- Paperback: 576 pages
- Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; First Edition edition (Jun 15 1990)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 080501246X
- ISBN-13: 978-0805012460
- Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 14 x 4.1 cm
- Shipping Weight: 567 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#358,313 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #45 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics > German
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
The Glass Bead Game, for which Hesse won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946, is the author’s last and crowning achievement, the most imaginative and prophetic of all his novels. Setting the story in the distant postapocalyptic future, Hesse tells of an elite cult of intellectuals who play an elaborate game that uses all the cultural and scientific knowledge of the Ages. The Glass Bead Game is a fascinating tale of the complexity of modern life as well as a classic of modern literature.
This edition features a Foreword by Theodore Ziolkowski that places the book in the full context of Hesse’s thought.
This edition features a Foreword by Theodore Ziolkowski that places the book in the full context of Hesse’s thought.
Ingram
Setting his story in the distant, post-Holocaust future, Hesse tells of an elite cult of intellectuals occupying themselves with an elaborate game that employs all the cultural and scientific knowledge of the ages. The most imaginative and prophetic of Hesse's works.
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First Sentence
The hierarchic organization cherishes the ideal of anonymity, and comes very close to the realization of that ideal. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
The hierarchic organization cherishes the ideal of anonymity, and comes very close to the realization of that ideal. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
His best work,
By
This review is from: The Glass Bead Game (Paperback)
Although Hesse is not in fashion among academics these days, this book (unlike some of his earlier more romantic stuff) deserves to be noticed as a great work of the 20th century. It's very complex, and can be frustrating (especially if you have little or no knowledge of German history, literature and music); it's nevertheless an important, and often very moving reflection on the nature of modern society (and isn't yet outdated), and equally on some of the dangers of trying to escape that society.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hesse Capitivates,
By
This review is from: The Glass Bead Game (Paperback)
The Glass Bead Game is another excellent novel by Hesse. I have read and very much enjoyed both Siddhartha and Demian years ago, and found The Glass Bead Game to be a equally enjoyable, though clearly more sophisticated book. Told from the perspective of an anonymous biography, the story revolves around a rather likable character named Joseph Knecht and his ascent throughout the rather esoteric hierarchy of the Order.The tale is presented in a rather fragmented style, highlighting various part's of Joseph's life and the relationships he develops with various figures throughout. Although the book begins slowly, I found it does gradually pick up, and becomes completely engrossing in the later chapters. Like Hesse's other works, The Glass Bead Game offers plenty of insight into society, culture and the human spirit. If you enjoyed Demian or Siddhartha, with a bit of effort, you should enjoy the Glass Bead Game.
4.0 out of 5 stars
The ideal teacher in a decayed system,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Glass Bead Game (Paperback)
This is a really important book that unfortunately has too often been misunderstood by both its supporters & detractors. I've been looking through all of the reviews to Hesse's "Glass Bead Game"(Magister Ludi), and one important theme that most have missed is the theme of education--an issue which Hesse has consistently introduced into his work from the very beginning, "Beneath the Wheel", to the end of his writing career. This book is, I believe, Hesse's exploration of what the ideal teacher (the magister) and ideal educational society (Castalia) should be like. However, it seems that through the course of writing about this ideal society, and writing from within it by using the masks of genre (i.e. Knecht's poems & writings), Hesse comes to the conclusion that even an ideal society is doomed to fail if the educational system ROTS from within. Seen in this light, the Glass Bead game, which many readers are disappointed to find only lightly sketched-out, is really not that important to the story; it's only a curiousity demonstrating the end-process of the Castalia system. The real issue is the methodology of teaching & the problems facing an ideal society that has lost touch with the real world. Indeed, Knecht admits that as he gets older he prefers to teach younger & younger students in order to reach them earlier. A hint that maybe all is not right with the process of educating those who become members of the "order". The book is, as many readers know, quite a feat of the imagination and a feat of literary mastery, but at it's heart are basic questions: how do we educate ourselves and others, how do we use what we've learned, and how do we balance the real world with the imagined world? These are difficult questions, but they are the ones that Hesse tries to solve with this book; the game itself is but a convenient vessel with which to explore these issues.
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