A sad story .. so cold .. what a hard life! I am not interested in Buddhism but I like Hesse! He is so sensitive and realistic ..just like a painter taking his time to finish his portrait after studying every stroke and every color..

Despite all the hardships that Siddhartha go through, you always feel at ease, relaxed .. totally enjoying the story.. It is full of wisdom .. extreme measures .. but as Siddhartha said no one can feed you his/her experience you have to try and learn .. you can choose to be a falling leaf or a star?! searching and looking for answers .. we can make our own future .. depending on which path we choose .. but fate and luck are part of this future ..and Love conquers all!

Siddhartha provides a great reading experience. Written as a short, intellectual story of a man searching for enlightment, this novel stirs up thoughts in every readers mind. Siddhartha leaves his Brahmin father's home to join an aesthetic life with monks who live in the forest. After hearing a sermon from a true Buddha, Siddhartha decides that he must search his awakening on his own. He goes into town where he meets a women who teaches him about money and love. When Siddhartha realizes that he has turned into a greedy man he retreats to the forest where he lives with a boat rower. He discovers that he has a son and he raises him after his mother dies. Then his son chooses to leave him for a more materialistic life in town. Siddhartha learns many lessons throughout the novel which we can all apply to our lives. Everone should definetly read this novel.

One of the truly wonderful books I have read and read and read again. I keep waiting as I age to finally become so cynical that I don't appreciate it, but it doesn't happen. I have also taught the book at the community college level with an outstanding response. One interesting note that has been pointed out to me is the book loosely follows the narrative of the Book of Ecclesiastes from the Old Testament. Like the speaker in that work, Siddhartha experiments with the broad aspects of life: intellectualism, pleasures of the flesh, acquisitiveness, and so forth. And like the speaker in the Bible he finds them all a bit wanting.

Ignore the reviewers who are picking the book apart on religious grounds, and so forth -- it's not intended to be educational in that sense. As for those who say the lessons of the book are ones that we all know -- well, I say that it's the reponsibility of great writing to PRESENT those ideas with the kinds of images that help us feel what the writer is saying. As Sid. says -- whenever you put life's wisdom into words it sounds silly and cliched. Hesse successfully puts the ideas into wonderful images.