In the following essay, Boulby describes Hesse's familiarity with the East, apparent in Siddhartha and many of the author's writings.

In the following excerpt, Marrer-Tising provides an analysis of thematic elements in Siddhartha.

In the following essay, Ziolkowski discusses the influence Eastern thought and religion had on Hesse's writing of Siddhartha, and finds parallels between the life of Buddha and that of Siddhartha.

In the following essay, Shaw assesses Hesse's attempt in Siddhartha to transcend the limitations of time and to experience temporal unity.

In the following essay, Narasimhaiah discusses several shortcomings in Siddhartha, writing that Hesse's novel is hopelessly deficient in enactment, frequently confusing, and that the novelist becomes a perpetual commentator instead of letting the characters define themselves.

In the following excerpt, Stelzig discusses Siddhartha in terms of authobiography, biography, life and art, and the subjectivity evident in modern literature.

In the following excerpt, Mileck examines the influences that led Hesse to write Siddhartha, which he calls “a depiction of the human condition … and a sublime statement of faith in man and life.”

In the following essay, originally published in 1970, Field comments on the background and social setting in which Siddhartha was written.

In the following essay, Byrd explores how Charles Johnson—American author and scholar who won the National Book Award in 1990 for Middle Passage—was influenced by Siddhartha in writing his novel Oxherding Tale.

In the following essay, Hughes strives to illuminate Siddhartha in light of motifs important in the Babylonian Gilgamesh epic.

In the following essay, Brown discusses various theories about the Indian elements in Siddhartha.

In the following essay, Beerman explains the influences of the Bhagavad-Gita on Hermann Hesse and on his novella Siddhartha.

In the following essay, Bardine explains his view that Hesse's Siddhartha should be categorized as a divine comedy, evidenced by the fact that the work contains all eight characteristics of divine comedy suggested by Eugene R. August.

In the following essay, Butler opposes Hesse's presentation of human existence in Siddhartha, adding that he finds the novel “laboured and unconvincing.”

In the following essay, Rose comments on the artistic logic that prompted Hesse to use the influences of his own life experience in writing Siddhartha.

In the following essay, Jehle discusses Hesse's use of the garden motif in Siddhartha and other works.

In the following excerpt, Richard examines Hesse's idea of unity in Siddhartha, and asserts that it is an intellectual construct not based on personal experience.

In the following excerpt, Norton examines the future as a significant component of idealistic projection in Hesse's writing.

In the following essay, Malthaner discusses the relative “unpopularity” of Hesse's writing in the United States prior to the early 1950s, due to Hesse's preoccupations with autobiography and “Weltanschauung,” a philosophy of life, and how Siddhartha is such a work of literature.

Siddhartha is a fictitious biography. A sort of Bildungsroman, it records the passage of a special individual through selected key experiences until he attains to a position of competence in dealing with what little life is left to him. The nature of Siddhartha's preoccupations and development, and the stylistic devices used to relate them, suggest that the work is the repository of certain truths regarding human existence in general…. (p. 117) Siddhartha is not content. He is conscious of a d...

In the following essay, Spector comments on Hesse's belief that the communication of essential truth can take place only in a person's own experiential circumstances, and the effects of this belief on literary art.

[Hesse] is deeply loved by those among the American young who are questing. His simplest, clearest, most innocent tale of seeking and finding is Siddhartha….