Demian

By Hermann Hesse, Thomas Mann

A boy battles illusion and truth, seeking self-realization.

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207 pages· 50,903 words

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Bookroo's summary

Emil Sinclair, a young boy from a bourgeois home, finds himself torn between a world of illusion and spiritual truth. Guided by his enigmatic classmate, Max Demian, Emil embarks on a journey of self-discovery, challenging superficial ideals. As he navigates this duality, he confronts profound questions of identity and consciousness, influenced by Gnostic ideas and Jungian psychology. Will Emil awaken to his true self, or remain trapped in the shadows of illusion?

From the publisher

2011 Reprint of 1948 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. The main character of this classic novel, Emil Sinclair, is a young boy raised in a bourgeois home, amidst what is described as a Scheinwelt, a play on words that means “world of light” as well as “world of illusion”. Emil’s entire existence can be summarized as a struggle between two worlds: the show world of illusion (related to the Hindu concept of maya) and the real world, the world of spiritual truth. In the course of the novel, accompanied and prompted by his mysterious classmate ‘Max Demian’, he detaches from and revolts against the superficial ideals of the world of appearances and eventually awakens into a realization of self. The novel refers to the idea of Gnosticism, particularly the god Abraxas, showing the influence of Carl Jung’s psychology. According to Hesse, the novel is a story of Jungian individuation, the process of opening up to one’s unconsciousness.

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