Siddhartha is a philosophical novel by Herman Hesse, telling the story of the time of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, when another man named Siddhartha leaves his home and begins a spiritual quest to rival that of the Enlightened One himself.

Summary of the Book

During the time when Gautama Buddha was teaching in Ancient India, a Brahmin man named Siddhartha leaves his home in a quest to find spiritual meaning. He is joined by his best friend Govinda. His journey brings him face to face with the Buddha. While Govinda joins the Buddha’s school, Siddhartha continues on his journey believing that every man must seek his own spiritual goals and that teachers can never show them the way. On this journey, he meets a beautiful woman named Kamala. She tells him that he must become rich to have her and this makes Siddhartha think again of materialistic things. When he earns the wealth he desires, he earns Kamala’s love and lives with her as a lover for years until once again Govinda crosses his path, now a wandering Buddhist. Opening his eyes at his shameful failure, Siddhartha goes to a ferryman he once met and decides to spend his life by the river, seeking spiritual fulfillment. Again he meets Govidna, and at last Siddhartha has the answers he has been searching. Herman Hesse’s most famous book is a monumental work into the realm of human spirit and the meaning of life.

About Herman Hesse

Herman Hesse was a German writer, poet, novelist and painter, also remembered for Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game.

Hesse’s foray into writing began when he started working in the bookshop in Tübingen, delving into his own work by the evening and choosing the books over friends. He was inspired by Nietzsche, Goethe, Lessing, Schiller and Greek mythology, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, and the Goethe Prize.