The Neighbors
The Early Works of Hermann Hesse Book 22 · Marchen Press
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In this story collection, Hesse explores the tensions between communal belonging and individual autonomy. The titular story juxtaposes two families—one gregarious, one reclusive—their fraught interactions illuminating the paradoxes of human proximity. Published in Berlin, the narratives eschew moralizing, instead probing the quiet desperations underlying suburban respectability. Hesse’s 1908 collection Nachbarn (“Neighbors”) continued his exploration of short fiction, offering another mosaic of vignettes and tales drawn from daily life. Published by S. Fischer in Berlin, as with his previous story collection, this book further solidified Hesse’s reputation as a master of the short narrative form. The title Nachbarn suggests a focus on those who live next door or nearby—the people in one’s community whom one might see every day and yet only partially know. Indeed, the stories in The Neighbors revolve around interpersonal encounters in small towns and villages, shedding light on the hidden dramas and quiet bonds between ordinary folks. One can imagine that these narratives were inspired by Hesse’s own observations while living in close-knit Gaienhofen; as a sensitive artist in a rural community, he was well-placed to note the subtle interactions among neighbors, friends, and strangers passing through. The collection, much like Diesseits, did not catapult Hesse to new fame (by 1908 he was already a known quantity), but it added depth to his body of work. Readers of the time would have found in Nachbarn a gentle, engaging read—stories that might start with the simplicity of a neighborly hello and end revealing a profound truth or a twist of fate. In the Anglophone world, Nachbarn as a set has rarely been published independently, but some of its stories have been translated in assorted anthologies of Hesse’s shorter works. The Neighbors exemplifies Hesse’s growing interest in psychological dualism, its characters oscillating between connection and isolation. The prose, taut and observational, foreshadows the modernist minimalism of Hemingway, while its thematic focus on societal masks aligns with contemporaneous developments in psychoanalysis. Though modest in ambition, the collection sharpens Hesse’s critique of bourgeois hypocrisy, a motif central to his interwar novels. This new edition features a fresh, contemporary translation of Hesse's early work, making his philosophical, existentialist literature accessible to modern readers from the original Fraktur manuscripts. Enhanced by an illuminating Afterword focused on Hesse's personal and intellectual relationship with Carl Jung, a concise biography, a glossary of essential philosophical terms integral to his writings (his version of Jungian Psychological concepts) and a detailed chronology of his life and major works, this robust edition introduces the reader to the brilliance of his literature in context. It not only captures the depth and nuance of Hesse’s thought but also highlights its enduring impact on the debates of the mid-20th century, contemporary culture and Western Philosophy across the 20th and into the 21st century.
About the author
Herman Hesse (1877-1962) navigated a life shaped by psychological turbulence that fundamentally transformed his literary vision following his pivotal encounter with Carl Jung's analytical psychology. After suffering a severe breakdown in 1916 amid his crumbling first marriage and the ravages of World War I, Hesse underwent intensive psychoanalysis with Jung's student J.B. Lang and later with Jung himself, sessions that would profoundly alter his creative trajectory. This Jungian influence became evident in his subsequent works, particularly "Demian" and "Steppenwolf," where the protagonist's journey toward individuation—Jung's concept of integrating the conscious and unconscious aspects of personality—emerges as a central theme. Hesse's correspondence with Jung continued for decades, their intellectual relationship deepening as Hesse increasingly incorporated Jungian archetypes, dream symbolism, and the notion of the shadow self into his narratives of spiritual seeking. The writer later acknowledged that Jung's therapeutic methods had not only rescued him from psychological collapse but had fundamentally reshaped his understanding of human consciousness, enabling him to transmute his personal suffering into the allegorical quests for wholeness that characterized his most enduring works.RetryClaude can make mistakes. Please double-check responses.
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