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Jack Kerouac — Satori a Parigi | DeRank™: 0,00

It is a short autobiographical story about a man who visits Paris and then Brittany in search of his roots. more
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Jack Kerouac — Big Sur | DeRank™: 0,00

In the novel, the three brief stays in the cabin owned by his friend, the Beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, on Bixby Canyon in Big Sur, a location in Central California, are summarized.
In the novel, all the characters are mentioned by an alias; in Kerouac's case, "Jack Duluoz."
Kerouac's autobiographical character is no longer presented, as in previous novels, as a bohemian traveler, but rather as a popular writer. more
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It represents the ideal continuation of the novel "On the Road." "The Dharma Bums" condenses vast meditations on Buddhism, thus forming the apology of the mysticism of the beat generation. The protagonists are the beats: Jack Kerouac-Raymond (Ray) Smith, Allen Ginsberg-Alvah Goldbook, Neal Cassady-Cody Pomeray, Gary Snyder-Japhy Ryder. more
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Jack Kerouac — I sotterranei | DeRank™: 0,00

"Once upon a time I was young and up-to-date and clear-headed, and I could talk about everything with nervous intelligence and clarity and without all the rhetorical preambles I now indulge in; in other words, this is the story of a disillusioned person who is no longer in control of himself, and at the same time, the story of an egomaniac, by nature and not for jest — this is just to start off from the beginning in an orderly fashion and to elucidate the truth, because that is precisely what I want to do."
(Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Feltrinelli, Milan 1992) more
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Jack Kerouac — Visioni di Cody | DeRank™: 0,00

There is a significant part of the hallucinatory conversations between Kerouac and Cassady under the influence of marijuana... more
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Jack Kerouac — Il dottor Sax | DeRank™: 0,00

It's a novel from 1959 considered by JK to be his best novel, telling the story of a Franco-Canadian boy from New England. It represents the literary transposition of the author himself as he relives the dreams, nightmares, and fantasies of his childhood. more
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Jack Kerouac — Sulla Strada | DeRank™: 0,00

- The novel, constructed in 5 parts and written in the form of episodes, is set in the late 1940s and describes the youth of the cultural movement of the Beat Generation, traveling across the vast territory of the USA.
- JK wrote the book at the age of 29, from April 2 to April 22, 1951, in three weeks, fueled solely by coffee, based on a series of notes collected during his travels.
- It was typed on a 36-meter long roll of paper, which was given to him.
- The "scroll" was auctioned off in 2001 for a price exceeding two million dollars.
- Rejected by several publishing houses, always under McCarthyite censorship, it was read by Malcolm Cowley, who obtained from the author revisions of several passages and the replacement of real names with fictional names, and recommended its publication in 1957. (I wasn't even born yet, and they call me old...) more
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“It is like a piece of ice within which a flame burns,” Kandinsky wrote in a letter in 1925, alluding to his painting.
But the same could be said of the book that he would publish a few months later, Point, Line, Surface, a capital and renewing text for the theory of art and not only for it. (from Adelphi) more
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James Joyce — Ulisse | DeRank™: 0,00

Ulysses is the story of a day, June 16, 1904, of a group of Dublin inhabitants. Joyce chose this date because it was the day when Nora Barnacle, his future wife, realized she was in love with him. The characters, by seemingly randomly crossing each other's lives, determine the unfolding of events, and describe it through a continuous stream of inner monologue.
Joyce, having anticipated this, said he had "inserted so many enigmas and puzzles into the plot that they would keep scholars busy for centuries discussing what I meant" - which would make the story "immortal." (from wiki)
I have never finished this book, but I have started it several times over the past 30/35 years; however, I won’t give up, and soon I will dive back into it because it is sooo important... more
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James Joyce — Gente di Dublino | DeRank™: 0,00

The protagonists of the book are people from Dublin, whose stories of everyday life are narrated. Despite the banality of the subject, the book aims to focus attention on two aspects common to all the stories: paralysis and escape. The first is primarily a moral paralysis, caused by the politics and religion of the time. The escape is a consequence of the paralysis, at the moment when the protagonists understand their condition. (from wiki) more
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Hermann Hesse — Dall'India | DeRank™: 0,00

In addition to the notes regarding the journey undertaken on the Indian subcontinent between September and December 1911, these writings testify to a lively and widespread interest in the European intellectual world at the turn of the last century. Thus, it represents an attempt to escape the anxieties of the present, from an oppressive family bond, but also and above all, a return to one's roots, to the distant cradle of a civilization that offers vivifying regeneration. In this way, India will increasingly lose its geographical connotation to transform into the hagiography of legend, understood as a universal quest for spiritual identity... (from mondadoristore.it)
"The East was not just a country or a geographical dimension, but it was the home and youth of the soul, it was everywhere and in every place, it was the union of all time." HH more
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In this lengthy and complex novel, various themes dear to the author return, starting with the opposition between Spirit and Life, between theory and practice, between reflection and emotion. Hesse offers countless reflections and brings to light his strong aversion to war, and in some of his words, one can read an open critique of the Nazi regime. But above all, it is an important work on the beauty and delicacy of the soul, in its various forms and in the creations that it is capable of producing. Every page of this book is enriched by profound considerations on various subjects: from history to politics, to philosophy, to psychology, to aesthetics. (cit. wiki) more
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Plot, the beginning:
The story of the Pilgrimage to the East is told in the first person, many years after the events narrated, by "H.H.", a German musician who, some time after the Great War, had joined the "League", an ancient and mysterious sect that had included some famous figures, both fictional and real, such as Plato, Mozart, Pythagoras, Paul Klee, Don Quixote, Tristram Shandy, Baudelaire, and the boatman Vasudeva, a character from Siddhartha.
The group that H.H. had joined decided to travel on foot to the "East" for a very elevated purpose, although destined to remain a secret; the narrator also had a private aim: to meet the beautiful princess Fatma (from the Thousand and One Nights) and possibly win her love...
- excerpt from Wikipedia - more
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Hermann Hesse — Narciso e Boccadoro | DeRank™: 0,00

It is not our task to draw closer, just as the sun and the moon do not approach each other, nor do the sea and the land.
You and I, dear friend, are the sun and the moon, we are the sea and the land.
Our goal is not to transform into one another, but to know each other and to learn to see and respect in the other what he is: our opposite and our complement.
(Narciso the monk to Boccadoro the wandering artist) more
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The book tells the story of a deep psychological suffering that strikes the protagonist at the threshold of middle age (the same age as the author during the period he writes the novel). Harry struggles with a strong conflict regarding his own personality; the path to healing is the reconciliation of the two antithetical and opposing parts within him through humor, laughter, that is, even in relation to oneself and in the face of the inadequacy of society and the entire human culture. (from wiki) more
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The autobiographical novel is set in Switzerland, by Lake Lugano. The painter Klingsor is just over forty but has had a full and passionate life: his existence, consumed by deep passions, is nearing its end. It is summer, the summer that will be the painter's last. He lives intensely but restlessly with his lifelong obsessions: painting, the joy of creation, friendship, romantic loves, the enchantment of nature. But time passes inexorably towards the final epilogue.
"A fiery and intense summer had begun. The scorching days, though long, fled like banners ablaze, while the brief and sultry moonlit nights alternated with brief and sultry nights of rain, the splendid weeks passed deliriously like swift dreams, overloaded with visions."
(Hermann Hesse) more
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Hermann Hesse — Demian | DeRank™: 0,00

Written during World War I, it emerged from a profound inner crisis experienced by the author, leading him to make a radical turn not only in his literary journey but also in his existential and human path.
In Demian, there are indeed autobiographical echoes of Hesse's reflection on his tormented adolescence, which he claimed to have come to a rational understanding of only twenty years later, precisely thanks to this work. (cit. wiki) more
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Hermann Hesse — Sotto la ruota | DeRank™: 0,00

- There are various autobiographical elements in the story, as Hesse as a young man attended and was expelled from the seminary described with the 'diagnosis' of nervous breakdown.
- The young protagonist will have to confront, on one side, the demanding and cold pedagogy of the time (the wheel under which he will ultimately find himself crushed), and on the other, the deeper desires and inspirations he nurtures within himself. (from wiki) more
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Hermann Hesse — Peter Camenzind | DeRank™: 0,00

The story tells of a Suchende – that is, a seeker, as most of the characters of the German writer are – named Peter Camenzind, who leaves his village as a young boy to dedicate himself to studies and then works as a writer. A very refined character, through his pilgrimages he learns to know the city, the world, and humanity through experiences, sometimes positive and sometimes negative, that will mark him. (from wiki) more
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Hermann Hesse — La cura | DeRank™: 0,00

The Glass Bead Game (1925), which follows shortly after Siddhartha (1922) and is in a way “the other side” of it.
Just as there one witnessed a journey toward enlightenment, here we “unpack” a self-assured Western enlightened man, who is put into crisis by small everyday incidents – and from this, he is led to reconsider certain of his overly complacent beliefs.
But the endpoint is the same: in that “psychology of the cosmic eye” which is the great gift of Hesse, before which “there is no longer anything small, foolish, ugly, or wicked, but everything is sacred and venerable” (cit. Adelphi). more
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