Demian

Hermann Hesse · 1877–1962 · Germany / Switzerland

Originally Demian (German)

Why it matters

Emil Sinclair is pulled out of childhood safety by the enigmatic Max Demian and into a lonely search for his own daimon. Hesse published it pseudonymously at forty-two, passing it off as a young man's debut; it became the shell-shocked postwar generation's bible.

At a glance

Dense Jungian symbolism and inward, essayistic passages slow a short bildungsroman.