Sweet simple ( )

A formative book for me in high school, less impactful now that I'm old and wise. ( )

D (Bad).

Bad philosophizing with just enough of a semblance of a story to pretend it's fiction. I'm giving up after 50 pages.

(Oct. 2023) ( )

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse is a classic and this edition is a beautifully illustrated (illuminated?) version.

I don't recall exactly when I first read this novel, I went through all of his English translations for the first time in the mid-70s, but this is one of a handful I have revisited several times since then. There has been so much written about the book I don't think I need to say more, other than some of the criticism as an outsider writing about Buddhism are overstated. I have read writers from non-Christian faiths include less than accurate portrayals of Christianity in works that highlight some of Christianity's positive lessons, and I don't think there was anything wrong with that. Same here. Not to say one should read this as a way to Buddhist enlightenment, but it can be read as how one character used some of the Buddha's teachings to find his own path.

As for this edition, though this is obviously not a handwritten text I lean toward thinking of this as more illuminated than illustrated. I think of illustrated as being where scenes from a story are scattered throughout, specific enough that the reader can find the corresponding passage if they so choose. Illuminating, as I'm using it here, consists of flourishes and decorative illustrations that try to capture the emotion and spirit of the work rather than a faithful reproduction of a scene. That is minor semantics, I realize, but I want a potential reader to be prepared for what they are getting. And it is beautifully done, so with the proper expectations you will be more than pleased.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )

I was always curious as to why I was named so - my mother tells me that my father started reading this book two to three months before I was born. He finished it a week before my birth - and it made such an impression that I was named Siddhartha after the book's central character. This book, for this reason, has a permanent place in our bookshelf. I picked it up on a whim, and was absolutely blown away. This book is truly timeless - Hesse expresses simple and pure ideas with magnificent elegance.

In Buddhist mythology, Siddhartha Gautama is a man who realises that the world is meaningless, if lived either fully in desire or asceticism - after achieving enlightenment, he becomes the Buddha, and spreads the concept of a 'middle path'. Hesse takes this concept even further, and separates Siddhartha and Gautama - in his work, Siddhartha is the son of a Brahmin who longs to rise above his mortal shell, and Gautama (stylized as Goutama) is the Buddha, who has already achieved enlightenment by the time Siddhartha steps to find out meaning in his life.

The journey of Siddhartha never stops - whether sinning, repenting or at peace with himself, Siddhartha never ceases to be static. And yet he would not trade these experiences for anything in the world - because they are what has moulded him. Learning that money, love, cowardice and avarice exist - and learning to experience them, while rising above them, is what Siddhartha learns through the course of the novel.

In a sense, Siddhartha is the ultimate existentialist. He loves everyone and everything, warts and all, simply because they are - thus freeing himself from both human and material attachments, and achieving enlightenment. He can be easily dismissed as something to be read about, absorbed and dismissed, because of his philosophy's seeming naïveté.

However, the central theme of Siddhartha is not the protagonist's teachings per se, but his unwavering belief that introspection and self-taught lessons are always better than what a teacher may impart, because secondhand knowledge can be dangerous. And that is a belief that is as valid in a utopia, as it is in ours. This, and other such concepts scattered around the work, makes the book stay with you long after you've read it. ( )