Siddhartha
New Directions · first published 1922 · 128 pages
A young man in ancient India leaves his father's house to seek his own way to enlightenment.
The prose is simple and rhythmic, close to a parable, and it moves at the pace of a long walk.
For a night beside running water.
About this book
Siddhartha, the son of a Brahmin, is admired by everyone around him but restless inside. With his friend Govinda he joins a band of wandering ascetics, then hears the Buddha teach, and still feels that no doctrine can give him what he is looking for. He sets out to learn from experience instead, through love, wealth, loss and the passing of years. The short novel follows one man's search with calm, steady attention.