Hermann Hesse

"The Bead Game"

The action takes place in the distant future. The infallible Master of the Game and the hero of Castalia, Josef Knecht, having reached the limits of formal and content perfection in the game of the spirit, feels dissatisfaction, and then disappointment and leaves Castalia for the harsh world outside it to serve a specific and imperfect person. The Order of Castalia, of which the hero is the Master, is a society of guardians of the truth. Members of the Order renounce family, property, participation in politics, so that no selfish interests can influence the process of the mysterious "glass game", which they indulge in - "playing with all the meanings and values ​​​​of culture" as an expression of truth. Members of the Order live in Castalia, an amazing country over which time has no power. The name of the country comes from the mythical Kastalsky key on Mount Parnassus, near the waters of which the god Apollo dances with nine muses, personifying the arts.

The novel was written on behalf of a Castalian historian from the distant future and consists of three unequal parts: an introductory treatise on the history of Castalia and the Glass Bead Game, the biography of the protagonist and the works of Knecht himself - poems and three biographies. The prehistory of Castalia is presented as a sharp critique of 20th-century society. and its degenerate culture. This culture is characterized as "feuilletonistic" (from the German meaning of the word "feuilleton", which means "an entertaining newspaper article"). Its essence is newspaper reading - "feuilletons" as a particularly popular type of publications, produced by millions. They do not contain deep thoughts, attempts to understand complex problems, on the contrary, their content is “entertaining nonsense”, which is in incredible demand. The authors of such tinsel were not only newspaper clickers, among them were poets and often professors of higher educational institutions with a glorious name - the more famous the name was and the more stupid the topic, the greater was the demand. The favorite material of such articles was anecdotes from the lives of famous people under headings like: "Friedrich Nietzsche and ladies' fashion in the seventies of the nineteenth century", "Favorite dishes of the composer Rossini" or "The role of lap dogs in the life of famous courtesans." Sometimes a famous chemist or pianist was asked about certain political events, and a popular actor or ballerina was asked about the advantages or disadvantages of a single lifestyle or the cause of financial crises. At the same time, the smartest of the feuilletonists themselves made fun of their work, permeated with the spirit of irony.

Most uninitiated readers took everything at face value. Others, after hard work, spent their leisure time guessing crossword puzzles, bending over squares and crosses from empty cells. However, the chronicler admits that those who played these children's riddle games or read feuilletons cannot be called naive people, carried away by senseless childishness. They lived in perpetual fear in the midst of political and economic upheaval, and they had a strong need to close their eyes and escape reality into the harmless world of cheap sensationalism and childish riddles, because "the church did not give them comfort and spirit - advice." People who endlessly read feuilletons, listened to reports and guessed crossword puzzles, did not have the time and strength to overcome fear, sort out problems, understand what was happening around, and get rid of “feuilleton” hypnosis, they lived “convulsively and did not believe in the future ". The historian of Castalia, behind whom the author also stands, comes to the conclusion that such a civilization has exhausted itself and is on the verge of collapse.

In this situation, when many thinking people were confused, the best representatives of the intellectual elite united to preserve the traditions of spirituality and created a state within a state - Castalia, where the elite indulge in the game of glass beads. Castalia becomes a kind of abode of contemplative spirituality, existing with the consent of a technocratic society permeated with the spirit of profit and consumerism. Competitions in the game of glass beads are broadcast on the radio throughout the country, in Castalia itself, whose landscapes resemble Southern Germany, time has stopped - they ride horses there. Its main purpose is pedagogical: the education of intellectuals, free from the spirit of conjuncture and bourgeois practicality. In a sense, Castalia is an opposition to the state of Plato, where the power belongs to the scientists who rule the world. In Castalia, on the contrary, scientists and philosophers are free and independent of any authority, but this is achieved at the cost of detachment from reality. Castalia does not have strong roots in life, and therefore its fate depends too much on those who have real power in society - on the generals, who may consider that the abode of wisdom is an unnecessary luxury for a country preparing, for example, for war.

The Castalians belong to the Order of the Servants of the Spirit and are completely cut off from the practice of life. The order is built according to the medieval principle - twelve Masters, the Supreme, Educational and other Colleges. To replenish their ranks, Castalians throughout the country select talented boys and train them in their schools, develop their abilities in music, philosophy, mathematics, teach them to think and enjoy the games of the spirit. Then the young men go to universities, and then devote themselves to the sciences and arts, teaching or glass beads. The game of beads, or the game of glass beads, is a kind of synthesis of religion, philosophy and art. Once upon a time, a certain Perrault from the city of Calva used in his music lessons a device invented by him with glass beads. Then it was improved - a unique language was created based on various combinations of beads, with which you can endlessly compare different meanings and categories. These studies are fruitless, their result is not the creation of something new, only the variation and reinterpretation of known combinations and motives in order to achieve harmony, balance and perfection.

Around 2200, Josef Knecht becomes Master, having gone all the way that the Castalians go. His name means "servant" and he is ready to serve truth and harmony in Castalia. However, the hero only temporarily finds harmony in the play of glass beads, because he feels the contradictions of the Castalian reality more and more sharply, intuitively tries to avoid the Castalian limitations. He is far from scientists like Tegularius - a lone genius, fenced off from the world in his passion for sophistication and formal virtuosity. Staying outside Castalia in the Benedictine monastery of Mariafels and meeting with Father Jacob have a great influence on Knecht. He thinks about the ways of history, about the relationship between the history of the state and the history of culture, and understands what is the true place of Castalia in the real world: while the Castalians play their games, a society from which they move further and further away may consider Castalia a useless luxury. The task, Knecht believes, is to educate the young not behind the walls of libraries, but in the “world” with its harsh laws. He leaves Castalia and becomes tutor to his friend Designori's son. Bathing with him in a mountain lake, the hero dies in icy water - this is how the legend says, according to the chronicler leading the story. It is not known whether Knecht would have succeeded on his path, one thing is clear - one cannot hide from life in the world of ideas and books.

The same idea is confirmed by three biographies that conclude the book and give the key to understanding the work. The hero of the first, the Servant, the bearer of the spirituality of a primitive tribe in the midst of obscurantism, does not humble himself and sacrifices himself so that the spark of truth does not go out. The second, the early Christian hermit Joseph Famulus (in Latin, “servant”), is disappointed in his role as a comforter of sinners, but, having met an older confessor, he still continues to serve with him. The third hero - Dasa ("servant") does not sacrifice himself and does not continue his service, but runs into the forest to the old yogi, i.e. goes to his Castalia. It was from this path that the hero of Hesse, Joseph Knecht, found the strength to refuse, although it cost him his life.

Far future. The main character is the Master of the Castalian Order, dissatisfied with life, who decided to leave to serve an imperfect person. This Order is the Order of the Keepers of Truth. Its members, upon joining, are forced to renounce family ties, political games, and everything that could influence the mysterious "glass game". Time has no power over the country of Castalia.

The name Kastalia comes from the Kastalsky key, located on Mount Parnassus. According to legend, near its waters, Apollo leads round dances with the muses. The novel consists of three different parts. The backstory is riddled with harsh criticism of twentieth-century society. The culture of those times is regarded as superficial, without understanding the essence of the problem. Called "feuilletonistic", this culture has been compared to articles of the same name by feuilletons. This is such a reading, without much meaning and topic. Curiosities from the life of influential and famous people were especially favorite topics. Not only poets wrote and published such works, but also newspaper writers. Sometimes the authors themselves amuse themselves over their work. But to the average reader, all this seemed absolutely true. Some, after their workday, spent time on crossword puzzles. The author admits that it is wrong to call such people naive.

They lived their lives in fear of economic and political crises, they had a desire to escape reality into the world of childhood and play. In order not to lose spirituality and traditions acquired over the centuries, intellectuals united and created Castalia - a state within a state. The chosen ones of this state indulge in the “bead game”. These games were broadcast on the radio in Castalia. The purpose of the game was to educate intellectuals. The fate of Castalia depended on the power in whose hands it was. Its inhabitants were completely protected from life practices.

There were Supreme, Educational Colleagues and Twelve Masters in the country. They identified talented boys, trained them and developed their talents. At the end of their studies, the young men devoted themselves to science, pedagogy or glass beads. At its core, the glass beads game did not bear any real fruit. It was a comparison of different meanings and categories, different interpretations of the same concepts, all this was done in order to achieve perfection. A certain Perrault came up with a game with glass beads, and then a language was invented based on various combinations of beads. Around 2200 Joseph Knecht became Master. He clearly feels the contradictions of reality and wants to protect himself from its limitations. The meeting with Father Jacob and being in the monastery of Mariafels have a huge impact on Knecht's consciousness. He understands that Castalia, which has played too much, may soon become a luxury that society does not need. In his opinion, education should be done in practice, and not in the Castalian libraries. The hero dies in the icy waters of the lake.

The reader will never know if Knecht succeeded if he continued his endeavors. The conclusion is this: you need to live in reality, not hiding behind illusions from the world of books. At the end of the book, the reader opens three biographies that explain the very essence of the work.

Hermann Hesse

"The Bead Game"

Foreword

E.Markovich Hermann Hesse and his novel "The Glass Bead Game"

Already in the title of this book is a clever and bitter irony. "Game of beads". It's not a matter, but a game of empty glass. After all, nothing but the spiritual aspirations of scientists and artists, their studies, their studies in theory, sciences and arts, the author dared to call a game. What are these aspirations? - as if Hesse asks a question. Is it really just a game or a vital necessity? Or maybe a kind of new religion for intellectuals? What should spiritual activity serve in order not to turn into an empty game? How are the keepers of the highest spiritual culture connected with those who create material values? What is the basis and role of true "spirituality" in our age?

Before us is a deep philosophical work by one of the greatest German writers of the 20th century, his thoughts about the fate of the world and civilization, about the fate of what is especially close to him - about the fate of art. And these are not cold reflections: behind the outwardly calm narrative lies the most intimate question: “What will happen to spirituality, what will happen to art in the modern world?” And that means with man, because for the humanist Hesse, the fate of the sciences and arts is inextricably linked with the fate of man, with the conditions for the development of the human personality.

Like most honest writers of his time, Hesse was deeply aware of the hostility of the bourgeois society of the 20th century to the development of man and the artist. For more than half a century of creative work, he, in his own way, was looking for a way out of the impasse in which society found itself. A peculiar result of these searches was the novel "The Glass Bead Game", in which the reader is presented with the amazing creation of Hesse - the country of Castalia, the country of intellectuals - the spiritual elite of the future, selflessly indulging in the Glass Bead Game.

The name Castalia comes from the mythological Kastalsky key on Parnassus, near the clear waters of which, according to legend, Apollo danced round dances with nine muses, Hesse himself pointed out the connection of his Castalia with Goethe's "Pedagogical province", which also appeared in the novel "Wilhelm Meister's Years of Wanderings" (1821). In this way, Hesse emphasized his deep reverence for Goethe - the classic and coryphaeus of the German culture of the past - and his continuity in relation to this culture. For Goethe, Mozart and other great artists of the past were for Hesse the personification of that genuine "spirituality", the fate of which he mourned.

In the center of Hesse's work is a detailed life story of a certain Master of the Game, first the most worthy representative and hero of Castalia, and then its apostate. It is not for nothing that under the title "The Glass Bead Game" there is also a subtitle: "The experience of the biography of Joseph Knecht, the Master of the Game, with the application of his own writings." The entire book was allegedly written on behalf of a Castalian historian from the distant future and was only "published by Hermann Hesse". The well-known technique of “removal”, when the author hides under the mask of a publisher (in German literature, Jean Paul Richter, Karl Immermann, Hoffmann, etc. resorted to it), helps Hesse create the illusion of documentary, even scientific accuracy when describing people, events, countries, etc. epochs created by his imagination.

The title "novel" is rather arbitrary for The Glass Bead Game, even considering the changes that this traditional form has undergone in our century. Undoubtedly, The Glass Bead Game is not a utopia in the usual sense of the word, as Hesse himself repeatedly reminded, not an attempt to somehow foresee the future, as is typical of modern science fiction writers. Most likely, this is a “parable novel”, a “parable novel”, and in the literature of the 20th century it is most correct to put it next to some works of Thomas Mann, an artist who is in many ways close to Hesse. “I have been working on Faustus for a year already,” wrote T. Mann to Hesse after reading The Glass Bead Game, “...it is impossible to imagine anything more different, and at the same time the similarity is striking, as is often the case between brothers.”

But The Glass Bead Game is also a whole conglomeration of genre forms within the framework of one work. Here is a political pamphlet, and a historical essay, inserted poems and short stories, a legend and a life, a German “novel about education”. For the most part, these traditional forms are used with a significant degree of parody, with an element of "play". At the same time, Hesse revives and continues some very old traditions: the enlightening story of the 18th century (Voltaire, Swift), the German novel-biography of the 17th century (Grimmelshausen), and others that he valued so much. The creation of Hesse seems deliberately archaic and surprisingly modern.

The complexity of construction, the richness of symbolism, the play with names, terms and concepts from many, many areas of spiritual life - all this can at first stun the reader. But there is also unity, the amazing thoughtfulness of this great work. Various figurative motifs seem to merge under the hand of a master conductor into a harmonious symphony. By the way, critics have repeatedly noted the similarity of the composition of The Glass Bead Game with the composition of a musical work in which the story of Knecht seems to be the main musical theme. At the same time, the whole “spiritual history of the writer himself, his searches, his thoughts about the most important thing for the Negro and his contemporaries comes to life in it.

The Glass Bead Game was created during the dark years of fascism in Germany and was completed in 1943, the turning point of the Second World War. In a letter in January 1955, Hesse himself said that Castalia was his rebuke to fascism, an attempt to glorify spirituality in a "plague, poisoned world." At the same time, Hesse raised the question of the need to save the “spirit”, that for the sake of this salvation, the intelligentsia must leave their isolated Castalia (in other words, the same notorious “ivory tower”) and find their “service” in the world practices.

The Glass Bead Game was published in neutral Switzerland, where Hesse lived. Interest in the new great work of the recognized writer and thinker was extremely great. The novel has generated conflicting interpretations and heated discussions; not by everyone, for various reasons, he was understood and accepted, but he excited all readers. The controversy surrounding The Glass Bead Game did not subside even after the war, when the novel first became available to the German public: significant inconsistency undoubtedly gave rise to different interpretations. But at the same time, there has been widespread recognition. About the "amazing gift" that Hesse made to the intellectual world and to him personally with his "magnificently mature and rich monumental novel", wrote Hermann Hesse in early 1945, his friend Thomas Mann. In 1946, Hesse was awarded the Nobel Prize.

The Glass Bead Game is a novel by Hermann Hesse. Completed in 1943. The novel "The Glass Bead Game", which we will analyze, contains a description of the "republic of the spirit" - Castalia, where the hero of the book, Joseph Knecht, was taken as a student in his youth, eventually becoming the supreme master of this community. Combining the features of a “novel of education” (Knecht’s biography), philosophical prose, where the movement of characters is subordinated to the development of ideas, and utopia (created in the twenty-second century after the catastrophes experienced by mankind, Castalia is conceived by its founders as an essay and repository of a culture that has disappeared from everyday relations people outside this corner of the earth), "The Glass Bead Game" is also read as a transparent contrasting parallel to the events that took place in the world of the 1930s-1940s.

Throughout the novel, Knecht and his antagonist Plinio Designore argue about the highest values ​​and the meaning of human existence, sometimes sharp enough to lend intriguing interest and tension to a narrative that is almost eventless. However, while remaining adversaries, these main characters do not enter into a conflict that could be called irreconcilable. In the opinion of Hesse, who from his youth was fond of the philosophical concepts of ancient India and China, being is not a contrast, but a unity of opposite principles, a concept consistently realized on the pages of the Glass Bead Game, which contains special comments that are not directly related to action, which explain the most important concepts (tao, yin-yang, etc.) gleaned from the books of the eastern sages and the works of sinologists.

The coexistence and interaction of opposites determine both the arrangement of characters and the development of the novel's most important collisions. Castalia itself is shown in a dual light, turning out to be both a stronghold of true spirituality and a guardian of those cultural layers that do not really acquire significant significance “within the structure of the people, the world, world history”, since the values ​​protected in the citadel were definitely not involved in this history. The discussion between Knecht and Designori, concerning primarily the purpose of Castalia, as well as the justification of its very existence, is read under the sign of the validity of both of these positions: outwardly incompatible, they appear as complementing each other and practically equally expressing the author's view.

The composition of the novel "The Glass Bead Game" by Hesse is designed to embody the multiplicity of acceptable readings and possible interpretations of the content of the main conflicts of such a year. An extensive preface by the publisher, which gives the most important information about the meaning of the ritual known as the game of beads (or the game of glass beads), is followed by several biographies of Knecht and his poems. Among the three versions of his possible fate, which were invented by Knecht himself, the “Indian” stands out, where the hero, like the master of Castalia, also leaves the world, settling in the forest with a yogi, but, unlike Knecht, carefully guards his hermitage, which becomes a declaration of complete rejection vain and aimless worldly life, which is devoid of a moral guideline, and thus justification. In contrast to Knecht, who was burdened by that pure contemplation that is recognized by law and norm by the inhabitants of Castalia, the hero of the “Indian” version of Das chooses absolute passivity, becoming the personification of the Eastern worldview, which is opposite to the active European spirit. For Hesse, neither Knecht nor Das, who make fundamentally different choices, can, however, claim to own the ultimate truth. Absolute truth is understood by the writer as a chimera, and Knecht, completing his journey, formulates a very important idea for the writer that it is not truths that are important, which in the end most often appear one-sided or illusory, but the ability to “endure reality”, while maintaining human dignity.

This ethical imperative prompts Knecht to leave the world when he heard the secret call of his student, and forever plunged into the icy waters of a mountain lake. The meaning of the epilogue of "The Glass Bead Game" was deciphered as the dissolution of the hero in the natural element, which always has an irresistible attraction against the background of sophisticated but impassive philosophizing, or as the acquisition of nirvana, or as a sacrificial death, foreshadowed by the very decision of the hero to go out to people from his castal isolation. The finale is open to a variety of interpretations, as required by the polyphonic principle of constructing the novel, in this respect akin to the art of Dostoevsky, who attracted Hesse from a young age (an article about The Idiot, written in 1920, is crowned with the conclusion that Myshkin inherent "magical thinking", that is, the ability to "feel the interchangeability of spirit and nature, spirit and freedom, good and evil" - a gift that Knecht was also generously endowed with).

The most important stimulus that determines the nature of the hero's decisions in situations that are fateful for him is not peace, which gives enlightenment, but eternal spiritual restlessness, which is also emphasized in the texts of Hesse, which serve as an autocommentary to his novel. Objecting to those who reduced the meaning of the story told on the pages of The Glass Bead Game to the preaching of stoicism, the Taoist "principle of non-action" and the departure from an irreparably degraded world, Hesse repeatedly pointed out that he brought too much European into the Eastern understanding of life, although it and indeed always retained a great attraction for him.

The idea of ​​service remains dominant in Knecht's mind, regardless of the circumstances in which he finds himself. The noble, though in many ways naive attempt to build an impeccably harmonious world, when reality is in the grip of tragic chaos, was not only a subjective spiritual need for Knecht, but expressed his desire to create a bastion of culture and intellectual purity, recalling that the highest meanings of human existence, as and the highest moral criteria predetermined by them, are preserved at all times.

Herman Hesse. It was published in 1943 by a Zurich publishing house. And in 1946, Hesse received the Nobel Prize in Literature, perhaps thanks to the book The Glass Bead Game. The summary of the work is as follows: the action takes place in the future, the narration is conducted on behalf of a fictional historian who is working on the biography of the protagonist of the novel, the Game Master Josef Knecht.

Master of the Game is a title given to the protagonist who teaches specially selected, talented, elite descendants of European society in an educational institution specially designated for this purpose, located in the province of the fictional country of Castalia. The name of the country clearly echoes the word "caste", which is the teachers and students of the school. The main subject of this educational institution is the game of beads, which includes a mixture of science and art.

By and large, Castalia, invented by Hesse, echoes many other works, the authors of which were carried away by thoughts of utopia. But Hesse brings under his myth the idea of ​​the spiritual and intellectual end of European thought, in a sense, of the "twilight of the gods." And we accept the creation of Castalia as a necessity.

Hesse describes the spiritual catastrophe that befell industrial Europe, in which all spiritual and creative life ceased. And people who are incompetent in these matters began to judge vital issues such as economics and politics.

A lot of different people remember the Glass Bead Game. Readers' feedback tells us that Hesse's novel is not a very subtle hint to the modern elite that they are engaged in all sorts of nonsense that will lead society to collapse.

So, the Glass Bead Game. The summary of the novel is as follows: the protagonist Josef Knecht, having begun his studies at the Castalian school, acquires a friend named Plinio Designori, with whom they have long polemical conversations. In these disputes, Designori tries to convince Knecht that he considers it unviable to try to preserve science, culture and art, as well as the education system of the elite in the closed educational institutions of Castalia.

The names of the main characters speak for themselves "Knecht" - servant, "Designori" - seigneur. Probably, they were not chosen by Hesse by chance, since he considers the position defended by Designori to be correct. Designori leaves Castalia to live a "real life" in a "real world".

Knecht, who successfully completed his studies, was called to lead the school of Castalia. One day he decides to start teaching with his friend's son, comes to him and, having stayed for a short time, dies, leaving us a collection of poems and stories of his composition.

The question that Hesse asks throughout the story can be formulated as follows: "Is not all science and art, all the spiritual daring of mankind a simple game of glass?"

In the novel, Hesse asks the question of what will happen to art in a bourgeois society that is deeply hostile to any creativity? The death of the protagonist shows us humans, like Knecht, there is no place among ordinary individuals.

The action takes place in the distant future. The infallible Master of the Game and the hero of Castalia, Josef Knecht, having reached the limits of formal and content perfection in the game of the spirit, feels dissatisfaction, and then disappointment and leaves Castalia for a harsh world outside it to serve a specific and imperfect person. The Castalian Order, of which the hero is the Master, is a society of keepers of truth. Members of the Order renounce family, property, participation in politics, so that no selfish interests can influence the process of the mysterious "glass game", which they indulge in - "playing with all the meanings and values ​​​​of culture" as an expression of truth. Members of the Order live in Castalia, an amazing country over which time has no power. The name of the country comes from the mythical Kastalsky key on Mount Parnassus, near the waters of which the god Apollo dances with nine muses, personifying the arts.

The novel was written on behalf of a Castalian historian from the distant future and consists of three unequal parts: an introductory treatise on the history of Castalia and the Glass Bead Game, a biography of the protagonist and the works of Knecht himself - poems and three biographies. The prehistory of Castalia is presented as a sharp critique of 20th-century society. and its degenerate culture. This culture is characterized as "feuilletonistic" (from the German meaning of the word "feuilleton", which means "an entertaining newspaper article"). Its essence is newspaper reading - "feuilletons" as a particularly popular type of publications, produced by millions. They do not contain deep thoughts, attempts to understand complex problems, on the contrary, their content is “entertaining nonsense”, which is in incredible demand. The authors of such tinsel were not only newspaper clickers, among them were poets and often professors of higher educational institutions with a glorious name - the more famous the name was and the more stupid the topic, the greater was the demand. The favorite material of such articles was anecdotes from the lives of famous people under headings like: "Friedrich Nietzsche and ladies' fashion in the seventies of the nineteenth century", "Favorite dishes of the composer Rossini" or "The role of lap dogs in the life of famous courtesans." Sometimes a famous chemist or pianist was asked about certain political events, and a popular actor or ballerina was asked about the advantages or disadvantages of a single lifestyle or the cause of financial crises. At the same time, the smartest of the feuilletonists themselves made fun of their work, permeated with the spirit of irony.

Most uninitiated readers took everything at face value. Others, after hard work, spent their leisure time guessing crossword puzzles, bending over squares and crosses from empty cells. However, the chronicler admits that those who played these children's riddle games or read feuilletons cannot be called naive people, carried away by senseless childishness. They lived in perpetual fear in the midst of political and economic upheaval, and they had a strong need to close their eyes and escape reality into the harmless world of cheap sensationalism and childish riddles, because "the church did not give them comfort and spirit - advice." People who endlessly read feuilletons, listened to reports and guessed crossword puzzles, did not have the time and strength to overcome fear, sort out problems, understand what was happening around, and get rid of “feuilleton” hypnosis, they lived “convulsively and did not believe in the future ". The historian of Castalia, behind whom the author also stands, comes to the conclusion that such a civilization has exhausted itself and is on the verge of collapse.

In this situation, when many thinking people were confused, the best representatives of the intellectual elite united to preserve the traditions of spirituality and created a state within a state - Castalia, where the elite indulge in the game of glass beads. Castalia becomes a kind of abode of contemplative spirituality, existing with the consent of a technocratic society permeated with the spirit of profit and consumerism. Competitions in the game of beads are broadcast on the radio throughout the country, in Castalia itself, whose landscapes resemble Southern Germany, time has stopped - they ride horses there. Its main purpose is pedagogical: the education of intellectuals, free from the spirit of conjuncture and bourgeois practicality. In a sense, Castalia is an opposition to the state of Plato, where the power belongs to the scientists who rule the world. In Castalia, on the contrary, scientists and philosophers are free and independent of any authority, but this is achieved at the cost of detachment from reality. Castalia does not have strong roots in life, and therefore its fate depends too much on those who have real power in society - on generals who may consider that the abode of wisdom is an unnecessary luxury for a country preparing, for example, for war.

The Castalians belong to the Order of the Servants of the Spirit and are completely cut off from the practice of life. The Order is built according to the medieval principle - twelve Masters, Supreme, Educational and other Colleges. To replenish their ranks, Castalians throughout the country select talented boys and train them in their schools, develop their abilities in music, philosophy, mathematics, teach them to think and enjoy the games of the spirit. Then the young men go to universities, and then devote themselves to the sciences and arts, teaching or glass beads. The game of beads, or the game of glass beads, is a kind of synthesis of religion, philosophy and art. Once upon a time, a certain Perrault from the city of Calva used in his music lessons a device invented by him with glass beads. Then it was improved - a unique language was created based on various combinations of beads, with which you can endlessly compare different meanings and categories. These studies are fruitless, their result is not the creation of something new, only the variation and reinterpretation of known combinations and motives in order to achieve harmony, balance and perfection.

Around 2200, Josef Knecht becomes Master, having gone all the way that the Castalians go. His name means "servant" and he is ready to serve truth and harmony in Castalia. However, the hero only temporarily finds harmony in the play of glass beads, because he feels the contradictions of the Castalian reality more and more sharply, intuitively tries to avoid the Castalian limitations. He is far from scientists like Tegularius - a lone genius, fenced off from the world in his passion for sophistication and formal virtuosity. Staying outside Castalia in the Benedictine monastery of Mariafels and meeting with Father Jacob have a great influence on Knecht. He thinks about the ways of history, about the relationship between the history of the state and the history of culture, and understands what is the true place of Castalia in the real world: while the Castalians play their games, a society from which they move further and further away may consider Castalia a useless luxury. The task, Knecht believes, is to educate the young not behind the walls of libraries, but in the “world” with its harsh laws. He leaves Castalia and becomes tutor to his friend Designori's son. Bathing with him in a mountain lake, the hero dies in icy water - this is how the legend says, according to the chronicler leading the story. It is not known whether Knecht would have succeeded on his path, one thing is clear - one cannot hide from life in the world of ideas and books.

The same idea is confirmed by three biographies that conclude the book and give the key to understanding the work. The hero of the first, the Servant, the bearer of the spirituality of a primitive tribe in the midst of obscurantism, does not humble himself and sacrifices himself so that the spark of truth does not go out. The second, the early Christian hermit Joseph Famulus (in Latin, “servant”), is disappointed in his role as a comforter of sinners, but, having met an older confessor, he still continues to serve with him. The third hero - Dasa ("servant") does not sacrifice himself and does not continue his service, but runs into the forest to the old yogi, i.e. goes to his Castalia. It was from this path that the hero of Hesse, Joseph Knecht, found the strength to refuse, although it cost the mind his life.