Largely influenced by Hermann Hesse’s own encounter with Jungian psychoanalysis, Demian (1919) explores both the unconscious and the soul of its young herd, Emil Sinclair. A classic bildungsroman, the novel chronicles Sinclair’s journey toward self-realization as he confronts his darkest and deepest fears. Torn between his idyllic bourgeois family life and the mystical world of his friend and alter ego, Demian, Sinclair struggles to find his place in society. He rebels against his parents and teachers and, guided by vivid dreams and his mysterious friend, discovers his true self. As Thomas Mann writes in his introduction to this edition, “This poetic work struck the nerve of the times and called forth grateful rapture from a whole youthful generation who believed that an interpreter of their own innermost life had risen from their own midst.”