Beneath the Wheel by Hesse
Beneath the Wheel (1906)
by Hermann Hesse, translated by Michael Roloff
216 pages - Bantam Books
This is the story of young Hans Giebenrath, who is an accomplished student in a small German town, and gets chosen to take special exams in order to be enrolled in a special academy that will mean a bright future for him with a career either in the church or academics. As Hans progresses further on, he feels more pressure from all sides - his father, schoolteachers, prominent townspeople - and life becomes less and less meaningful and enjoyable. After a series of events at the academy, Hans begins to fall just as quickly as he rose, unable any longer to resolve his alienation and disconnection from the people around him. This novel has also been published under the title The Prodigy.
A lot of people consider this Hesse's spiritual autobiography, as well as an attack on the educational system, and in about a hundred years it's clear that not much has changed. Hans is full of potential, but he's thrust into a system which is designed to take the dull and thick-skinned average student and turn them into relatively productive members of society, while any sign of uniqueness or difference is usually seen as a threat by the teachers. As another saying goes, the educational system turns coal into diamonds, and diamonds into dust. Even the pastor who counsels Hans is someone striving to be modern, and concerned with textual interpretation and historical truths, while evidently not even believing in the Resurrection or the living presence of the Holy Ghost. Hans later on tries to simply become a craftsman, but his intelligence and sensitivity means he can never fully integrate himself into the world of manual labour.
In some ways this novel is not that ambitious, and so it's not usually counted as being among Hesse's great works. But there are some sequences which are wonderfully evocative, and really spring to life. And there are also some fantastic passages describing the natural world. I actually think it's the best traditional 'novel' I've read by Hesse, as a lot of his other works seem overwhelmed by ideas, whereas here the guides are character, story, and atmosphere.
One point of interest is that in the little biographical sketch at the back it mentions that Hesse attempted to commit suicide before he became a writer (an event mirrored somewhat in the novel), and it does seem to match an uncanny pattern where if you look at the biography of a lot of great writers, an incredible number of them either attempted or seriously contemplated suicide at some point in their formative days.
by Hermann Hesse, translated by Michael Roloff
216 pages - Bantam Books
This is the story of young Hans Giebenrath, who is an accomplished student in a small German town, and gets chosen to take special exams in order to be enrolled in a special academy that will mean a bright future for him with a career either in the church or academics. As Hans progresses further on, he feels more pressure from all sides - his father, schoolteachers, prominent townspeople - and life becomes less and less meaningful and enjoyable. After a series of events at the academy, Hans begins to fall just as quickly as he rose, unable any longer to resolve his alienation and disconnection from the people around him. This novel has also been published under the title The Prodigy.
A lot of people consider this Hesse's spiritual autobiography, as well as an attack on the educational system, and in about a hundred years it's clear that not much has changed. Hans is full of potential, but he's thrust into a system which is designed to take the dull and thick-skinned average student and turn them into relatively productive members of society, while any sign of uniqueness or difference is usually seen as a threat by the teachers. As another saying goes, the educational system turns coal into diamonds, and diamonds into dust. Even the pastor who counsels Hans is someone striving to be modern, and concerned with textual interpretation and historical truths, while evidently not even believing in the Resurrection or the living presence of the Holy Ghost. Hans later on tries to simply become a craftsman, but his intelligence and sensitivity means he can never fully integrate himself into the world of manual labour.
In some ways this novel is not that ambitious, and so it's not usually counted as being among Hesse's great works. But there are some sequences which are wonderfully evocative, and really spring to life. And there are also some fantastic passages describing the natural world. I actually think it's the best traditional 'novel' I've read by Hesse, as a lot of his other works seem overwhelmed by ideas, whereas here the guides are character, story, and atmosphere.
One point of interest is that in the little biographical sketch at the back it mentions that Hesse attempted to commit suicide before he became a writer (an event mirrored somewhat in the novel), and it does seem to match an uncanny pattern where if you look at the biography of a lot of great writers, an incredible number of them either attempted or seriously contemplated suicide at some point in their formative days.
- 'A schoolmaster will prefer to have a couple of dumbheads in his class than a single genius, and if you regard it objectively, he is of course right. His task is not to produce extravagant intellects but good Latinists, arithmeticians and sober decent folk. The question of who suffers more acutely at the other's hands--the teacher at the boy's or vice versa--who is more of a tyrant, more of a tormentor, and who profanes parts of the other's soul, student or teacher, is something you cannot examine without remembering your own youth in anger and shame.' (pg.113)