Love fever, anxious joy, ominous hopes, caprice and rebellion…
A novel like a diary of youth, about the experiences of those on the path to adulthood.

Hermann Hesse's clumsy love story, "Youth is Beautiful," reminisces about Demian.
A collection of autobiographical short stories beautifully and honestly depicting the times of growing from a child to an adult, through the lens of a character who leaves and returns to his hometown (Youth is Beautiful, Whirlwind)

'Like me, you too will love 'Youth is Beautiful' the most.
It really faithfully preserved and depicted our parents' house, our longed-for hometown, and our youth during that time.
(Hesse's letter to his sister Adele) Hermann Hesse, through his autobiographical short stories, elegantly and delicately portrayed his memories of childhood and youth and how he got through the stormy times.
Among them, I was satisfied with the works that most vividly depicted my longing for my hometown and my beautiful youth.
Although the main characters of the two works are different, they read naturally as if they are interconnected stories.
In “Whirlwind,” the intense wandering of an 18-year-old youth leaving his hometown is well expressed, and in “Youth is Beautiful,” the passion of a young man who returns to his hometown after experiencing the world for six years and finds love is well expressed.

The protagonist of "Whirlwind" has just graduated from school and got a job.
But the scenery of my hometown is always the same, no matter where I look, I am tired of reminiscing about my childhood memories, and the new curiosity called 'love' never happens, so I am disappointed with this trivial daily life and dream of a wider world.
At that time, he realizes that Bertha likes him, but he feels very uncomfortable when a beautiful woman appears in front of him.
Then one day, an unprecedented storm hits the village and destroys the scenery of memories in an instant.
Also, when Bertha runs to him while he is hiding in the warehouse and pours out her passionate confession, the protagonist's inner self is also swept up in a whirlwind.
When his safe world is uprooted in an instant, he boards a train and leaves his hometown.

The protagonist of "Youth is Beautiful" returns to his hometown, which he had left behind after six years, for a vacation.
When he recalls his rebellious past, he feels ashamed, anxious that his family will find out about his countless mistakes in a foreign land, and he wants to boast about his considerable financial success... ... The young man is overcome with mixed emotions, but as soon as he gets home, he strangely calmly accepts his past and present.
And he begins to dream of his future love with the beautiful Helena Kurtz, whom he met on the first day.
At this time, his younger sister invites her friend Anna Amberg to her house, and Anna, who makes him feel comfortable, becomes his friend with whom he can honestly share his thoughts and feelings.
Meanwhile, as the vacation comes to an end and it's time to leave again, news of Helene's engagement arrives, and Anna's feelings for him are undefined and confusing...

As the tension of the first few days faded, I gradually and naturally melted into the quiet life of my hometown.
How in that world outside, I'd been mixed up with so many people, drifting from city to city, between work and dreams, between studies and drunken nights, sometimes living on bread and milk, sometimes on books and cigarettes, becoming a different person each month! Yet here, nothing had changed, not even ten or twenty years ago.
Every day, every week, flowed along to the same bright and quiet beat.
I quickly adapted to life here as if I had never left.

--- p.52

The night takes us away from the familiar feeling of communal life.
When not a single light shines and not a single human voice is heard, those who are still awake feel lonely and become isolated, relying on themselves.
The most terrifying human emotion in the world—the feeling of being inevitably alone and having to live alone, and thus experiencing and enduring pain, fear, and death alone—slowly creeps into every corner of our thoughts, a shadow and a warning to the healthy and young, and a terror to the weak.

--- p.50

The thing that seemed most important to me at that time was Helene Kurz and my admiration for her.
But like everything else, it moved me for a few hours, then subsided for a few more.
The only thing that was constant was my feeling of life breathing comfortably, of swimming effortlessly and peacefully on smooth water, without impatience or goal.
In the forest, magpies cried and blueberries ripened.
In the garden, roses and flame-red lotuses bloomed.
I became a part of it and got to know the diversity of the world, and I wondered what the world would look like when I too became a proper man, mature and wise.

--- p.53

It was a strange feeling to see Helen and Anna in one place and talk to them both at the same time.
Even today, I could only talk about superficial things with the still beautiful Helen, and I did so in the most noble manner possible.
In contrast, Anna and I were able to chat about all sorts of interesting things without getting excited or nervous.
Although I was grateful for her and felt both physically and mentally at ease while talking to her, I kept turning my eyes away from her and glancing at the beautiful Helene.

--- p.62

As time passed, this constant friendship sometimes began to feel a little burdensome.
I longed to leave the fenced-in garden of friendship and venture into the vast, free land of love, but I had no idea how to seduce this innocent girl into that path without being noticed.

--- p.74

I leaned against the window and looked out at the city, its streetlights and lit windows twinkling.
I saw a bright, blood-red light near my garden.
My younger brother Fritz was standing there.
Holding Bengal firecrackers in both hands.
And as I waved as I passed by, Fritz launched a rocket firecracker straight up.
I leaned out the window and watched.
The sight of a firecracker rising into the air, lingering for a while, then disappearing in a soft arch shape as a shower of red sparks.

--- p.86

In the mid-1890s, I worked as an unpaid apprentice in a small factory in my hometown, and that year I left home for good.
It was around the time when late summer was transitioning into early fall.
At the age of eighteen, I was living each day as freely as a bird flying in the sky, but I didn't think about how beautiful my youth was.
For those of us older people whose memories of the past are hazy, we only need to remember that a great storm struck our hometown that year, and that storm was an unprecedented disaster for the entire country.

--- p.90

Just then, a train came rushing from the other end of the railroad tracks, its tracks sparkling in the sunlight, and passed me at high speed.
At that moment, I clearly felt that 'I can no longer feel the joy I felt as a child here.'
I had a strong urge to get on a train and rush off to an unknown world.

--- p.96

I woke up in the grass feeling unwell.
Oh, that was a really unpleasant feeling.
I wanted to quit my job tomorrow and go on a trip far away, anywhere.
I wanted to forget everything and start a new life.
I had to do something to make sure I was alive.
I decided to climb to the top of the mountain.
If you climb high, you will be able to see far away.

--- p.102

I couldn't go any further.
A mountain of fallen trees and debris was piled up, blocking the square and the road.
This place, which had been a sacred shade and a large tree since childhood, now only ruins remained under an empty sky.
It felt as if I had been uprooted and thrown into the open.
I wandered around the area all day, but the familiar forest paths and the walnut and oak trees I used to climb as a child were all gone.

--- p.119