Reading Order
The Journey to the East Reading Order
The Journey to the East (1932) by Hermann Hesse is the most perfect and enigmatic of his short novels — a meditation on the nature of service, community, and the relationship between the individual and the spiritual whole, written in the form of a mysterious account by a narrator (H.H.) of his participation in a journey by a group called the League. The League's journey is toward the East — which is not a geographical destination but a spiritual one, and the journey's purpose is the realization of a timeless spiritual goal. H.H. wants to write the history of the journey but finds that his account cannot be completed: the documents he needs are missing, his memory is fragmentary, and the other members of the League have different and irreconcilable versions of the same events. At the center of the novel is the figure of Leo — the group's servant, who disappears midway through the journey and whose disappearance causes the group to dissolve — and the discovery at the end that Leo was not the servant but the head of the League. The novel anticipates The Glass Bead Game and directly influenced Robert Greenleaf's concept of 'servant leadership.'
Where to start
The Journey to the East (1932) — the complete novella in the Hilda Rosner translation (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Best Hesse reading order: Siddhartha → Steppenwolf → Narcissus and Goldmund → The Journey to the East → The Glass Bead Game.
Complete The Journey to the East Book List
- 1Buy
The Journey to the East
Hermann Hesse·1932·The complete novella — H.H., the League, and the figure of Leo. One of Hesse's most formally enigmatic works; the Hilda Rosner translation is the standard English version - 2Buy
Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse·1922·The companion — the spiritual journey and its goal. The companion investigation of the same theme: the spiritual journey as a movement toward a destination that is also a dissolution of the individual self - 3Buy
The Glass Bead Game
Hermann Hesse·1943·The companion — the Castalian intellectual world and Josef Knecht's service to it. The companion investigation of the same theme of service to a community organized around a spiritual ideal: Leo-as-servant is the prototype of Knecht's service to Castalia - 4Buy
Steppenwolf
Hermann Hesse·1927·The companion — Harry Haller and the Magic Theatre. The companion investigation of the same Hessean theme: the individual who participates in a community (the Magic Theatre) whose laws he does not fully understand - 5Buy
Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes·1605·Cervantes's companion about the knight errant whose quest is both real and deluded. The companion investigation of the same narrative form: both H.H. and Don Quixote are engaged in quests whose goal is uncertain and whose reality is questioned by those around them - 6Buy
The Conference of the Birds
Farid ud-Din Attar·1177·Attar's companion Sufi poem about the birds' journey to find their king, the Simurgh, who turns out to be themselves. The companion as the Eastern prototype of the same narrative: a group of seekers undertake a spiritual journey and discover at the end that the goal they sought was themselves or their leader was not what they thought - 7Buy
Servant Leadership
Robert Greenleaf·1977·Greenleaf's companion essay on the philosophy of servant leadership. The companion as the direct application of The Journey to the East's central insight: Greenleaf explicitly credits Hesse's Leo as the inspiration for the concept of the servant-leader — the leader who leads by serving - 8Buy
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho·1988·Coelho's companion about Santiago's journey to find his treasure. The companion as the popular version of the same spiritual journey narrative: like H.H., Santiago is on a journey whose goal turns out to be different from what he expected, and like Leo, the figure who guides him is not what he appears to be
The Journey to the East — Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Journey to the East about?
The Journey to the East is about H.H., a member of a mysterious organization called the League, who is trying to write the history of the League's journey toward the East. The journey — which is toward a timeless spiritual goal, not a geographical destination — has dissolved because a servant named Leo disappeared, and H.H. wants to understand why. The account he writes is fragmentary, contradictory, and finally incomplete; and at the end of the novel, H.H. discovers that Leo — who seemed to be the League's most humble and devoted servant — was actually its head, and that the service Leo performed was the highest form of authority. The novel is a meditation on the nature of service (the greatest leadership is service), on the relationship between the individual account and the collective reality (no individual can write the history of a spiritual community), and on the mystery of the organizations we belong to without fully understanding.
What is the League in The Journey to the East?
The League (der Bund in German) is a secret society or spiritual community whose membership extends across time as well as space — the League's membership includes not only contemporary figures but historical ones (Don Quixote, Pythagoras, Tristram Shandy are mentioned as members). The League's journey toward the East is a spiritual undertaking whose goal is never fully specified, and its laws and constitution are described but never fully explained. The League is Hesse's idealized vision of the community of spiritual seekers — artists, intellectuals, mystics, and dreamers throughout history who have dedicated themselves to the same goal — and The Journey to the East is in part an investigation of what makes such a community possible and what destroys it. The League is the prototype for the Castalian community in The Glass Bead Game, which is the League's more fully realized and more explicitly institutional successor.
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