Slightly misleading with the promise of a ‘novel,’ this more novella-like piece was pretty good considering the reused wander-to-discover-enlightenment bit…

Initially this book seemed to offer something more than the last two encounters I’ve had with Hesse; that is, by substituting his stereotypical wanderer with a set of wanderers. The company ranging from Xenophon, Plato and Pythagoras to Don Quixote and Baudelaire… A bizarre mix, except you don’t get much out of any of these characters other than being aware they are involved with the League—unfortunate.

It also seems like a prerequisite of Hesse’s characters to be loomed over by some body of authority? A league, a monastery, an order… The League in this case makes a good medium to make a statement about leadership through the use of Leo (the only other substance bearing character other than H.H, Hesse’s pseudo-autobiographical representative).

In honesty, this would have been a disastrously negative review if it had not been for role of Leo in this book, which strays away from the self-discovery arc and offers something new—a look into what it means to be a truly selfless leader.

3.5/5 Would possibly have been a 4 if this was my first read into Hesse. Still a brilliant book, just hard to place any higher after reading the GBG. I was also not too fond of the fever dream-esque ending resurfacing…