Perspective

The book is written from the perspective of the third person point of view where the narrator is the author, Ralph Freedman. The author is telling the story of the life of Hermann Hesse. Although there is some dialogue in the book, the work is basically in narrative form with the author providing the necessary background and details. Since the book was written after the death of Hermann Hesse, there was no way Freedman could rely on personal interviews. Freedman compiled the book from his extensive research and presents the results in the third person narrative.

The perspective of the book is the author's and while he does a good job of presenting the facts and events in the life of Hesse, the reader does not really get to know Hesse or any of the characters. This is acceptable because the author's purpose was to look at how...