num_pages: 530
description: The Glass Bead Game is an ultra-aesthetic game which is played by the scholars, creamed off in childhood and nurtured in elite schools, in the province of Castalia. The Master of the Glass Bead Game, Joseph Knecht, holds the most exalted office in Castalia. He personifies the detachment, serenity and aesthetic vision which reward a life dedicated to perfection of the intellect. But can, indeed should, man live isolated from hunger, family, children, women, in a perfect world where passions are tamed by meditation, where academic discipline and order are paramount? This is Herman Hesse’s great novel. It is a major contribution to contemporary philosophic literature and has a powerful vision of universality, the inner unity of man’s cultural ideals and his search for personal perfection and social responsibility.
language: English
title: The Glass Bead Game
titlecomplete: The Glass Bead Game
characters: Joseph Knecht
genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Philosophy, German Literature, Literature, Classics, Novels, Germany, Fantasy, 20th Century
ratings_count: 37604
awards: awardedAt: 694252800000
name: Премія імені Максима Рильського, awardedAt: 1546329600000
name: Retro Hugo Award
category: Best Novel
publisher: Vintage Classics