Siddhartha
Siddhartha, the son of a Brahmin in ancient India, leaves his father's house with his friend Govinda to live as a shramana, an ascetic who owns nothing and wants nothing. Over decades, he meets the historical Buddha Gautama and chooses not to become his disciple, spends years as the lover of the courtesan Kamala and the student of a wealthy merchant named Kamaswami, grows rich and disgusted with himself, nearly drowns himself in a river, and finally apprentices to a ferryman named Vasudeva who teaches him to listen to the water. Hermann Hesse's 1922 novella, written after a long personal crisis and a trip to India, became one of the defining Western introductions to Eastern spiritual thought, prized less for its theology than for the simplicity of its parable structure.
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Young Siddhartha leaves his Brahmin family to wander as an ascetic, hears the Buddha teach, becomes a courtesan's lover and a wealthy merchant, then leaves all of it to listen to a river with a kindly ferryman.
Partly. Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha (1922) is a fictional spiritual journey set in the time of the historical Buddha. The protagonist Siddhartha is a separate character who briefly meets the Buddha but follows his own path.
Yes in many jurisdictions. Siddhartha was published in 1922 and is in the public domain in the United States. Free editions of older translations are available.
Siddhartha was written by Hermann Hesse, published in 1922 by Independent Publishing Aggregators.
Siddhartha is 130 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Siddhartha takes most readers 2 to 3 hours to finish.
Siddhartha is a standalone novel by Hermann Hesse, not part of a series.
Siddhartha is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
