
The Glass Bead Game
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $25.76
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
David Colacci
-
By:
-
Hermann Hesse
About this listen
Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering the Glass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and scientific arts, such as mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).
©1990 Hermann Hesse (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks AmericaListeners also enjoyed...
-
Steppenwolf
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Peter Weller
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine.
-
-
Save this Hesse novel for your midlife crisis.
- By Darwin8u on 03-02-14
By: Hermann Hesse
-
The Seasons of the Soul
- The Poetic Guidance and Spiritual Wisdom of Hermann Hesse
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Ludwig Max Fischer, Andrew Harvey
- Length: 1 hr and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vowing at an early age "to be a poet or nothing at all", Hermann Hesse rebelled against formal education, focusing on a rigorous program of independent study that included literature, philosophy, art, and history. One result of these efforts was a series of novels that became counterculture bibles that remain widely influential today. Another was a body of evocative spiritual poetry. Published for the first time in English, these vivid, probing short works reflect deeply on the challenges of life.
-
-
good Hesse background perspective
- By Stevon on 06-28-18
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Siddhartha
- By: Hermann Hesse, Joachim Neugroschel - translator
- Narrated by: Firdous Bamji
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Siddhartha is Nobel Prize-winning author Hermann Hesse's most famous and influential work, a novel of self-exploration that will linger in your mind and spirit for a lifetime. A young man, blessed with loving parents and a safe home in a world where want and neglect abound, leaves this haven in search of himself.
-
-
Very Interesting to Listen
- By Ramanujam on 07-23-08
By: Hermann Hesse, and others
-
The Fairy Tales of Herman Hesse
- By: Hermann Hesse, Jack Zipes - translator
- Narrated by: Donovan
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Highlights
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Step into a world of visions, philosophy, and passion in which dreamers, seekers, princesses, and wandering poets dwell. The 6 wonderful, romantic tales in this collection are reminiscent of ancient Oriental and German fairy tales. The selections, "The Poet," "The Flute Dream," "The Dwarf," "Faldum," "Ziegler," and "Dream of the Gods" were hand-picked by the narrator, legendary folk and rock musician Donovan.
-
-
The reading is quiet and heavenly
- By Atalante Lemuria on 11-12-20
By: Hermann Hesse, and others
-
Narcissus and Goldmund
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teacher's fierce intellect and sense of discipline.
-
-
My favorite of Hesse's novels, wonderfully read.
- By David on 10-21-11
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Determined
- A Science of Life Without Free Will
- By: Robert M. Sapolsky
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Sapolsky’s Behave, his now classic account of why humans do good and why they do bad, pointed toward an unsettling conclusion: We may not grasp the precise marriage of nature and nurture that creates the physics and chemistry at the base of human behavior, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Now, in Determined, Sapolsky takes his argument all the way, mounting a brilliant (and in his inimitable way, delightful) full-frontal assault on the pleasant fantasy that there is some separate self telling our biology what to do.
-
-
Abridged - no Appendix!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-02-23
-
Steppenwolf
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Peter Weller
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine.
-
-
Save this Hesse novel for your midlife crisis.
- By Darwin8u on 03-02-14
By: Hermann Hesse
-
The Seasons of the Soul
- The Poetic Guidance and Spiritual Wisdom of Hermann Hesse
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Ludwig Max Fischer, Andrew Harvey
- Length: 1 hr and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vowing at an early age "to be a poet or nothing at all", Hermann Hesse rebelled against formal education, focusing on a rigorous program of independent study that included literature, philosophy, art, and history. One result of these efforts was a series of novels that became counterculture bibles that remain widely influential today. Another was a body of evocative spiritual poetry. Published for the first time in English, these vivid, probing short works reflect deeply on the challenges of life.
-
-
good Hesse background perspective
- By Stevon on 06-28-18
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Siddhartha
- By: Hermann Hesse, Joachim Neugroschel - translator
- Narrated by: Firdous Bamji
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Siddhartha is Nobel Prize-winning author Hermann Hesse's most famous and influential work, a novel of self-exploration that will linger in your mind and spirit for a lifetime. A young man, blessed with loving parents and a safe home in a world where want and neglect abound, leaves this haven in search of himself.
-
-
Very Interesting to Listen
- By Ramanujam on 07-23-08
By: Hermann Hesse, and others
-
The Fairy Tales of Herman Hesse
- By: Hermann Hesse, Jack Zipes - translator
- Narrated by: Donovan
- Length: 2 hrs and 53 mins
- Highlights
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Step into a world of visions, philosophy, and passion in which dreamers, seekers, princesses, and wandering poets dwell. The 6 wonderful, romantic tales in this collection are reminiscent of ancient Oriental and German fairy tales. The selections, "The Poet," "The Flute Dream," "The Dwarf," "Faldum," "Ziegler," and "Dream of the Gods" were hand-picked by the narrator, legendary folk and rock musician Donovan.
-
-
The reading is quiet and heavenly
- By Atalante Lemuria on 11-12-20
By: Hermann Hesse, and others
-
Narcissus and Goldmund
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teacher's fierce intellect and sense of discipline.
-
-
My favorite of Hesse's novels, wonderfully read.
- By David on 10-21-11
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Determined
- A Science of Life Without Free Will
- By: Robert M. Sapolsky
- Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Robert Sapolsky’s Behave, his now classic account of why humans do good and why they do bad, pointed toward an unsettling conclusion: We may not grasp the precise marriage of nature and nurture that creates the physics and chemistry at the base of human behavior, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Now, in Determined, Sapolsky takes his argument all the way, mounting a brilliant (and in his inimitable way, delightful) full-frontal assault on the pleasant fantasy that there is some separate self telling our biology what to do.
-
-
Abridged - no Appendix!
- By Amazon Customer on 11-02-23
-
Demian
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Michael A. Smith
- Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The passionate account of a young man's growing awareness of his own identity, of his involvement in the secret and dangerous world of petty crime, and how, influenced by a precocious schoolmate, he rebels against convention and discovers not only the great joy of independence, but his own new powers for good and evil.
-
-
i came here because of kpop
- By Christine K. on 09-07-16
By: Hermann Hesse
-
The Magic Mountain
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 37 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hans Castorp is, on the face of it, an ordinary man in his early 20s, on course to start a career in ship engineering in his home town of Hamburg, when he decides to travel to the Berghof Santatorium in Davos. The year is 1912 and an oblivious world is on the brink of war. Castorp’s friend Joachim Ziemssen is taking the cure and a three-week visit seems a perfect break before work begins. But when Castorp arrives he is surprised to find an established community of patients, and little by little, he gets drawn into the closeted life and the individual personalities of the residents.
-
-
A Magical Journey
- By Paul on 08-20-20
By: Thomas Mann
-
Demian
- The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the dramatic story of young, docile Emil Sinclair's descent - led by precocious schoolmate Max Demian - into a secret and dangerous world of petty crime and revolt against convention and eventual awakening to selfhood.
-
-
Demian
- By Debra on 12-08-08
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Laughter in the Dark
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 5 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Albinus, a respectable, middle-aged man and aspiring filmmaker, abandons his wife for a lover half his age: Margot, who wants to become a movie star. When Albinus introduces her to Rex, an American movie producer, disaster ensues. What emerges is an elegantly sardonic and irresistibly ironic novel of desire, deceit, and deception, a curious romance set in the film world of Berlin in the 1930s.
-
-
Death is often the point of life's joke
- By Darwin8u on 05-19-13
By: Vladimir Nabokov
-
The Lay of the Nibelungs
- By: Alice Horton - translator
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the finest German medieval epic poems, The Lay of the Nibelungs is perhaps best known now as one of the principal sources for Wagner’s four-part music drama The Ring of the Nibelung. It is easy to see how Wagner was enthralled by the story and the poetry for the power of the tale drives the narrative: intense love, loyalty, jealousy, murder, duty, honour and massacre are all interwoven into a classic.
-
-
Another Fabulous Grab Bag
- By John on 02-03-20
-
The Sound and the Fury
- By: William Faulkner, Casey Cep
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner, Gabra Zackman
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actions mesh to create what is arguably Faulkner’s masterpiece and one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.
-
-
Hang in
- By W.Denis on 07-11-05
By: William Faulkner, and others
-
Anathem
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Tavia Gilbert, William Dufris, and others
- Length: 32 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fraa Erasmus is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the "Saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities, and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs, bloody violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community.
-
-
I love Neal, but Good lord... ugh!
- By SpiderGrrl on 10-08-19
By: Neal Stephenson
-
Pale Fire
- By: Vladimir Nabokov
- Narrated by: Marc Vietor, Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A 999 line poem in heroic couplets, divided into 4 cantos, was composed - according to Nabokov's fiction - by John Francis Shade, an obsessively methodical man, during the last 20 days of his life.
-
-
An amazing feat for such a unique novel
- By AmazonCustomer on 03-27-12
By: Vladimir Nabokov
-
Asian Journals
- India and Japan (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell)
- By: Joseph Campbell
- Narrated by: Fred Stella
- Length: 26 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the beginning of his career, Joseph Campbell developed a lasting fascination with the cultures of the Far East, and explorations of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy later became recurring motifs in his vast body of work. However, Campbell had to wait until middle age to visit the lands that inspired him so deeply. In 1954, he took a sabbatical from his teaching position and embarked on a year-long voyage through India, Thailand, Cambodia, Burma, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and finally Japan.
-
-
What a journey!
- By Anonymous User on 08-11-18
By: Joseph Campbell
-
Remembrance of Things Past
- Swann's Way
- By: Marcel Proust, Scott Moncrieff - translator
- Narrated by: John Rowe
- Length: 19 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Swann's Way is Marcel Proust's literary masterpiece and the first part of the multivolume audiobook Remembrance of Things Past. In the opening volume, the narrator travels back in time to recall his childhood and to introduce the listener to Charles Swann, a wealthy friend of the family and celebrity in the Parisian social scene. He again travels back, this time to the youth of Charles Swann in the French town of Combray, to tell the story of the love affair that took place before his own birth.
-
-
EXCELLENT!
- By Maggie on 08-18-10
By: Marcel Proust, and others
-
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 14 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In what is considered one of Heinlein's most hair-raising, thought-provoking, and outrageous adventures, the master of modern science fiction tells the strange story of an even stranger world. It is 21st-century Luna, a harsh penal colony where a revolt is plotted between a bashful computer and a ragtag collection of maverick humans, a revolt that goes beautifully until the inevitable happens. But that's the problem with the inevitable: it always happens.
-
-
Heinlein's Masterpiece
- By Peter on 12-04-06
-
A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake
- Unlocking James Joyce's Masterwork
- By: Joseph Campbell, Henry Morton Robinson, Edmund L. Epstein - editor
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Countless would-be readers and listeners of Finnegans Wake - James Joyce's 1939 masterwork, on which he labored for a third of his life - have given up after a few pages and "dismissed the book as a perverse triumph of the unintelligible." In 1944, a young professor of mythology and literature named Joseph Campbell, working with novelist and poet Henry Morton Robinson, wrote the first guide to understanding the fascinating world of Finnegans Wake.
-
-
Essential reading
- By Peter Mark McKenna on 03-11-23
By: Joseph Campbell, and others
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
The Glass Bead Game
- A Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisation
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Derek Jacobi, Tom Ferguson, full cast
- Length: 2 hrs and 7 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 1943, The Glass Bead Game was Herman Hesse’s last novel. It was hailed as his magnum opus, and was instrumental in securing him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. Set in a utopian future society, it explores themes of knowledge, individualism, creativity and spirituality, and has inspired contemporary thinkers from authors to game designers. Narrated by Derek Jacobi, this two-part radio drama tells the story of Joseph Knecht (Tom Ferguson), plucked from obscurity as a young orphan, admitted to the finest elite school and groomed for greatness.
-
-
Abridgment
- By michael elliott on 05-23-24
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Steppenwolf
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Peter Weller
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine.
-
-
Save this Hesse novel for your midlife crisis.
- By Darwin8u on 03-02-14
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Narcissus and Goldmund
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teacher's fierce intellect and sense of discipline.
-
-
My favorite of Hesse's novels, wonderfully read.
- By David on 10-21-11
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Demian
- The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the dramatic story of young, docile Emil Sinclair's descent - led by precocious schoolmate Max Demian - into a secret and dangerous world of petty crime and revolt against convention and eventual awakening to selfhood.
-
-
Demian
- By Debra on 12-08-08
By: Hermann Hesse
-
The Journey to the East
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Yosef Kent
- Length: 1 hr and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of a youthful pilgrimage that seemingly failed. As the book opens, the narrator is engaged is writing the chronicle of this remembered adventure - the central experience of his youth. As he becomes immersed in retelling the chronicle, the writer realizes that only he has failed, that the youthful pilgrimage continues in a shining and mysterious way.
-
-
The Dream like Quality of the Story
- By Anonymous User on 08-25-24
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Siddhartha
- By: Hermann Hesse, Joachim Neugroschel - translator
- Narrated by: Firdous Bamji
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Siddhartha is Nobel Prize-winning author Hermann Hesse's most famous and influential work, a novel of self-exploration that will linger in your mind and spirit for a lifetime. A young man, blessed with loving parents and a safe home in a world where want and neglect abound, leaves this haven in search of himself.
-
-
Very Interesting to Listen
- By Ramanujam on 07-23-08
By: Hermann Hesse, and others
-
The Glass Bead Game
- A Full-Cast BBC Radio Dramatisation
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Derek Jacobi, Tom Ferguson, full cast
- Length: 2 hrs and 7 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originally published in 1943, The Glass Bead Game was Herman Hesse’s last novel. It was hailed as his magnum opus, and was instrumental in securing him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946. Set in a utopian future society, it explores themes of knowledge, individualism, creativity and spirituality, and has inspired contemporary thinkers from authors to game designers. Narrated by Derek Jacobi, this two-part radio drama tells the story of Joseph Knecht (Tom Ferguson), plucked from obscurity as a young orphan, admitted to the finest elite school and groomed for greatness.
-
-
Abridgment
- By michael elliott on 05-23-24
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Steppenwolf
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Peter Weller
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harry Haller is a sad and lonely figure, a reclusive intellectual for whom life holds no joy. He struggles to reconcile the wild primeval wolf and the rational man within himself without surrendering to the bourgeois values he despises. His life changes dramatically when he meets a woman who is his opposite, the carefree and elusive Hermine.
-
-
Save this Hesse novel for your midlife crisis.
- By Darwin8u on 03-02-14
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Narcissus and Goldmund
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teacher's fierce intellect and sense of discipline.
-
-
My favorite of Hesse's novels, wonderfully read.
- By David on 10-21-11
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Demian
- The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Jeff Woodman
- Length: 5 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is the dramatic story of young, docile Emil Sinclair's descent - led by precocious schoolmate Max Demian - into a secret and dangerous world of petty crime and revolt against convention and eventual awakening to selfhood.
-
-
Demian
- By Debra on 12-08-08
By: Hermann Hesse
-
The Journey to the East
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Yosef Kent
- Length: 1 hr and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of a youthful pilgrimage that seemingly failed. As the book opens, the narrator is engaged is writing the chronicle of this remembered adventure - the central experience of his youth. As he becomes immersed in retelling the chronicle, the writer realizes that only he has failed, that the youthful pilgrimage continues in a shining and mysterious way.
-
-
The Dream like Quality of the Story
- By Anonymous User on 08-25-24
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Siddhartha
- By: Hermann Hesse, Joachim Neugroschel - translator
- Narrated by: Firdous Bamji
- Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Siddhartha is Nobel Prize-winning author Hermann Hesse's most famous and influential work, a novel of self-exploration that will linger in your mind and spirit for a lifetime. A young man, blessed with loving parents and a safe home in a world where want and neglect abound, leaves this haven in search of himself.
-
-
Very Interesting to Listen
- By Ramanujam on 07-23-08
By: Hermann Hesse, and others
-
Doctor Faustus
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 26 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Mann's last great novel, first published in 1947 and now newly rendered into English by acclaimed translator John E. Woods, is a modern reworking of the Faust legend, in which Germany sells its soul to the Devil. Mann's protagonist, the composer Adrian Leverkühn, is the flower of German culture, a brilliant, isolated, overreaching figure, his radical new music a breakneck game played by art at the very edge of impossibility. In return for twenty-four years of unparalleled musical accomplishment, he bargains away his soul—and the ability to love his fellow man.
-
-
Literary self flagellation
- By Lipton101 on 02-13-25
By: Thomas Mann
-
Demian
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Jason McCoy
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth is a Bildungsroman by Hermann Hesse, first published in 1919; a prologue was added in 1960. Demian was first published under the pseudonym "Emil Sinclair", the name of the narrator of the story, but Hesse was later revealed to be the author.
-
-
A pre-Great War, gnostic, Jungian bildungsroman.
- By Darwin8u on 07-13-12
By: Hermann Hesse
-
Siddhartha
- By: Herman Hesse
- Narrated by: Samantha Novak
- Length: 4 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The title of this novel is a combination of two Sanskrit words, “siddha,” which is defined as “achieved,” and “artha” which is defined as “meaning” or “wealth.” The word serves as the name for the principal character, a man on a spiritual journey of self-discovery during the time of the first Buddha. Siddhartha is the son of a wealthy Brahmin family who decides to leave his home in the hopes of gaining spiritual illumination. Siddhartha is joined by his best friend Govinda.
-
-
The teachings
- By Anonymous User on 05-08-25
By: Herman Hesse
-
The German Classics Collection
- All Quiet on the Western Front, Beyond Good and Evil, Buddenbrooks, Grimm Fairy Tales, Steppenwolf, The Castle, The Magic Mountain
- By: Erich Maria Remarque, Brothers Grimm, Herman Hesse, and others
- Narrated by: David Rintoul, Peter Noble, Ben Allen, and others
- Length: 115 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The German Classics Collection is a wide-ranging collection of 7 classic works of fiction and philosophy by German authors, read by a stellar cast of David Rintoul; Peter Noble; Ben Allen; Malk Williams; Daniel Weyman. Included here are stories by some of the greatest writers of all time, including Thomas Mann, Herman Hesse, Kafka, and Nietzsche.
By: Erich Maria Remarque, and others
-
Steppenwolf
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Emma Bronks
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse is a profound exploration of the human psyche, delving into themes of identity, duality, and existential crisis. The novel follows Harry Haller, a solitary and introspective man who sees himself as divided between his human side and his wild, wolf-like instincts.
-
-
This 2025 version has the best narration
- By Anonymous User on 02-08-25
By: Hermann Hesse
-
The Seasons of the Soul
- The Poetic Guidance and Spiritual Wisdom of Hermann Hesse
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Ludwig Max Fischer, Andrew Harvey
- Length: 1 hr and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vowing at an early age "to be a poet or nothing at all", Hermann Hesse rebelled against formal education, focusing on a rigorous program of independent study that included literature, philosophy, art, and history. One result of these efforts was a series of novels that became counterculture bibles that remain widely influential today. Another was a body of evocative spiritual poetry. Published for the first time in English, these vivid, probing short works reflect deeply on the challenges of life.
-
-
good Hesse background perspective
- By Stevon on 06-28-18
By: Hermann Hesse
-
The Magic Mountain
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 37 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hans Castorp is, on the face of it, an ordinary man in his early 20s, on course to start a career in ship engineering in his home town of Hamburg, when he decides to travel to the Berghof Santatorium in Davos. The year is 1912 and an oblivious world is on the brink of war. Castorp’s friend Joachim Ziemssen is taking the cure and a three-week visit seems a perfect break before work begins. But when Castorp arrives he is surprised to find an established community of patients, and little by little, he gets drawn into the closeted life and the individual personalities of the residents.
-
-
A Magical Journey
- By Paul on 08-20-20
By: Thomas Mann
-
Siddhartha
- Booktrack Edition
- By: Hermann Hesse
- Narrated by: Paul Ansdell
- Length: 4 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Siddhartha, the ninth book written by Hermann Hesse, is about a young Indian boy who leaves his home in hopes of finding enlightenment with the wise "Goutama", which in this story is the Buddha. After learning what he can from Goutama, he decides to go off into the busy city and leads a life of greed and lust. When he realizes that the lifestyle is not fulfilling, and he reflects on his life, he goes to a river and contemplates suicide. However, it is here that Siddhartha meets a man who will change his life and help lead him to enlightenment.
-
-
One of a Kind
- By Anonymous User on 04-04-20
By: Hermann Hesse
-
The Sparrow
- By: Mary Doria Russell
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A visionary work that combines speculative fiction with deep philosophical inquiry, The Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission entrusted with a profound task: To make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The mission begins in faith, hope, and beauty, but a series of small misunderstandings brings it to a catastrophic end.
-
-
Superbly Written and Thought-provoking
- By Jim N on 08-15-12
-
Worlds of Exile and Illusion
- Three Complete Novels of the Hainish Series in One Volume—Rocannon's World; Planet of Exile; City of Illusions
- By: Ursula K. Le Guin
- Narrated by: Michael Crouch, Alyssa Bresnahan
- Length: 16 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Three remarkable journeys into the stars: Worlds of Exile and Illusion includes Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions. These three spacefaring adventures mark the beginning of grand master Ursula K. Le Guin’s remarkable career. Set in the same universe as Le Guin’s groundbreaking classics The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed, these first three books of the celebrated Hainish series follow travelers of many worlds and civilizations in the depths of space.
-
-
Well and Beautifully Told
- By K.E.H. on 04-07-25
-
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
- A Novel
- By: Milan Kundera, Michael Henry Heim - translator
- Narrated by: Richmond Hoxie
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A young woman is in love with a successful surgeon, a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing. His mistress, a free-spirited artist, lives her life as a series of betrayals—while her other lover, earnest, faithful, and good, stands to lose everything because of his noble qualities. In a world where lives are shaped by irrevocable choices and fortuitous events, and everything occurs but once, existence seems to lose its substance, its weight. Hence we feel “the unbearable lightness of being."
-
-
Love, Politics, and Strange Bedfellows
- By Mel on 07-01-12
By: Milan Kundera, and others
-
One Hundred Years of Solitude
- By: Gabriel García Márquez, Gregory Rabassa - translator
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 14 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the 20th century's enduring works, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a widely beloved and acclaimed novel known throughout the world and the ultimate achievement in a Nobel Prize-winning career. The novel tells the story of the rise and fall of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family. Rich and brilliant, it is a chronicle of life, death, and the tragicomedy of humankind. In the beautiful, ridiculous, and tawdry story of the Buendía family, one sees all of humanity, just as in the history, myths, growth, and decay of Macondo, one sees all of Latin America.
-
-
What in the heck happened?????
- By Melinda on 02-05-14
By: Gabriel García Márquez, and others
Long and boring
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Written beautifully but deceptive
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It is a book about harmony and the arts. The exploration of how music, mathematics, intellecutalism and life can become transcendent and beautiful. GBG is a mysterious fill-in that allows it to be at once none and all of man's endeavors. It is a holy raga, a tactile masbaha, a literary syncretism, that captures the whole of man's achievements and is practiced by an elite few. Using the framework of the Game Hesse is able to look at the dynamic of all of man's achievements as being both beautiful, worthwhile, but also frivolous and fleeting. He looks at the tension between those who remove themselves from mankind's experiences with those who live IN the world. There is a pull and a reciprocity between these two groups. He is looking for those things that balance those groups and ultimately those things that cause these groups to separate.
The book also explores the (mostly) Eastern ideas of meditation, surrender, loss and renewal. I found these ideas (obviously) beautiful and rewarding, but I'm still not sure if I really liked the structure of the book: Part 1 (pages 7-44): Introduction to GBG; Part 2 (Pages 45-427): Magister Ludi's story; Part 3 (428-445): Magister Ludi's poems; Part 4 (446-558): The Three Lives (other incarnations of Magister Ludi). I'm just not sure if the structure worked for me. It did well enough, but I loved and hated it too. Maybe that was Hesse's intention. The first part was a parody of those 'history of the saints' that appear so often and so frequently in all religious traditions. It was interesting, but just didn't mix well with the final parts of the novel. I did like having Knecht's (re)incarnations be outside of time. While Magister Ludi was set in the future, the other incarnations of Magister Ludi were more likely from the past. An interesting construct, but the weight of the last was too little for the heavy front.
But all measured out these are frivolous issues. For the most part, I really liked the book. It is incredible that in the face of WWII and Nazi Germany Hesse could write this. History and inevitable burning push of evil must have seemed dark and heavy, but ultimately this book (written from 1931 to 1943) contains the germs of peace and tranquility. I think that peace comes from the idea of a spiritual retreat (a common theme) and surrender. Hesse wasn't saying to run from Evil, although he did himself leave Nazi Germany. But I think his book was communicating the ability to find peace through surrendering to one's own situation and place in the universe. GBG one day will disappear, but so too ONE DAY will fascism and evil, because all of man's creation is a game. So, surrender to the game and surrender to the universe.
Surrender to the Magister Ludi's Game
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What did you love best about The Glass Bead Game?
The elusiveness of comprehension. The moment one thought one understood the Glass Bead Game another perspective was thrown in. Is it a game or an allegory regarding our pedestrian life?What did you like best about this story?
The use of language is like a beautiful song. The setting - Castalia a utopia for the intellectually gifted. The allusion to homosexuality. For instance, the desirability that some of the boys/men had to knecht and Knecht's strong attractions to some of his acquaintances all presented as asexual encounters.Have you listened to any of David Colacci’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No I have not, but would like to. I love his voice.Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No, I listened several chapters at a time.Any additional comments?
Very well done.Brilliant
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
fabulous!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A complicated book to over simplify life
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Language, depth, becoming
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A wonderfully contemplative book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Taking too long to figure out what the book is abt
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Revisiting this book as a, let’s say, more experienced person I love it!
Joseph moves through his life focused on perfecting the high intellectual objective of the glass bead game. Naming and categorizing all the beautiful shiny things in the world. Linking and binding ideas, music and images... fileing and arranging them and creating a new beauty. But where does his true joy and fulfillment lay?
The Indian life is my favorite part.
I’m glad I revisited this gem.
“AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY”
From loving the light to being the light
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.