426. The Glass Bead Game

The Glass Bead Game
Herman Hesse
1943
Around 580 pages

Herman Hesse, you son of a gun. I thought we had seen the last of you. Also, I completely forgot he existed. Then we have an unexpected novel that I think had a huge influence on a future Iain Banks novel I loved. So this is a pretty good send off.

Castalia is an entirely male community, which is usually an unspoken parameter in place from male authors, but this time we are speaking it. The story takes place in the twenty-third century, where Castalia serves as a remote place where intellectuals can flourish. Joseph Knecht has been raised in Castalia and is obsessed with mastering the Glass Bead Game. Knecht begins to question his loyalty to Castalia. But his story's completion isn't the end of the novel.

The rules of the Glass Bead Game are never explained, but we are made to understand playing the game requires years of study of mathematics, music, the arts - pretty much all the subjects that the rich have kept to themselves over the years. Hesse is clearly being critical of the elite who hide from the world and do nothing as evil takes over.

So a unique novel that seemed to have a definite influence over Asimov and Banks. 

Official Ranking:

1. Rosshalde

2. The Glass Bead Game
3. The Steppenwolf

4. Siddhartha

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

In 1946, Hesse won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Published in Switzerland after it was rejected for publication in Germany due to Hesse's anti-Fascist views.

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