… mentre in certe tappe del nostro pellegrinaggio, rinunciando a tutte le banali risorse del moderno turismo, a ferrovie e piroscafi, telegrafo e automobili, aeroplani e cosi’ via, noi penetrammo veramente in una zona eroica e magica. Allora infatti era finita da poco la guerra mondiale, e soprattutto al pensiero dei popoli vinti si era affacciato uno stato eccezionale di irrealta’, di disposizione al surreale, anche se in pochissimi casi si varco’ effettivamente qualche barriera e si intrapresero puntate nel regno di una futura psicocrazia. (10-1)

Io sto con Siddharta, il nostro saggio amico d’Oriente, che una volta disse: “Le parole non fanno bene al senso segreto, ogni cosa diventa subito un po’ diversa, un po’ falsata, un po’ strampalata anzi, e pur questo e’ bene, anche con questo sono d’accordo, cio’ che per un uomo e’ tesoro e saggezza, per l’altro ha sempre un tono di stoletzza”. (11)

Quando poi in qualche valle ritrovavo il nostro gruppo, e ascoltavo i nostri canti e mi accampavo dirimpetto alla tenda delle Guide, allora mi rendevo facilmente conto che il mio ritorno all’infanzia o la mia cavalcata con Sancio erano parte integrante del mio viaggio; la nostra meta infatti non era soltanto il paese di levante, o meglio il nostro Oriente non era soltanto un paese e un’entita’ geografica, ma era la patria e la giovinezza dell’anima, era il Dappertutto e l’In-Nessun-Luogo, era l’unificazione di tutti i tempi. (25)

Chi di noi avrebbe mai immaginato che il cerchio magico si sarebbe spezzato cosi’ presto che quasi tutti noi - e anch’io, anch’io! - ci saremmo smarriti negli afoni deserti della realta’ in carta bollata, come impiegati e commessi, dopo un banchetto o dopo una gita domenicale, si riassoggettano prosaicamente alle occupazioni quotidiane! (28)

Si era detto che i personaggi di opere poetiche sono di solito piu’ vivi e reali dei loro poeti. (84)
( )

Hermann Hesse showed in Siddhartha that he could create a profound piece of literature in a short span of pages, but The Journey to the East, which is of a similar length, falls well short of that standard. Its titular journey is disappointingly sketchy, being neither a compelling story in its exterior adventure or a profound spiritual experience in its internal odyssey.

For the most part it seemed a sort of mystical Goodbye Mr Chips, with Hesse relating with excessive brevity a thinly-fictionalized account of his own spiritual journey. The characters (such as they are) are mere transplants of people Hesse knew, namechecked and given a loose fictional sheen that does not explain their presence or importance. The reader is quickly alienated, and the fact that the promised encounters with the likes of Mozart and Plato do not materialize provides only further disappointment. Their token appearance, alongside the likes of Sancho Panza, is only to illustrate that in Hesse's spiritual quest he has been accompanied, like any intellectual, by "the beloved characters of my books" (pg. 50).

Ultimately, this is an autobiographical summary given some strange and irrelevant fictional trappings, and of little sustenance to readers of Hesse. The problem is that the book is too slight to draw us in, and although the story is about the search for an inner truth, as readers we're kept on the outside. The final revelation is decent enough, if a bit inevitable, but The Journey to the East lacks the power to go behind the punch. ( )

The other morning as I was grabbing my stuff to head out to work I realised that I didn't have a book with me. A quick glance at the bookcase and my eyes fell on this little novella. I am not sure why I decided on this, I've had it ages but never picked it up before.

The book started off in an easy enough way and I did wonder where it was heading. There didn't seem to be much happening and I was left feeling a little deflated. One thing that did stand though was that I liked Hesse's writing style. Its fairly light, flows off the page a paints images of magical places very well. The land in which the journey occurs is no real place but one which I could see in my minds eye quite well.

Once the parting of the ways had occurred the book really picked up and started to make a bit more sense. The drama in the second half of the book was fantastic and it all felt very mystical. In the end the books struck me as an idea which hadn't been fully developed. I don't know if this was actually the case but I wonder if Hesse had bigger plans for it eventually.

This was a decent quick read. ( )

> Un homme entreprend de raconter le voyage en Orient qu’il a autrefois accompli. Cette aventure traversée d'illuminations, de doutes, représente pour l'auteur la voie vers la sagesse.
—Le soleil, 18 août 1984

> LE VOYAGE EN ORIENT, de Hermann Hesse. Traduit de l’allemand par Jean Lambert. (Biblio / Livre de Poche, 122 pages). — Après ce détour par la Turquie, nous revenons en Allemagne, le temps de faire connaissance avec le grand romancier Hesse qui, après avoir fui sa patrie pour devenir citoyen suisse, éprouve le besoin d’aller aux sources d’une sagesse longuement conquise, ce qui l’amène à faire ce Voyage en Orient qui a tout d’un conte philosophique. Récit initiatique qui a les charmes et les défauts de ce genre de littérature un peu didactique, ce Voyage plaira à ceux qui croient qu’en cherchant sa voie on la trouve fatalement. Je préfère, quant à moi, le Hesse nouvelliste, celui de Le poète chinois, recueil également réédité dans Biblio (no 3046).
—Le devoir, 28 juil. 1984

I found the first half of the story rather tedious; I had to set the book aside as it just wasn't holding my attention. After many months, prodded by a friend, I continued reading. Frankly, much of the earlier story was a fog in my memory but no matter; the real substance of the work is in the latter half and it was brilliantly compelling towards the end. ( )