Journey to the East

Journey to the East is a collection of travel writing and essays by Nobel laureate Hermann Hesse, gathering his reflections on and writings about Eastern culture, chiefly as represented by India. The book falls roughly into two parts: essays and travel pieces, including "My Relationship to India and China," "Remembering India," "The Chinese," "The Indian Visitor," "Recollections of Asia," "Kaisering's Travel Diary," "Exotic Art," "Masterpieces of Eastern Literature," "Indian Wisdom," "Indian Fairy Tales," "Hinduism," "Exploring India," and "Looking Directly at the Far East"; and five stories and parables set in India—"The Legend of an Indian King," "The Bride," "Robert Aghion," "The Forest Dweller," and "An Indian Life." In these pages Hesse traces the tangled relations among Buddhism, Brahmanism, and Hinduism, interprets Eastern classics such as the Upanishads, and discusses Indian literature, painting, and religion, while also painting his own picture of the East through fantasy, fairy tale, and satire. Recurring throughout is the core theme of his life's work: the individual's active search for an authentic self, the striving to reconcile a divided self into unity, and the unity of the human and the divine, of humanity and nature. These writings resonate with Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game, and can serve as a side door into Hesse's spiritual world.