In a helpful exegetical introduction to Herman Hesse's most popular philosophical novel, Donald McCrory explains that Siddhartha, the protagonist's name, is a Sanskrit compound meaning "the wealth accrued to one who has fulfilled his aim". Using phrases that the German Nobel laureate applied to himself, Siddhartha, a well-born Indian who lived at the time of the Buddha (556-476 BC), could be described as "a hopeless outsider", afflicted by "sickness with life" and preoccupied with the "spiritual-poetical", whose ambition was to achieve mystical union with God and the universe, beyond time. The story of this quest for transcendental bliss is told with eloquent simplicity, from Siddhartha's departure from his parent's home, his wanderings in poverty with nomadic ascetics, his serene encounter with the Buddha himself, his immersion in the sensual luxury of a rich merchant, to his renunciation of worldliness and his final discovery of total understanding. Quite an odyssey.