The Glass Bead Game

by Hermann Hesse

Hardcover

English language

Published June 11, 1992 by Peter Smith Publisher.

ISBN:: 978-0-8446-6524-5
OCLC Number:: 232925524

(27 reviews)

Set in the twenty-third century, The Glass Bead Game is the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).

7 editions

Dee reviewed The glass bead game by Hermann Hesse

Best read of the year

5 stars

Second book into Hesse’s corpus and I’m noticing Hesse has quite the obsession with the balance between ascetic intellectualism and giving in to worldly desires/instincts and nature… I like it.

He picks up on his theme of self-actualisation and discovering ‘true’ love of the world again quite well—somehow his characters feel fresh despite all their developments essentially being through the same wanderer arc? The neuroticism of some of his characters—Tegularius in specific—is finely executed and is reminiscent of Dostoevsky’s ‘troubled’ archetype.

5/5 So good I might get into Indian philosophy and a bit of Nietzsche myself…

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Second book into Hesse’s corpus and I’m noticing Hesse has quite the obsession with the balance between ascetic intellectualism and giving in to worldly desires/instincts and nature… I like it.

5/5 So good I might get into Indian philosophy and a bit of Nietzsche myself…

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‘World history is a race with time, a scramble for profit, for power, for treasures. What counts is who has the strength, luck, or vulgarity not to miss his opportunity. The achievements of thought, of culture, of art are just the opposite. They are always an escape from the serfdom of time, man crawling out of the muck of his instincts and out of his sluggishness and climbing to a higher plane, to timelessness, liberation from time, divinity. They are utterly unhistorical and antihistorical.’

bondolo reviewed The glass bead game by Hermann Hesse

Review of 'The glass bead game' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This is a book I will always have mixed feelings about. It was much better than I expected, but not without significant faults. The three short stories were revealing in their alignment with the themes of the main story. They were blunt and repetitive on those themes. Only those who conform can serve.

loppear reviewed The glass bead game by Hermann Hesse

Review of 'The glass bead game' on Goodreads

3 stars

This is a slow odd book, and one I very much enjoyed, the second half in particular. This is Hesse arguing for a balance between academic intellectualism and worldly involvement, in a beautifully thorough way.