Demian

«Demian» — a philosophical novel, dark and mystical. It can also be considered autobiographical — this is stated by Hesse in the foreword. A landmark work that had a tremendous influence on the writer's later creations, and the great Thomas Mann compared this book to «The Sorrows of Young Werther». It is the story of a young man's coming of age and formation, as he gradually moves further away from the hypocritical norms of public morality and increasingly uncovers for himself the deep, dark «self» — free, unbound by the prevailing virtuous Pharisaic environment. He is aided by the mysterious friend Demian — bearer of the «mark of Cain», neither a devil, nor a mysterious deity, nor just a figment of the hero's imagination…