heard enough good things about this author to understand that giving Siddhartha a chance was worth it. So I started it, driven more by impulse than by something painstakingly deliberate and planned.

So I bought this book in around 2018 and read the first two chapters in two weeks. This may not speak highly of the literary or spiritual content of Siddhartha, but I actually feel that I failed to advance at an adequate speed because at that time I had not "opened up" to what Hesse could tell me. However, in 2020 during the lockdown, I gave him a chance again and tried to embark on reading in a different way, perhaps more private or personal; and, as you will see, I have already finished it. And I must accept that it was an extraordinary journey, through which I traveled with the Sramana Siddhartha in his search for supreme wisdom and peace of the soul in a voyeuristic but no less authentic way.

When it comes to Hesse, there is no need to talk about how well written his novel is, about the perfect approach he makes to nature, about the poetry that jumps off the pages when he talks about man and his tribulations. When it comes to Hesse all this is inherent, it is preferable, I think now, to speak of sensations.

Siddhartha, speaks to us about many things, is very spiritual and deep in the sense of self, being and soul. It is a book that can be read quickly, in two days if you have time, but I think you have to take it gently, in order to understand it, at least try to understand it and I think that I had to read it often, to be able to give it meaning of words, although some are clearer than water.

The many teachings that the book has is a mystery, because there are several, the philosophical sense, the venerable, cultured interior answer, depth of knowledge and knowledge.

The plot is narrated from the perspective of Siddhartha, son of Brahmans (priestly caste of India), who cannot find through regulated religiosity a way to satisfy his thirst for knowledge, his desire to find the first cause of things. Therefore, he decides to leave and go his own way in search of the ultimate truth of life.

In my view it is precisely the words of Hesse that make this novel such a delicacy. Its symbolism, its universality and the delicate simplicity when expressing Siddhartha's reflections, his fears and concerns, the questions inherent to the human condition.

Making an interpretation of the work from its universal philosophical intentionality, I praise the quality of Hesse and I prefer what, for me, is the main message of the work; each one must trace his own path, we must be our own guide.

In Siddhartha's words:
“I will no longer allow Siddhartha to escape me! I will no longer occupy my thoughts and my life in the search for the Atman or with inquiries about the suffering of the world. I am not going to kill myself again and fragment myself to search for a mystery behind the ruins. I will no longer be instructed by the "Yoga-Veda", the "Atharva-Veda", the ascetics or any other doctrine. I want to learn about myself, be my own disciple, know myself and penetrate this enigma called Siddhartha "

Words of Wisdom
“Once you hear this phrase: you are wise when it is useless. He believed that only time and perseverance teach us.”

“Premature knowledge is just a mere illusion of true knowledge that only arises in the middle of the years and the different experiences of life.”

“I have needed time to learn, and I still have not managed to understand that nothing can be learned! How true!”

“Words are harmful to the secret meaning of things; everything changes slightly when we express it, it seems a bit distorted, a bit silly ... "

“The human does not know how to live and does not know what he lives for, he has erroneous dreams and vain goals, we despise what we should love and we love what we should hate. Little by little we move away from our humanity and meaning, but we do not get to see the ambiguous paths that we choose, we do not see the paths that society itself has implanted for us to follow.”

Concluding thoughts
As this story tells us, wisdom cannot be taught. Decomposing information into language may become feasible, but it is not so with experience. Wisdom is achieved through the inner being, from the outside to the inside, and it is highly personal. Similarly, Siddhartha, somewhat contradictorily, can make many ideas clear, some somewhat controversial and others revealing. It is a reading that I highly recommend, as long as it is read with an open mind. I cannot say more since this path must be traveled by oneself and discovered in private. So here you go, go ahead and let yourself go.

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JürgenWag
Brilliant book
Reviewed in Germany on 25 February 2025
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Brilliant book.

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radostina sabeva
Must read
Reviewed in France on 25 May 2017
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The book is perfect for people interested in philosophy. Also anyone on a road of self-discovery and looking of answers to the questions of life and love and inner peace should read.
The narrative is slowly paced and very colorful.

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Amazon Customer
Self-published copy with poor layout
Reviewed in the United States on 11 April 2024
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I expected a high-quality, professionally set copy based on the description. Instead, I got a cheap reprint made with Calibri font, no page numbers, and awkward line breaks. Don't buy.

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Shane K. Joseph
A tale of universal truths
Reviewed in Canada on 24 October 2020
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I read this book and saw the movie many years ago as a teenager. It had a profound impact on me then. Now, as I enter my golden years, I picked it up again to see whether it had the same pull as before. The pull was greater this time.

Hesse, perhaps out of respect, and wanting to create fictional protagonists out of religious leaders, creates the fictional character of Siddhartha, one who has the same name as the Buddha. He lives during the time of the Buddha. Siddhartha’s life follows a similar path of the Buddha: born into privilege, rejecting comfort and taking up the ascetic life at a young age, discovering its limitations and taking the middle path to enlightenment, and ending his days as a great teacher and spiritual leader. In fact, the fictional Siddhartha meets the older Buddha and tells him that living by others’ teachings, something he had done as a Brahman and later as a Samana, is insubstantial; Siddhartha wants to experience enlightenment, just as the Buddha has done. The Buddha smiles, as if to say, “The road ahead is long and tortuous.”

Siddhartha, therefore, leaves the life of an ascetic Samana where his only skills are of waiting, fasting and thinking, to lead the sensual life. He takes up with the courtesan Kamala, becomes a successful businessman, and accumulates wealth. He gives into lust, and gambling, but finds both to be masks that hide his continued dissatisfaction. “I was afraid of myself, I was fleeing from myself! I searched Atman (soul), I searched Brahman, I was willing to dissect my self and peel off all its layers, to find the core of all peels in its unknown interior, the Atman, life, the divine part, the ultimate part. But I have lost myself in the process.” He finally leaves the worldly life too, heading for the river, a place where enlightenment will finally come, but only after learning the pain of love.

The river is a metaphor for the circular nature of life and the confluence of all desires and sufferings: flowing, evaporating, condensing and flowing once more. Everything and everyone that goes upstream, finally returns downstream, and the water flows everywhere simultaneously, making the past and the future irrelevant, making only the present matter.

There are some beautiful words of wisdom in this book, although Siddhartha claims that wisdom is intrinsic to the individual and cannot be transferred, as he had once complained to the Buddha.

1) Everyone can perform magic; everyone can reach his goals, if he is able to think, to wait, and to fast.
2) Writing is good, thinking is better. Intelligence is good, but patience is better.
3) “There was nothing that the wise one or thinker possessed that put him above the rest of them except for one single, small, tiny thing: the awareness and conscious thought of the unity of all life.”
4) “I therefore see whatever exists as good. Death is like life to me, sin is like holiness, wisdom is like foolishness; everything has to be just as it is, and everything requires only my consent, willingness, and loving agreement to become good to me and work for my benefit, unable to ever harm me.”
5) “When someone is searching, then it can easily happen that the only thing his eyes see is that for which he is searching. He is then unable to find anything or let any thought enter his mind because he always thinks of nothing but the object of his search. He is obsessed by a goal; searching means having a goal. But finding means: being free, open, and having no goal.”

The story is told in the form of a parable, full of wisdom and philosophy, low on the other elements of novelistic importance.

Hesse was supposed to have had a less than fulfilling visit to India before he wrote this novel. But I suppose the insights in this book did not only come from that visit but from a continuous preoccupation on the purpose of life and the search for meaning.

I highly recommend this read.

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Siddhartha Kindle Edition

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Ben Holden-Crowther

Hermann Hesse

Ben Holden-Crowther

Golden Classics

Harmann hesse

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Beautiful, Touching and Relatable story.

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5.0 out of 5 stars As this story tells us, wisdom cannot be taught.

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant book

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read

1.0 out of 5 stars Self-published copy with poor layout

5.0 out of 5 stars A tale of universal truths

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As this story tells us, wisdom cannot be taught.

Brilliant book

Must read

Self-published copy with poor layout

A tale of universal truths