  the glass bead game () is the last full-length novel of the german author hermann hesse. it was begun in 1931 and published in switzerland in 1943 after being rejected for publication in germany due to hesse's anti-fascist views.petri liukkonen "herman hesse" a few years later, in 1946, hesse went on to win the nobel prize in literature. in honoring him in its award ceremony speech, the swedish academy said that the novel "occupies a special position" in hesse's work. "glass bead game" is a literal translation of the german title, but the book has also been published under the title magister ludi, latin for "master of the game", which is an honorific title awarded to the book's central character. "magister ludi" can also be seen as a pun: lud- is a latin stem meaning both "game" and "school". however, the title magister ludi is misleading, as it implies the book is a straightforward bildungsroman. in reality, the book touches on many different genres, and the bulk of the story is on one level a parody of the biography genre.theodore ziolkowski, foreword to the glass bead game, p. xix. picador. isbn 0-312-27849-7. ziolkowski cites thomas mann's recognition of the source of the book's humor as "the parody of biography and the grave scholarly attitude." ==synopsis== the glass bead game takes place at an unspecified date centuries into the future. hesse suggested that he imagined the book's narrator writing around the start of the 25th century.theodore ziolkowski, foreword to the glass bead game, p. xii. owl books. isbn 0-8050-1246-x the setting is a fictional province of central europe called castalia, which was reserved by political decision for the life of the mind; technology and economic life are kept to a strict minimum. castalia is home to an austere order of intellectuals with a twofold mission: to run boarding school
1943_novels 25th_century_in_fiction Contemporary_philosophical_literature Fictional_games Henry_Holt_and_Company_books Novels_about_music Novels_by_Hermann_Hesse Philosophical_novels