The Glass Bead Game, for which Hesse won theNobel Prize for Literature in 1946, is the author’s last and crowning achievement, the most imaginative and prophetic of all his novels. Setting the story in the distant post-apocalyptic future,The Glass Bead Gameis the story of Joseph Knecht, who has been raised in Castalia, the remote place his society has provided for the intellectual elite to grow and flourish. Since childhood, Knecht has been consumed with mastering theGlass Bead Game, which requires a synthesis of aesthetics and philosophy, which he achieves in adulthood, becoming a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game). Hesse tells of an elite cult of intellectuals who play an elaborate game that uses all the cultural and scientific knowledge of the Ages.The Glass Bead Gameis a fascinating tale of the complexity of modern life as well as a classic of modern literature. This edition features a Foreword byTheodore Ziolkowskithat places the book in the full context of Hesse’s thought.