First published in 1910, Gertrude is one of Hesse's earlier novels, already deeply concerned with questions that would recur throughout his work: the divided self, the solitude of the artist, and the difficulty of reconciling creative fulfilment with intimacy.

Gertrude follows Kuhn, a young musician whose life is altered by a debilitating accident. Finding purpose in composition, he becomes entangled in the lives of two people. One is Heinrich Muoth, a gifted but volatile opera singer, and the other is Gertrude, the woman whose presence comes to shape both men's emotional and artistic worlds.

Music becomes more than a profession or an aesthetic pursuit; it offers a means of giving form to experiences that resist ordinary language. An introspective, psychologically rich novel for readers drawn to Hesse's explorations of individuality, suffering and the demands of the creative life.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Noonday Press, 1973. Eighth printing of the 1969 revised English translation. Vintage paperback. Visible age-toning, cover rubbing, edge wear and some discolouration. Good vintage condition.