'The unhappiness that I need and long for ...is of the kind that will let me suffer with eagerness and die with lust. That is the unhappiness, or happiness, that I am waiting for.' Alienated from society, Harry Haller is the Steppenwolf, wild, strange and shy. His despair and desire for death draw him into an enchanted, Faust-like underworld. Through a series of shadowy encounters, romantic, freakish and savage by turn, Haller begins to rediscover the lost dreams of his youth. Adopted by the Sixties counterculture, Steppenwolf captured the mood of a disaffected generation that was beginning to question everything.
Reviews
The gripping and fascinating story of disease in a man's soul, and a savage indictment of bourgeois society - New York Times Existential masterpiece - The Times A profoundly memorable and affecting novel - New York Times