Prologue Summary and Analysis

The Prologue begins with Freedman saying that most artists create masks behind which they hide. Because of this, people look for truths in their works and in the dynamics of the artists. They think that finding out what goes on in the lives of the artists reveals more truth than their works do, although some critics strictly avoid this approach and keep the life or the author separate from his works.

Freedman feels that knowing something about the author helps to clarify his works and feels that this is particularly true of Hermann Hesse. He wrote about mundane happenings because he was looking for a sense of self. Hesse used everything that happened in his daily life in his writings. His persona is revealed through his novels, stories, poems and letters. He recorded his dreams in special notebooks. The tensions in...