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In March 1892, aged fourteen, Hermann Hesse ran away from the seminary at Maulbronn and was found the next day in a field; that May he attempted suicide. His grandparents had been missionaries in India, where his mother was born. In 1895 he began an apprenticeship in a Tübingen bookshop, and Peter Camenzind (1904) let him live by writing. In November 1914 he published an appeal against nationalist hatred, “O Friends, Not These Tones”. Demian (1919), written in about three weeks, appeared under the name Emil Sinclair; Siddhartha (1922) and Steppenwolf (1927) followed from Switzerland, where he became a citizen in 1923. He won the Nobel Prize in 1946 and died in 1962, a few years before American readers made him a bestseller. The ten writers below share his ground: the lonely young man, the inner path, and the search for a self.
By Lisanne Swart · 10 authors · Novels of self-discovery · Eastern thought · Updated October 2026
Quick answer
If you love Hermann Hesse, start with Thomas Mann, his contemporary and friend, whose The Magic Mountain (1924) is the other great German novel of a young man's education. For inwardness and solitude, read Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet; for a spiritual fable like Siddhartha, read Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. The list also includes Albert Camus, whose outsiders find no inner path at all.
10 authors like Hermann Hesse
Where to start if you loved Hermann Hesse
If you loved Siddhartha, read Kahlil Gibran.
The Prophet: a sage's farewell teachings in short prose poems.
If you loved Steppenwolf, read Dostoevsky.
Notes from Underground: the original split, self-tormenting narrator.
If you loved Demian, read Carl Jung.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections: the psychology of the shadow and the self, from a man Hesse knew.
If you loved The Glass Bead Game, read Thomas Mann.
The Magic Mountain first, then Doctor Faustus.
If you want more Hesse, start with Siddhartha.
Siddhartha (1922) first, then Demian (1919) and Steppenwolf (1927), which Kurt Beals newly translated in 2025. Save The Glass Bead Game (1943) for last.
Frequently asked questions about authors like Hermann Hesse
Who writes like Hermann Hesse?
Thomas Mann and Rainer Maria Rilke are the closest in his own language; Kahlil Gibran and Jack Kerouac share his spiritual quest, and Carl Jung supplies the psychology behind Demian.
What should I read after Siddhartha?
Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (1923), Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums (1958) and Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea (1968).
Is Hermann Hesse like Thomas Mann?
They were contemporaries and friends who both won the Nobel Prize and wrote novels of a young man's education. Mann is ironic and expansive; Hesse is more inward, lyrical and spiritual.
Which Hermann Hesse book should I read first?
Siddhartha (1922), which is short and simply told. For a darker start, try Demian (1919) or Steppenwolf (1927).
Is there a new Hermann Hesse translation?
Yes. W. W. Norton published a new English translation of Steppenwolf by Kurt Beals in March 2025.
Was Hermann Hesse German or Swiss?
Both. He was born in Calw, Germany, in 1877, became a Swiss citizen in 1923 and lived in Montagnola, in Ticino, until his death in 1962.
Sources
List last reviewed 31 October 2026.
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