by Herman Hesse

"It is the 23rd century and the Glass Bead Game is an ultra-aesthetic game which is played by scholars in the kingdom of Castalia, the remote place society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. This game involves all branches of knowledge, and spiritual values - especially those of the east. Since childhood, Joseph 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."

- From the cover of the 2000 Vintage edition

The Glass bead game is about Joseph's lifelong journey through which he grows deeper and deeper into his vocation through a dedication to "walking his path," and actually being a servant to what beckons to him at each turn of the road. It leaves the reader with the sense that his life was larger than him.

I loved how Hesse weaved a subtle tapestry of a world and a life in which each person has a calling, which takes listening and tuning into to pursue and follow - and this listening requires dedication. So he provides us not with a romantic view, but one which bears witness to the mystery of life which we can only enter through gates of discipline and a connection to a quiet which we all have access to.

It is also a book which has as its very present backdrop a social commentary. It is the 23rd century, and people have witnessed, lived through and come out on the other side of the demise of our current society as we know it. It tells the history of the succesful attempt by a community of intellectuals and wisdom seekers (journeyers to the east), who were not corrupted by the materialistic and decaying way of life of the 21st century, to remain faithful to true culture and to engage in a process of self-examination, reflection and conscious resistance to decline.

The result was the creation of Castalia, a community of knowledge and wisdom, an exceptional learning community, which brought its knowledge back to society and supported society in teaching its young, educating its statesmen and developing its people.

The book takes place after the peak era of Castalia and Joseph Knecht is faced with the challenge of a declining relationship between his nation and Castalia. In terms of the relevance of this to where we are today, I found it curious and thought-provoking in terms of the very real need I feel we have of creating a more balanced relationship between the need to withdraw from the world to study, examine, discern, clarify and to develop an inner peace and stance through which one can engage with the world much more effectively on the one hand, and the actually being out there in action doing stuff, on the other.

In fact I found many beautiful and noteworthy passages, thoughts and ideas that stimulated an examination of my own life. Hesse's lifelong study of eastern philosophy, especially buddhism, brings much wisdom to life on these pages.

In short it is a story of one man's journey set in the context of an idealistic society, which is suffering from its ideals being increasingly distant from the world that it is meant to serve.

"A massive novel set out to explore the positive side of human nature, the fullness of man's capacity as a thinker and as a prober into sacred mysteries... It has remarkable purity - a purity not only literal but moral, spiritual and intellectual... subtle ideas and new ways of presenting them: touching and impressive."

-The observer

• reviewed by Marianne Knuth

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