The other day I finished Steppenwolf, by Hermann Hesse. I would assume most people here have read it, and many probably have studied it and Hesse in depth. I don't know if this forum is the right place for this, but I thought I'd start here.
The first thing I want to say is that Steppenwolf is one of the best, most deeply moving, and, for me, highly personal novels I've ever read. I felt like a novel had been written about me and for me--something which, I imagine, generations of its readers have also felt. Although the book was part of the syllabus of a philosophical literature class I took in high school (I was in a small program for advanced students), I never actually read it, and as soon as I started to do so recently I was so glad. One needs to be a mature adult to understand and appreciate this story, this protagonist.
Mind you, Siddhartha I did read in that course, and it literally changed my life, awakening my fourteen-year-old mind to Buddhism, the idea of higher consciousness, walking a spiritual path, etc. I would go on to read that book a few times, and become deeply involved with Eastern thought and spirituality, especially different strains of Buddhism.
Now, here's why I really wanted to relate to you all the fact that I had recently read Steppenwolf. I would imagine that this is a book that whole college courses are devoted to, as well as dissertations, weighty tomes and academic careers, or parts of them. Now that I've come to understand that some of you are precisely the sort of serious scholars and academicians in question, I had hoped you could offer guidance and insight about this book. If it's been discussed on this site at length in the past, apologies, maybe you can direct me to such discussion.