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This allegorical novel, set in sixth - century India around the time of the Buddha, follows a young man on his search for enlightenment. Here the spirituality of the East and the West have met in a novel that enfigures deep human wisdom with a rich and colorful imagination.
Written in a prose of almost biblical simplicity and beauty, it is the story of a soul's long quest in search of the ultimate answer to the enigma of man's role on this earth. As a youth, the young Indian Siddahartha meets the Buddha but cannot be content with disciples's role : he must work out his own destiny and solve his own doubt - a tortuous road that carries him through the sensuality of a love affair and riches, the heartache of struggle with his own son, to final renunciation and self-knowledge.
The name "Siddhartha" is one often given to the Buddha himself - perhaps a clue to Hesse's aims in contrasting the traditional legendary figure with his own conception, as a European (Hesse was Swiss), of a spiritual explorer.
