Reviews tagging 'Death'

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

18 reviews

poirot's review against another edition

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inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75


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sonias's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Любопытная книга о поиске истины, даëт пищу для размышлений. 

В частности, меня зацепила мысль о том, что невозможно передать мудрость. Ведь, как поётся в песне СБПЧ, слова - это просто слова. 

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dlrosebyh's review against another edition

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inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is the tale of a rich Indian Brahmin who gives up his privileged lifestyle in search of enlightenment. Hesse combines several philosophical perspectives—including Eastern faiths, Jungian archetypes, and Western individualism—into a singular interpretation of life as it is revealed through the pursuit of genuine meaning by one man. 
 
This is such a fantastic tale of a man learning the true meaning of serenity after passing through several stages, in my opinion. I wasn't sure whether I would like it because I don't read philosophy books very often, and they tend to be hit or miss for most people, but this one is certainly a hit because Siddharta is somewhat similar to me. 

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maess's review against another edition

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challenging informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

2.5


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franzi_'s review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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maricasement's review against another edition

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inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

First Read (2011): 4 stars
Re-read (2021): 3.5 stars

This book is about Hesse taking you on a journey to what he envisions of enlightenment*. It is a book made of cycles and of learning and relearning what the world is all about. In it, we follow Siddhartha on his own journey, and through it Hesse tries to help us holistically understand how the world is made up of cycles and how it is a big interconnected whole. 
This is an interesting and reflective book. You become frustrated by Siddhartha (I call him Sidd) and the people around him, you follow his thoughts and learn from them too. Ten years ago, when I first read it, I felt so light when I finished it, like I belonged to the whole world and it belonged to me. I felt calm and accepting of everything going on around me.
Now, my view of the world has changed and the world itself has. I am much more worried about how to change our world for the better, to not accept the devastating effects we all have on the climate. A part of accepting our unity with the world and its cycles is grounded on the idea that these cycles will never end or truly change, but if we keep doing what we've always done and just let our planet get worse, these cycles will not survive its devastation. 
Hesse's view of enlightenment* is beautiful and I do think that it is important to reflect upon many things that he does in this book. But I feel that his view also encourages complacency, and that is not something we can afford right now.

*I am aware that Hesse knew a lot about Hinduism and Buddhism and that this book is based on the religions' beliefs. I don't think he reached enlightenment himself, though, and I have no idea how faithful he is to what is taught by those who have reached it. Even if he is close to actual Buddhist teachings, I would rather not assume that his view of enlightenment and ones path to it are anything but that - his view. He does try to show in the book that people's ways of expressing what enlightenment is are different, so I don't think he'd mind me saying that what he writes is merely how he sees it, and not a universal truth. Please do correct me if I'm wrong.

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kyfrain's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I went into this book with high expectations and wow did they exceed them. i wanted to get a new way to look at life out of this and i got that doubled. i fell in love with the philosophy that siddhartha spoke of in the final few pages of the novel. i will absolutely be rereading this and annotating it, and possibly even claiming it as my favorite novel to date. 

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sneako's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5


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