My Belief: Essays on Life and Art

420 Pages·1974·16.175 MB·English

by  Hermann Hesse

——#T ESS
MY BELIEF

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Hermann Hesse was born in Germany, at Calw, Warttemberg
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on 2 July 1877. He began his career as a bookseller and started
to write and publish poetry at the age of twenty-one. Five years
later he enjoyed his first major success with his novels on youth
and educational problems: first Peter Camenzind (1904), then
The Prodigy (1905), followed by Gertrude (1910), Rosshalde
(1914), Knulp (1915) and Demian (1919). Later, when as a
protest against German militarism in the First World War he
settled permanently in Switzerland, he established himself as one
of the greatest literary figures of the German-speaking world.
Hesse’s deep humanity and searching philosophy were further
developed in such masterly novels as Siddhartha (1922),
Steppenwolf (1927), and Narziss and Goldmund (1930), which
together with his poems and a number of critical works won him,
a leading place among contemporary thinkers. In 1946 he won the
Nobel Prize for Literature. Hermann Hesse died in 1962 shortly
after his eighty-fifth birthday.
By the same author
Peter Camenzind
The Prodigy
Gertrude
Rosshalde
Knulp
Demian
Strange News from Another Star
Klingsor’s Last Summer
Wandering
Siddhartha
Steppenwolf
Narziss and Goldmund
The Journey to the East
The Glass Bead Game
Ifthe War Goes On...
Poems
Autobiographical Writings
Reflections
Crisis
Stories of Five Decades
A Pictorial Biography
Pictor’s Metamorphoses
HERMANN HESSE
My Belief
Essays on Life and Art
Edited and with an Introduction*
by Theodore Ziolkowski
Translated by Denver Lindley
With two essays translated by
Ralph Manheim
TRIAD
PANTHER
Triad/Panther Books
Granada Publishing Ltd
8 Grafton Street, London W1X 3LA
Published by Triad/Panther Books 1978
Reprinted 1979, 1985
Triad Paperbacks Ltd is an imprint of
Chatto, Bodley Head & Jonathan Cape Ltd and
Granada Publishing Ltd
First published in Great Britain by
Jonathan Cape Ltd 1976
Translation copyright © Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc 1974
ISBN 0-586-04487-6
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Collins, Glasgow
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form, or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publishers.
This book is sold subject to the conditions that it
shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent,
re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated
without the publisher’s prior consent in any
form of binding or cover other than that in
which it is published and without a similar
condition including this condition being imposed
on the subsequent purchaser.
The following essays originally published in German under the titles indicated, copyright
© 1957 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin and Frankfurt: ‘At Year’s End’ (Am Ende des
Jahres), ‘Old Music’ (Alte Musik), ‘Letter to a Philistine’ (Brief an einen Philister),
‘Language’ (Sprache), ‘The Refuge’ (Die Zuflucht), ‘Concerning the Soul’ (Von der
Seele), ‘Artists and Psychoanalysis’ (Kiinstler und Psychoanalyse), ‘From My Diary’
(Ein Stiick Tagebuch), ‘Fantasies’ (Phantasien), ‘On Poems’ (Ueber Gedichte), ‘The
Brothers Karamazov, or The Decline of Europe’ (Die Briider Karamasoft oder der Unter-
gang Europas), ‘Thoughts on The Idiot by Dostoevsky’ (Gedanken zu Dostojewskijs
‘Idiot’), ‘Books on Trial’ (Eine Biicherprobe), ‘Variations on a Theme by Wilhelm
Schafer’ (Variationen iiber ein Thema von Wilhelm Schafer), ‘On Reading Books’ (Vom
Biicherlesen), ‘A Poet’s Preface to His Selected Works’ (Vorrede eines Dichters zu seinen
ausgewahlten Werken), ‘About Jean Paul’ (Ueber Jean Paul), ‘Exotic Art’ (Exotische
Kunst), ‘On Hélderlin’ (Ueber Hélderlin), ‘Postscript to Novalis, Documents on His Life
and Death’ (Nachwort zu ‘Novalis: Dokumente seines Lebens und Sterbens’), ‘About
Dostoevsky’ (Ueber Dostojewskij), ‘A Night’s Work’ (Eine Arbeitsnacht), ‘The Magic of
the Book’ (Magie des Buches), ‘About Good and Bad Critics’ (Ueber gute und schlechte
Kritiker), ‘My Belief? (Mein Glaube), ‘Gratitude to Goethe’ (Dank an Goethe), ‘A Bit
of Theology’ (Ein Stiickchen Theologie), ‘On Reading a Novel’ (Beim Lesen eines Romans),
‘Memories of Klingsor’s Summer’ (Erinnerung an Klingsors Sommer), ‘Postscript to
Steppenwolf’ (Nachwort zum ‘Steppenwolf’), ‘Favourite Reading’ (Lieblingslektiire),
and ‘Interpreting Kafka’ (Kafka-Deutungen). The following essays originally published
in German, copyright © 1951 (Traumgeschenk), ‘Description of a Landscape’ (Beschrei-
bung einer Landschaft), and ‘Happiness’ (Gliick). ‘Mysteries’ and ‘On Old Age’ originally
published in German under the titles Geheimnisse and Ueber das Alter, respectively,
copyright © 1955 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin. ‘Our Age’s Yearning for a Philosophy
of Life’ and ‘Joseph Knecht to Carlo Ferromonte’ originally published in German
under the titles Die Sehnsucht unserer Zeit nach einer Weltanschauung and Josef Knecht
an Carlo Ferromonte, copyright © 1971 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt. ‘A Virtuoso’s
Concert,’‘The Omitted Word,’ and ‘On Little Joys’ originally published in German under
the titles Virtuosen-Konzert, Das gestrichene Wort, and Von den kleinen Freuden, copyright
© 1973 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt. The following essays originally published in
German in Schriften zur Literatur, copyright © 1970 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am
Main: ‘Letter toa Young Poet’ (Brief an einen jungen Dichter), ‘From a Diary’ (Aus einem
Tagebuch vom Juli), ‘Anti-Semitism’ (Zum Antisemitismus), ‘Caesarius of Heisterbach,’
‘Giovanni Boccaccio,’ ‘Casanova,’ ‘Hans Christian Andersen,’ ‘Walt Whitman,’ ‘August
Strindberg,’ ‘Selma Lagerlof,’ ‘Maurice Maeterlinck,’ ‘Romain Rolland,’ ‘André Gide,’
‘Rainer Maria Rilke,’ ‘D. H. Lawrence,’ ‘Thomas Wolfe,’ ‘J. D. Salinger,’ ‘Sigmund
Freud,’ ‘C. G. Jung,’ ‘Jacob Burckhardt,’ ‘Karl Marx,’ ‘Henri Bergson,’ ‘Count Hermann
Keyserling,’ ‘Oswald Spengler,’ ‘José Ortega y Gasset,’ ‘Leopold Ziegler,’ ‘Introduction,’
‘Hinduism,’ ‘The Speeches of Buddha,’ ‘Chinese Literature,’ ‘View of the Far East.’

Contents
All the essays in this book were translated by Denver
Lindley, except for “From a Diary” and “Anti-Semitism,”
which were translated by Ralph Manheim
The year of composition follows each title; in most cases,
first publication in German also occurred that year
INTRODUCTION BY THEODORE ZIOLKOWSKI Xi
PART ONE / ESSAYS, 1904-1961
At Year’s End (1904)
On Little Joys (1905)
Letter to a Young Poet (1910)
Old Music (1913)
Letter to a Philistine (1915)
Language (1917)
The Refuge (1917)
Concerning the Soul (1917)
Artists and Psychoanalysis (1918)
From My Diary (1918)
Fantasies (1918)
On Poems (1918)
The Brothers Karamazov, or The Decline of Europe
(1919)
Thoughts on The Idiot by Dostoevsky (1919)
Books on Trial (1919)
viii )
CONTENTS
Variations on a Theme by Wilhelm Schafer (1919) 96
On Reading Books (1920) Io!
A Poet’s Preface to His Selected Works (1921) 108
About Jean Paul (1921) 113
Exotic Art (1922) 123
On Holderlin (1924) 126
Postscript to Novalis, Documents on His Life and
Death (1924) 130
About Dostoevsky (1925) 133
Our Age’s Yearning for a Philosophy of Life (1926-27) - 136
A Night’s Work (1928) 142
A Virtuoso’s Concert (1929) 147
The Magic of the Book (1930) 153
About Good and Bad Critics (1930) 163
My Belief (1931)
Gratitude to Goethe (1932)
A Bit of Theology (1932)
On Reading a Novel (1933)
From a Diary (1933)
Memories of Klingsor’s Summer (1938)
Postscript to Steppenwolf (1941)
Favorite Reading (1945)
The Peach Tree (1945)
Dream Gift (1946)
Description of a Landscape (1947)
Mysteries (1947)
The Omitted Word (1948)
Happiness (1949)
On Old Age (1952)
Interpreting Kafka (1956)
Anti-Semitism (1922, 1958)
Joseph Knecht to Carlo Ferromonte (1961)