[Hesse] produced some twenty-five important works. While some of these belong to the realm of poetry, his most important novels are autobiographical in nature or fall into the category of Erziehungsromane. The Erziehungsroman, or novel of education, commonly shows the protagonist in his effort to cope with the demands that life throws up to him. How do I live best? How can I master the art of living the abundant life? These are most often the problems confronting Hesse's leading personalities. In nearly every one of his works there is thus some attempt at soul-searching. Most of his characters try desperately to come to terms with themselves, and most try to achieve a certain measure of self-realization. There is always the problem of man's spiritual loneliness, the effort to find one's way in a world where individualism and introspection are suspect. (pp. 27-8)
Hesse has repeatedly condemned our age as materialistic and devoid of spirit. It is an epoch that only pays lip service to the ideals of Western civilization and thereby has sunk to a low level of culture where lofty thoughts have been replaced by greed and technics. Man does not envision any more the ideal possibilities of life but has become corrupt. Hesse calls our age "the journalistic age—the era of the digest."…
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