Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse’s iconic countercultural novel about the search for
authenticity in an inauthentic world in a new translation A Penguin Classic At first
glance Harry Haller seems like a respectable educated man. In reality he is the Steppenwolf:
wild strange alienated from society and repulsed by the modern age. But as he is drawn into
a series of dreamlike and sometimes savage encounters—accompanied by among others Mozart
Goethe and the bewitching Hermione—the misanthropic Haller undergoes a spiritual even
psychedelic journey and ultimately discovers a higher truth and the possibility of happiness.
This blistering portrait of a man who feels himself to be half human and half wolf was the
bible of the 1960s counterculture capturing the mood of a disaffected generation. It continues
to resonate as a haunting story of estrangement redemption and the search for one’s place in
the world. Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the
English-speaking world representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history
and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts
enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors as well
as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
