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Summary: Exceptional...
Review: More reading, and more amazing lessons behind every situation and thought that takes place. Hermann Hesse in this short story focuses even more on the importance of listening to our desires, and how living life fully is the greatest gift of all.Max Demian makes the life of Sinclair much more interesting, he kind of guides him to look at life differently and makes him believe more in himself. One of the best parts of the story is when Sinclair meets Eva, the devotion he has for her, and the oddity in their relationship. A must read book.
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Summary: An Entertaining Bildungsroman
Review: At the first glance, I didn't think much of the book. But as they say, don't judge by the cover, so I picked it up and began to read. Instantly you are transported into the world of Emil Sinclair. The story is interesting, and as the reader, I was eased into the deep theological messages. The novel is thoroughly entertaining as well as life changing. My only qualm is that if one is not familiar with certain biblical tales, he might miss out on some of the messages portrayed through these allusions...
Rating: 
Summary: Big little book
Review: Demian is only nominally a novel. The book is really just a vehicle for Hesse's philosophy. So that's the first thing you should know if you are thinking about reading it.
Demian deals with themes of childhood, "growing up," friendship, art, war, society, intellectualism, and probably touches on homosexuality as well. If these themes interest you at all you should find Hesse's opinions on them interesting - the author's voice comes through so clearly in the book you sometimes forget it is a story at all rather than an essay.
Demian seems very much locked in its time (immediately after WW I) and was probably much more compelling for readers back then than it is now. It's not a tough read, though. Just remember to stop and think.
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Summary: leave me blank please
Review: Somtimes i feel that it doesn't do the author any justice to have a cut and dry "why i like or why i disliked book." In some instances, it's better left for the author to express his true meaning without the bias of an individual 'reviewing' his piece. Therefore, i have picked 2 pieces out of the novel in which i feel holds so much beauty and meaning that it would be impossible for anyone to get the same meaning without reading it for himself. "For example, there is a species of butterfly, a night-moth, in which the females are much less common than the males. The moths breed exactly like all animals, the male fertilizes the female and the female lays the eggs. Now, if you take a female night moth----many naturalists have tried this experiment---the male moths will visit this female at night and they will come from hours away. From hours away! Just think! From a distance of several miles all these males sense the only female in the region. One looks for an explanation for this phenomenon but it is not easy. You must assume that they have a sense of smell of some sort like a hunting dog that can pick up and follow a semmingly imperceptible scent. Do you see? Nature abounds with such inexplicable things. But my argument is: if the female moths were as abundant as the males, the latter would not have such a highly developed sense of smell. They've acquired it only because they had to train themseleves to to have it. If a person were to concentrate all his will power on a certain end, then he would achieve it. That's all. And that also answers your question. Examine a person closely enough and you know more about him than he does himself." --------- Hermann Hesse "Now everything changed. My childhood world was breaking apart around me. My parents eyed me with a certain embarrassment. My sisters had become strangers to me. A disenchantment falsified and blunted my usual feelings and joys: the garden lacked fragrance, the woods held no attraction for me, the world stood around me like a clearance sale of last year's secondhand goods, insipid, all its charm gone. Books were so much paper, music a grating noise. That is the way leaves fall around a tree in autumn, a tree unaware of the rain running down its sides, of the sun or the frost, and of life gradually retreating inward. The tree does not die. It waits." ----------Hermann Hesse
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Summary: What a journey!
Review: Demian is the most impressive, honest story about a boy becoming an adult. It will take you through that trip in a way no other book has done it before. It will help reconstruct that part of your life. I specially recommend to people around 30 who will find themselves exposed to their own growth. I was always a big fan of Siddharta (also a 5 star) but Demian is better in my humble opinion.
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Summary: The Egg from which all of Hesse's books were born
Review: Hesse's book is about not being blindly part of the majority at a time when many began to think the majority was perhaps not always right. After all it was blind following that allowed something as atrocious as WW1 to happen. But Hesse shows that the forces that shape external events are the same forces that exist within us, but it is up to us as individuals to deal with them in our own way. Jung would call this process individuation. Hesse as novelist shows this process of becoming an individual with his character Emil. Emil is probably on the road to becoming just another member of the middle class when he meets Demian. Demian is an unsettling presence to Emil but also an attractive one. Their friendship leads Emil down a very interesting path, one of self discovery. Demian, the character, to me represents art, and philosophy and religion and all things which inspire man to resist the status quos influence and strike out on his own. In great part the process by which Emil discovers himself is an internal one so the reality in the book often feels skewed as things described are highly subjective. I remember Demians mother when I think of this book because she is one of the first bohemian women I ever encountered in a book. Very attractive and very smart and aware and surrounded by art. She is like an Indian goddess in my memory. In the early days of the twentieth century the east was still a great mystery to the west and so figures like Freud and Jung as well as authors like Hesse attributed to the east the lesser understood aspects of our western natures. Later Hesse books deal with the east more specifically as a journey into those lesser understood areas of ouselves but already in Demian the cosmology is an earthier one than the one traditionally described as western. There are images of destruction and creation and Hesse attempts to synthesize these great forces into an integrated whole in the character of Emil. As always though in Hesse the journey is an ongoing one and his message is not to dictate to you the course your own journey should take, just that you should take one.
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Summary: Contradictory
Review: In a nutshell, Demian is the story of a boy (Emil) becoming a man and searching for his identity, faith, and social aesthetic. This is done in the context of a metaphysical connection between him and a small cabal of others who guide each other. This is not a subtle book, but despite its faults I think it's enjoyable. It's most interesting to see Hesse's ideas and style develop and the seeds of "Narcissus and Goldmund" are here and
"Siddhartha" almost seems like a second draft of Demian. The real problem, and the reason I almost rated the book 3 stars, is that it's clear that Hesse is trying to distinguish the current social aesthetic as changing drastically, with only a few people thoughtful enough to observe these changes. Hesse sees himself (as I said, this is not a subtle book) as one of these people, radically different from his contemporaries and predecessors. Yet in spite of this, he uses all of the overstatement and flowery language, overdramatics, and phraseology of the German Romantics -- exactly the group he's claiming a separation from! He follows the old structure as well, following the boy into adulthood and doesn't really innovate in this realm either. Nonetheless, Emil's adolescence is well-portrayed and I felt for his isolation for those years. The middle third is exceptional. I would read Hesse's later material first, the ideas being better explored and more fully realized, but wouldn't hesitate to suggest this one as well.
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Summary: A beacon on the path of enlightenment.
Review: This story was recommended to me recently, and after reading it, I heartedly concur. If you are lost, longing for meaning, feel the calling of a higher power; read this book. It has inspired me to new levels of consciousness and awareness, as well as appreciation of life and wonder. Hesse captures deep rooted feelings of lonliness and self-exile, and eventual calm as he portrays this childhood/adolescence. Read the book. And then read it again. I have found new and continuing pleasure in Hermann Hesse. I also was inspired to re read "Steppenwolf" by Hesse. Another wonderful work of similar quality.
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Summary: Consider this book a bible
Review: This book has inspired me in so many ways. It deals with a very precise religion, value system, and life of the so called Emil Sinclair. It is a life-changing book which opens your eyes to another level of spirituality. I have read this book 3 times and I still do not get tired of it. I consider it my bible. It is a must get for everyone who is a fanatic of Hesse.
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Summary: Moral Basis of Society on Trial
Review: In classic Hesse style, the basic moral foundations of our beliefs are brought into question here. Hesse boldy asks: What is gained from living a humble life and allowing for society to dictate to us right and wrong? He advocates venturing off on ones own to discover the proper lifestyle, ethics and spirituality for themselves. A common theory prescribed to judging people is evil vs. good. Hesse teaches us that everybody has a certain measure of both in him, so those traits do not make a person unique. It is impossible to separate heaven from hell, because everything draws from both those concepts for its composition. Hesse evokes many prevelent images and allows us to develope them further into more concrete themes. Complete domination of physical happenings over spiritual enlightenments, so common in todays novels, goes gliding out the oriface of superfluity in this brilliant master piece.
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