Rating: 
Summary: Great, but not his best
Review: A wonderful experience, but the themes have been explored many times over in Hesse's more lyrical works. At time I felt as though I was reading a more complex version of other Hesse novels. The construction is impeccable and lucid. Nevertheless, the style is less poetic than Siddhartha and more emotionally distant than Demian.
Rating:
Summary: For Hesse devotees
Review: A difficult book to finish, even if you are a Hesse fan. Steppenwolf and Siddhartha were favorites of mine when I was younger. This novel has made me question Hesse. I'd have to say that I did not like the main body of the novel, Magister Ludi. I wish I had been better able to get what Hesse was trying to convey by this long and tedious story. However, the three short stories at the end redeemed the book as a whole, for me. I found them enjoyable and they spoke to me more clearly. Why should this book be called the Glass Bead Game? Hesse fails to develope this very fascinating idea to any real depth. For me, he seemed to fall short in developing the aspects of the story that I found interesting so I really was left wondering what he was trying to say in the novel. Surely it couldn't be a mere commentary on academia, the ivory tower. The poems and stories at the end feel like a commentary on the novel, but as such render the Magister Ludi story more disappointing rather than less. I wished Hesse had stuck to his orgininal plan of making this a series of reincarnation stories, making the Magister Ludi story a shorter story at the end of the series. This might have given more resonance to the Magister Ludi story while you read it, rather than getting the further shades of meaning from the stories at the end only after having read Ludi. The Drama was really killed by the narrative style Hesse chose to use for Ludi, and should be a lesson to any writer never to use such a style, pretending to be an academic biography. And then there is Hesse's usual disdain for women.
Of course, if you are a Hesse fan, you have to read this novel whether you like it or not. He seems to deal with many of the same issues in all of his novels. I intend to read the biography:
Hermann Hesse: Pilgrim of crisis, by Ralph Freedman, to get more insight on this and his other work.
Rating: 
Summary: Astonishing
Review: A true world masterpiece. Beware, this "hardcover" edition is an ugly orange library-quality binding with no dust jacket, in other words, hideous. I immediately hid it in a paper jacket. Additionally, the quality of the pages is only a half step up from recycled tabloid paper stock. Hesse and the Winstons deserve better.
Rating:
Summary: A Search for balance
Review: I came away with one main idea when finished with this 600 page tome of brilliance: Do not allow your soul to bend to your body, and do not allow your body to bend to your soul. This book is an expirience to read, and if you are familiar with Hesse's life, you will laugh with regularity at the sprinklings of subtle hilarity that litter the pages. The novel takes place in Castalia, a world dominated by the mind. The main character, Joseph, explores whether the world is a specious facade or a veritable heaven on earth. The esoteric "glass bead game" must be studied assiduously for years before one can begin to partake in the games. Joseph is dilegent but has massive growing pains that eventually lead to a overhaul of his beliefs.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not timeless
Review: I have just finished reading this book after a false start in college 8 years ago and after a month now. Siddhartha was a life changing novel when I read it as a college freshman and thought that maybe this would be as "awakening" for me now. However, I fear I read it too late and should have finished it 8 years ago when I was struggling with the notion of spending my life in academia. I came to the same conclusion about ivory towers that Knecht comes to about Castalia and moreover I have not regretted it as Plinio, nor did it take me a lifetime to realize. Knecht as a main character is rather lifeless and underdeveloped. It is this fact more than any other that makes this a difficult read. Even though Siddhartha clearly takes place at a point in history, it reads as fresh as if it were written today. On the other hand, The Glass Bead Game is so obviously written by someone living during World War II, or shall we say in the middle of the age of Fuillerton, that I found it quite distracting. Something along the lines of watching Soylent Green and having to believe that the world is going to be like that soon. I can appreciate it for a cautionary tale of stagnation and separation rather than synthesis; however, I don't feel the story itself truly captures the theme of transcendence which is a shame. I think that perhaps Hesse was trying too hard to infuse historical people and events into an existential idea and it doesn't really come off successfully for me. Moreover, there is no clear voice writing this story--at one point it's a Castalian telling a non-biography, at another it's a secondhand account, and at yet another it's an original document. This is a detriment to the storytelling, although I grant that it may have been used to reinforce the hypocrisy of Castalians being unable to successfully synthesize a single voice. I think Hesse was more successful at writing in shorter forms. The poems at the end were more poignant than the novel itself. Unlike Eco who is slow to start but then propels the reader forward, Hesse was unable here to compel me to keep reading. There are interesting ideas brought up and compelling notions, but as a novel I don't think it's his best. Perhaps this is a better read with a deeper knowledge of twentieth century philosophers, but it is this fact that keeps The Glass Bead Game from being timeless.
Rating:
Summary: A Few Words on "The Glass Bead Game"
Review: The multiplicity of levels of reading greatly enrich a work of art or literature. It is the ability to master this multiplicity what distinguishes artists from artisans and good narrative writers from mere story-tellers. "Das Glasperlenspiel" is a great book, so great that one would be tempted to look for support on the strong endorsements that the book has received since its publication. Undoubtedly, the 1946 Noble Prize in Literature carries a lot of weight. One is left to wonder about the significance of the dates. Why was the greatest prize awarded to a man that despised wars at the end of the worst of them for a book published in the middle of it (1943)?The truth is that "The Glass Bead Game" would not have been conceived without the World Wars. But now that they have happened, one must be glad that something this good came out of them. This is not a book about war. As a matter of fact, it takes place at a time when war lies distant in the past. It is really hard to say more, it is up to the reader to define the meaning of the story: his own or his lack of one. It has as many potential readings as readers there are in the world. Of course, this is by no means a conventional novel and unconventionalism is not always fully appreciated. In addition, if you really enjoy this book, you will ralize how hard it must have been to translate it. I have heard of bad translations into English and Spanish, and of people who have ended up hating the novel because of them. I had the good luck of getting this recent edition with a translation by Richard and Clara Winston that reads excellently. I recommend "Das Glasperlenspiel" as THE best book that I have ever read. Transzendieren!
Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointing
Review: Having enjoyed some of Hesse's other works I was very dissapointed with this book. I found it pedantic, slow moving, overlong and, quite frankly, boring. A white elephant in an ivory tower.
Rating:
Summary: Truly remarkable, amazingly subtle
Review: This book is brilliantly written (and brilliantly translated, I might add), but there is so much more to it than Joseph Knect's awakening and his poignant ending. The book is so subtle and so masterfully written it's scarry. Here are some examples. As the book begins, the narrator, far removed in time from Knect himself, seems rather indifferent towards the Knect, the glass bead game, and Castalia. As the book progresses, the narrator comes to admire Joseph Knect just as the reader does. His praise comes more often and his admiration is obvious. The writing style becomes more florid and poetic rather than the historical account of the first chapter. This illustrates how Knect puts a spell on people and is liked by all, including the narrator. Also, as the book begins from outside Castalia, there is copious detail about the surroundings and the world. As Knect becomes part of Castalia and the Order, the detail vanishes and instead becomes introspective, meditative prose that is based only on thoughts. Then at the end it goes back into vivid description of the setting. This shows how the world is more material and Castalia is more intellectual. During his time at the order, except during moments when he seems to be a citizen of the world, the book is virtually devoid of physical detail. Finally, the ending. I won't say what it is, but it is brilliant. When the beauty of reality and the genuine action of the "world" converged with the beauty of the intellectual and Cultural Castalia, you something momentus had to happen. Something had to give, but something was also created, almost greater because of the youth. If you haven't figured out already, I want you to READ THIS BOOK. I know I've missed much of it, but I wanted to relate what I did think I understood to you so that you might have a more enjoyable read. Also, in response to someone who thought it was boring. Although I see where he comes from, I disagree. I read the whole book in less than a week. Thanks for your time {{{milo}}}
Rating:
Summary: Breath-Taking View of a Developing Self
Review: The Glss Bead Game is something that I read just after my freshman year of college. It is something I never could have grasped a year prior. The novel explores the amazing growth that a person makes when the step out from their primary shelter. This was an experience I could relate to only after having left home. The book is slow in a linguistic sense, but don't let that ward you away. That is the point! The novel tracks the life of a profound and caring man. To move any faster than Hesse writes would be a travesty against the completeness of life we get to observe. I could not put this book down once I started reading. The collection of stories and poems at the end of the book are a delightful conclusion to an intensely captivating novel.
Rating:
Summary: Hesse at his most profound
Review: This book, along with the rest of the Hesse catalog, and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance changed my life forever. I am sure many have said this and many more will in years to come. I started reading Hesse when my best friend in high school got me to read Steppenwolf. I worked my way through Siddartha, Narcissus and Goldmund, Beneath the Wheel etc. But Magister Ludi was hard for me. I had a very hard time getting through the book for some reason. perhaps it is so dense and perhaps it is because I read it while I was in graduate school. But the book was difficult when I found other Hesse books absorbing. But like Pirsigs book, I understood that sometimes the hardest books to start are the ones that are the most rewarding. It is with that conviction that I finally finished reading Magister Ludi. The philosophical points and ideas in this book have transformed my world views and have given my life a meaning that wasn't there before. For better or for worse, this book change my world view and made introspection a daily part of my life. I think that this is a must read for any intelligent adolescent and that we need to require everyone who has read it to reread it at least once during their lifetime.
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