Unless you are an English major or a lover of books, you probably never heard of Hermann Hesse. He is known for this novel, “Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair’s Youth” which told the story of a boy named Emil Sinclair, who is described as “world of light” and “world of illusion”. This novel was originally written in German for it is known as a Bildungsroman.
What is so unique about this novel is that it was first published as “Emil Sinclair” because that was the narrator, but Hesse revealed that he is actually the author
His existence in the novel can be summarized as the struggle between the two worlds of illusion and reality as he is accompanied by his new mysterious classmate, Max Demian. With Demain, Emil revolts against superficial ideals of the world and *spoiler alert*. The only surprise I will give is that this novel could be called a realization of self novel.
I read this book for two reasons: one, I was recommended to read this book after conquering John’s Milton “Paradise Lost” and two, when a k-pop group called BTS released their music video to ‘Spring Day’, it made many references to the novel which I wanted to learn more about, so I found an e-book version of the novel and got to reading.
One thing I will point out from this novel is that it’s not an easy read. You must take your time for the themes that this book have: Embracing duality and spiritual enlightenment. Emil is the symbol of duality of existence for his internal quest for fulfillment as he have to seek out guidance and validation from multiple characters in the book.
Do I recommend this book to everyone? I do if you are able to retain a lot of information that do come around in full swing near the last couple of chapters in the book. I truly connected with Emil throughout this novel and if you can as well, it will make this adventure a lot easier to comprehend. Emil is also a teenager for it’s been two years since I read it, I can’t remember off the top of my head if his age was mentioned at all.
If you decide to give this book and like it, let me know! If you gave it a chance and got confused along the way, don’t hesitate to reach out to me as I can probably help you; or if you didn’t read it all, that’s fine as well. See if you can find an audiobook to make it easier. I hope you enjoy this review and see you next week!
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