Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse. Short summary

5 seconds

The story of an intellectual who shuns people, who one day meets a girl, Hermine. After attending a special masquerade ball, he loses his mind and kills his girlfriend.

1 minute

The novel consists of Harry Galler’s notes, which were found and published by the nephew of the landlady of the house where the protagonist was renting a room.

In the foreword to the records, the nephew describes Harry’s way of life. Galler lived withdrawn and quiet, shunned people, was timid and wild. He was alien to modern civilization and bourgeois mores. Harry lived among the books and did not find common ground with the people around him. He called himself a «prairie wolf.

Galler meets a girl, Hermine. She introduces him to jazz and her friends.

One day he finds himself at a special masquerade ball, where reality and fiction mix for him. In a delirious state, he kills Hermine and completely loses his mind.