Talk:Demian

You writing your paper on this too? Supposedly this booke has themes that can be related to Nietzsche's.

-the saladcake

Added note about Emil Sinclair
This information was taken from a 1972 Panther reprint of Hesse's 'Demian', where the translator notes that Hesse "so much admired...the poet Novalis", and explains that Emil Sinclair (the pseudonym used by Hesse on the initial publication of the novel) was Novalis' friend. --Euchrid9 15:31, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
 * But see Talk:Novalis. 96.24.99.118 (talk) 04:41, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

On the road to a GA
I've updated the format to the improved standard book article layout. I did not discard any existing information, this format should be easier to add too. I love the book and hope that this was appreciated. ; )

--Taken By Robots 06:19, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

If anyone is around I could use some help with this, I'm currently just doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that in my spare time. --Taken By Robots 13:41, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Themes, motifs, symbols
I added a very important one, the book's treatment of duality. It's been a while since I've read this novel and I don't have a scholarly review on hand, but I think both the plot summary and the "themes" section contain some misconceptions or look at the material from a superficial point of view and miss some of its key elements. This should be carefully gone over by someone with a scholarly level of knowledge on this novel. -- fourdee ᛇᚹᛟ 08:43, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Neutral POV
Someone needs to rewrite this into more of an encyclopedia entry and less of a language arts class lesson plan. It's good, but not appropriate for Wikipedia. 97.73.64.149 (talk) 19:59, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Factual error
Hesse says in foreword that he wrote the book in three months, not three weeks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.234.195.10 (talk) 02:49, 13 November 2010 (UTC)

World of light
Is this apparent word play sourced? As a native German speaker, it doesn't make any sense to me. Compounds with Schein- are almost always unambiguous and no dictionary lists "world of light" as a possible meaning. It seems just as far-fetched as claiming "Scheinwelt" is a word play with "world of paper money" (another meaning of Schein). — ★ Pοωερ Z talk 14:44, 26 July 2014 (UTC)

Every English copy of this book I've read (and I've owned several different translations since the 1980s) describes it only as "world of light." I'd not heard the "world of illusion" until coming to read this page. Because of this phrase (and its converse used later in the English translation, "world of darkness") it always seemed to me that Sinclair was struggling against a homosexual love for Demian. These two terms would have been appropriate euphemisms for "right" and "wrong" ways of living back when the book was written. However, I didn't change the article to reflect this.73.53.115.186 (talk) 14:36, 6 December 2016 (UTC)

Novalis Quote in Notable Passages
I noticed that this:

"Schicksal und Gemüt sind Namen eines Begriffs." Das hatte ich nun verstanden. ("Fate and temperament are two words for one and the same concept." That was clear to me now.)

is not attributed to Novalis. I am not sure the best way to do so and retain the tenor of the article, though I do think it is important this be properly attributed since Hesse did so in the book.

--IcehouseCover (talk) 17:21, 30 July 2014 (UTC)

Did Hilda Rosner translate?
I found references to four English translations of this work:


 * 1923 by N. H. Priday
 * 1999 by Stanley Appelbaum
 * 1999? by Michael Roloff and Michael Lebeck
 * 2013 by Damion Searls

I found copies of the last three translations (although I couldn't verify the translation date of the Roloff/Lebeck version, as the copy is much older than 1999). I found no translation by Hilda Rosner. She does translate other works by Hesse.

KaryAnca (talk) 00:13, 30 January 2016 (UTC)


 * She didn't translate this, no. I've added a section listing the English translations and their dates of first publication MichelCastagne (talk) 19:22, 17 June 2021 (UTC)

Popular Culture
I deleted the popular culture section that was a fairly unapologetic coat tail ride of a fairly insignificant music group.

This was not a notable popular culture reference. It has not been recognized by multiple, verifiable secondary sources (does not pass the litmus test of neutrality and notability). Academic reference and/or citation would lend some credibility. Interviews with equally unknown talk shows or trade magazines do not rise to the level of warranting inclusion of this popular culture reference.

Furthermore, the referencing material makes mention of the book as inspiration alongside other notable work (i.e. the reference was non-specific).

A relatively unknown album does not constitute a "real world event." This popular culture reference fails all 4 of the guidelines outlined by Wikipedia for good popular culture references. The album page can/should point to this article; however, lyrics being inspired by (read plagiarizing) a Nobel Laureate should not earn a "popular culture" inclusion in this or any article. IcehouseCover (talk) 13:50, 29 October 2017 (UTC)

I won't add this because it's original research, but it's baffling that nowhere is homosexuality mentioned.
I finished the book and commented this to someone else, so I will at least add it for context if you don't know what I mean.

I don't think you can understand Sinclair as anything but someone repressing their attraction to men. (I don't know how much I have to explain because this is so self-evident. Sinclair has no relationships with women, but holds some of them as objects of worship - always with the comment that he is attracted to the boyishness of their features. All his stable relationships are with men. He hints at fantasies that can never be spoken about, and his first crush mentions a kind of love that the Greeks knew best.)

Mother Eve's conversation about stars was about this, and this is why Demian appeared when Sinclair thought he was calling for Eve. Demian had a premonition of his death before the war, which is why Eve was so concerned. The ending scene was (in a dream/premonition) of Demian kissing Sinclair for the first and last time as he died on a different battlefield. Even then, Sinclair still can't imagine this kiss as anything but a conduit for the love of a woman goddess, but it seems like a very tough job for someone who would claim that this is about anything except the relationship between the two.

Again, I know that this would require academic sources analyzing the book in this context, but on the other hand, it is such an important theme within the work that it seems odd to ignore. It is that sort of wink-nod that most of the book's audience would miss, but those "in the know" would recognize immediately. I don't know enough of the historical context of censorship in this period, but I feel that this work fits in nicely to any queer literature list. 2601:281:D47F:2918:44E2:470:B976:8D3E (talk) 16:51, 10 August 2022 (UTC)