The Glass Bead Game (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Hermann Hesse
- First Published: 1943
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Bildungsroman
- Time of Work: Possibly the year 2400
- Setting: Castalia
- Genres: Long fiction, Bildungsroman
- Subjects: Intellectuals, Music or musicians, Education or educators, Future, Students or student life, Utopias, Games
- Locales: Castalia (fictive)
Characters Discussed
Joseph Knecht, Ludi Magister Josephus III, an elite student of Castalia who is, at the age of forty, appointed Master of the Game, an instrument of transformation and perfection. The novel’s narrator recounts Knecht’s story as a legend rather than as strict biography and traces Knecht’s development from his teenage years at the schools Eschholz and Waldzell, to his years as Master of the Game, and, lastly, to his brief entry into the vita activa before his death. The existential experiences of his life gradually bring him closer to full...
[The entire page is 1260 words long]
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