The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse was first published in Switzerland in 1943 and it was to be his last major work. It is Hesse's story of the life of Magister Ludi Joseph Knecht, and is written in novel form. The novel is basically a parody of biography as Hesse tells the story of Joseph Knecht. Knecht is a member of the intellectual elite and has been obsessed with mastering the Glass Bead Game since he was a child. He finally becomes a Master of the Game, or Magister Ludi, when he is an adult. Hesse tells his story with the parody of humor in it.

The Glass Bead Game is a mind game that Hesse used to play when he was raking and burning leaves in his garden. It was a way to keep his mind busy while he was doing something physical. It was a form of intellectual pastime that the author played. The game is a way of mentally synthesizing spiritual values. It was a mental exercise that the author performed long before he thought of writing the novel of the same name. The novel has the narrator, Joseph Knecht learning to perfect this mind game during the course of his life. He begins to play the Glass Bead Game as a child and is fascinated with it.

Knecht lives three parallel lives during the course of the novel, which are basically summarized in the form of poems that are contained in the book. Knecht is working towards a form of perfection of the spiritual values contained in the Glass Bead Game as he goes through childhood and adulthood. He has many debates with messengers from the outside world when he is in Castalia. The outside messenger tells him that a life that is devoted totally to the mind is more or less dangerous. It is not as productive as Knecht thinks that it is and will not result in the perfect spiritual institution that Knecht thinks that it will. In the end, Knecht defects from Castalia. Some interpret the defection of Knecht to be synonymous with shift in the author's own thinking from the belief in the elitism of Nietzsche to the social consciousness and historicism of Burckhardt. Knecht's departure symbolizes his telling Castalia that it will destruct eventually from its own autonomy based on arrogance and self-indulgence. When Knecht dies, his pupil, Tito, is left behind and Knecht's death is a form of sacrifice where the spiritual ideal is more or less put back into life's service. There cannot be a mindless revolt, but only actions based on thinking and commitment. This is how Knecht arises to the highest order, by actions based on purposeful thinking about the implications for Castalia and himself.

The book is interesting reading and it offers a glimpse into the minds of the intellectuals and how they function. It also shows us how the author coped with the change from the Weimar Republic to Nazism. Hesse wrote many novels and other literary works during the course of his life, and The Glass Bead Game was the last. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1946 and had his own literary following. The humor and parody are refreshing and make for enjoyable reading.