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The Glass Bead Game

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The Glass Bead Game

By: Hermann Hesse
Narrated by: David Colacci
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About this listen

 Set in the 23rd century, The Glass Bead Game is the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, which has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish.

Since childhood, 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, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game).

©1990 Hermann Hesse (P)2008 BBC Audiobooks America Classics Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Game

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I enjoyed this long slow story. It paints a picture of multiple lives. Each a journey of trial and learning. In combination, these paint a larger picture of these cycles of life and death.

Interesting and unusual story

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The start was hard going (acedemic and cerebral) but I stuck with it and it was worth it contains deep and clear insights into the human condition in extremely well thought through language. Last story - a coup de grace. A German F Scott Fitzgerald

stay in the forest

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What a good book, listened intently while working, I never listen to something twice as i find it a waste of my time, but I’ve given this a second go and I loved it again.

My first and special

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really is classic Hesse. really well performed as was engaging thorough out. Hesse don't miss!

classic Hesse

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Would you consider the audio edition of The Glass Bead Game to be better than the print version?

No, but that's mainly due to the narrator.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Glass Bead Game?

Of course the ending, but I won't spoil it for other listeners. In fact, it's the whole setting of a future where entire provinces are set up with the express purpose of exploring the maximum capabilities of the mind. Makes you wonder what that would bring.

Did David Colacci do a good job differentiating each of the characters? How?

Unfortunately not, his characters all sounded very similar and each was as bombastic and condescending as the other. It's my main complaint about this reading of the book, actually. I believe that it was not the intention at all of Hermann Hesse that his message be delivered in such a tone.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Province of the Mind

An Important Book

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the futuristic novel is phylosophically abstract, like Huxly or Orwell, which makes relating to the characters rather awkward. even so gems of life wisdom is to be found most everywhere throughout the novel. I found the last chapters to be profound.

they last three chapters were very rewarding!

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This is not a book about a 'glass bead game', nor is this a book about Joseph Knecht, the protagonist. No. This is a gently paced story about the trappings of humanity, in there multiplicity, as envisaged through the eyes of a subtle and fair philosopher that strives for all readers to see the world in a transient nature.

The general story accounts for two thirds of the book, Joseph Knecht's personal notes the rest.

I am at pains to give the 'story' a 3 but it is not Herman's best story, nor really a good story at all. But then, I don't think that it is supposed to be. It is just the telling of a life from someone who others will listen to, and in truth, many lives do not make for compelling reading. Even those, as we see, that are exceptional.

Within the book though, and the character exchanges, especially the Music Master and Knecht, are the best and clearest passages of Hesse's philosophy and are exceptionally poignant moments. Hesse somehow even manages to capture the tranquility of a settled soul through his incredible writing and language.

The narration, for me, was perfect, as with so many titles on this platform.

I recommend this novel for a mind that is willing to toil and trudge through the nature of a man's life to come to the evocative clearing of a universal moment of clarity.

A quick note

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** My favourite part of this book is the final short story involving Dasa. The time location for that is
19:42:16.

I enjoyed the main story, although I found myself wondering whether this text was targeted at a wiser person than I. If the book had finished there, I would have been somewhat satisfied, and quite confused. As it happens, there are three more short stories afterwards, and they moved me deeply, each one. My favourite quotes from each story beneath.

"They laughed at me or patted me on the back, but a good many reacted to the alien Castalian qualities in me with the outright enmity that the vulgar always have for everything finer. And I was determined to take their dislike as a distinction."

"...the moon. The great, near, moist orb; the fat magic fish in the sea of heaven."

"After a time, listening to some confessions, he found himself subject to spasms of coldness and lovelessness, even to contempt for the penitents. With a sigh he accepted these struggles too, and there were periods during which he inflicted solitary humilitations penances upon himself after each confession. Moreover, he made it a rule to treat all penitents not only as brothers, but also with a kind of special deference. The less he liked the person, the more respectfully he behaved toward him, for he regarded each one as a messenger from God, sent to test him."

"You know what it is like when an ascetic and father confessor grows old and has listened to so many confessions from sinners who think him sinless and a saint, and don't know he is a greater sinner than they are. At such times all his work seems useless and vain to him, and everything than once seemed important and sacred, the fact that God had assigned him to this particular place and honoured him with a task of cleansing human souls of their filth, all that seems to him too much of an imposition, he actually feels it as a curse, and by and by he actually shudders at every poor soul who comes to him with his childish sins. He wants to get rid of the sinner and he wants to get rid of himself. Even if he has to do it by tying a rope to the branch of a tree."

"Dasa watched him mount his horse and ride off. When he returned hours later, dismounted and flew back the tent flap. Dasa could see in to the shadowy interior, where a young woman came forward to welcome the prince. He nearly fell from the tree as he recognised his wife Pravati, now he was certain, and the pressure upon his heart grew unbearable. Great as the happiness of his love for Pravati had been, the anguish, the rage, the sense of loss, and insult were greater now. That is how it is when a man fastens all his capacity for love upon a single object. With its loss, everything collapses and he stands impoverished amid ruins."

Challenging and mysterious

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Lots of layers to this story. One worth re-reading/re-listening to. It’s a bit of a slow burn but worth it at the end. The capacity for world building is impressive.

Intricately layered.

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While the narration and story are good, the chapters don't match the book at all and start mid chapter, etc. Whats the point in even putting chapter breaks if they don't match the actual book chapters? Also, this is yet another audiobook where the chapter section is simple labelled as chapter 1z2 and so on, instead of having the actual names of the chapters as in the book.

This is all pure laziness on behalf of the publishers.

The Chapters Don't Match The Book

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