Chapter 6 Summary and Analysis

Hesse leaves Bern and goes to Italy. This period is referred to as Hesse's exile. Eventually he settled in Montagnola which was his home for the rest of his life. He was revived by the atmosphere in which he lived. Hesse lived a poor and monastic life and was no longer affluent but was productive. The environment prompted him to paint and write. This period is referred to as his third new life.

Hesse had many friends surrounding him. It was during this time that he met the woman who would become his second wife, Ruth Wenger, who spent her summers in Carona, a village across the hall from where Hesse lived. She forms the basis for a character in his Klingsor's Lost Summer. He paints landscapes and writes about nature during this time and begins working on Siddhartha, which was...