Siddhartha is a novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha. The story takes place in Nepalese plain land-Kapilvastu. Siddhartha decides to leave behind his home in the hope of gaining spiritual illumination by becoming an ascetic wandering beggar of the Shramanas. Joined by his best friend Govinda, Siddhartha fasts, becomes homeless, renounces all personal possessions, and intensely meditates, eventually seeking and personally speaking with Gautama, the famous Buddha, or Enlightened One....

Siddhartha is a 1922 novel by Hermann Hesse that deals with the spiritual journey of self-discovery of a man named Siddhartha during the time of the Gautama Buddha. The book, Hesse's ninth novel, was written in German, in a simple, lyrical style. It was published in the U.S. in 1951 and became influential during the 1960s. Hesse dedicated the first part of it to Romain Rolland and the second to Wilhelm Gundert, his cousin.

Hermann Hesse was born in 1877 at Calw, Germany, into a scholarly and deeply religious family. Hesse's "tyrannical temperament, and passionate turbulence" led to conflict with his strait-laced parents and his adolescence was unhappy - brief stints at a variety of different schools culminating in a suicide attempt and a short stay in a mental institution. Determined to become a writer, Hesse used these unfortunate experiences as the basis of many of his critically acclaimed books, including the present work.

Demian is the story of a young boy, Emil Sinclair, and his quest...