“The Glass Bead Game” is not an arbitrary Utopia, however. World War II had just ended then, so the novel's depiction of a debellicized future for Europe no doubt had special appeal in the German-speaking world. This book earned Hermann Hesse his Nobel Prize for literature in 1946. German Original “Das Glasperlenspiel” (1943)Įnglish Translation by Richard and Clara Winston (1969)Įditions are available from Henry Holt and Bantam.

As it turns out, he is also exactly the kind of man who enjoys resigning from the Glass Bead Game. Hesse tries to show that this withdrawal was not a rejection of Knecht's upbringing, but its fulfillment.Īfter Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, John said that Pope Benedict is exactly the kind of man who would enjoy playing the Glass Bead Game. Then, having reached the summit, he walks away from the whole structure, making a resignation rather more shocking than a papal abdication would be.

Though Knecht's career as a scholar and a diplomat owes something to his native charisma, his life is the tale of how he masters and perfectly embodies the traditional role for which he has been trained.

John says: “The Glass Bead Game” is about the education and career of one Joseph Knecht, whose surname means “serf” or “servant.” He rises through the elite schools of his society to the pinnacle of intellectual life, the position of Magister Ludi, the Master of the Game. I don't think this counts as a prediction, but there is an interesting parallel to subsequent events.

Magister ludi the glass bead game