AP/Honors Book note for Siddhartha Authorial Background *Herman Hesse was born in the Black Forest town of Calw, Germany in 1877. *Herman was the son and grandson of Protestant missionaries who had served in India. *He was expected to follow in their footsteps by preparing for the ministry. *He tried, but experienced a religious crisis, fled the seminary and attempted suicide. *Hesse's first major novels displayed some major themes that were to absorb him throughout …showed first 75 words of 1510 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1510 total…had lived in the woods, had then turned to high living and the pleasures of the world, and he held no brief for this Gotoma. (Page 21) *Tepid -Adjective; lacking enthusiasm -He loved this feeling and continually sought to renew it, to increase it, to stimulate it, for in this feeling alone did he experience some kind of happiness, some kind of excitement, some heightened living in the midst of his satiated, tepid, insipid existence. (Page 79)