Margins
Knulp book cover
Knulp
1915
First Published
3.87
Average Rating
100
Number of Pages
Published in Germany in 1915, Knulp is a novel written by Hermann Hesse which takes the form of three tales. It centers on the character of a drop-out who perpetually wanders, is dependent on friends, & who refuses to tie himself down to any particular job, place or person. Near its end, disillusioned & weak, he goes into the forest where he begins a conversation with God. He asks God why he, Knulp, hasn't done anything of consequence in life. He could've been a successful doctor or artist; he could've married & peacefully settled down. Knulp questions God & asks him about the purpose of his existence. God replies that he didn't make Knulp to be any of these things. He wanted him to bring joy into the lives of people & make them feel a "homesickness for freedom." Upon receiving this answer, Knulp experiences peace & accepts his final passage from this world with a sense of purpose.
Avg Rating
3.87
Number of Ratings
7,539
5 STARS
26%
4 STARS
41%
3 STARS
27%
2 STARS
5%
1 STARS
1%
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Author

Hermann Hesse
Hermann Hesse
Author · 77 books

Many works, including Siddhartha (1922) and Steppenwolf (1927), of German-born Swiss writer Hermann Hesse concern the struggle of the individual to find wholeness and meaning in life; he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1946. Other best-known works of this poet, novelist, and painter include The Glass Bead Game , which, also known as Magister Ludi, explore a search of an individual for spirituality outside society. In his time, Hesse was a popular and influential author in the German-speaking world; worldwide fame only came later. Young Germans desiring a different and more "natural" way of life at the time of great economic and technological progress in the country, received enthusiastically Peter Camenzind , first great novel of Hesse. Throughout Germany, people named many schools. In 1964, people founded the Calwer Hermann-Hesse-Preis, awarded biennially, alternately to a German-language literary journal or to the translator of work of Hesse to a foreign language. The city of Karlsruhe, Germany, also associates a Hermann Hesse prize.

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