my friend told me to read demian by hermann hesse because my favorite book i’d read in high school was the catcher in the rye. the problem is he has no clue which translation he read for college, so i wanted to know if anyone had any opinions on which translation is the best (or has any idea which translation was standard in colleges in the 2010s). i sampled the first few pages of two different editions i found at the library; the 1970s one (with a woman and a bird on the cover) had better prose but something felt “off” about it (almost like it felt uncannily candid in its delivery), whereas the delivery of the newer (i think searles?) one felt more “correct” but more bland, and it had some hallmarks of modern prose that i generally don’t prefer. i don’t want to use choice paralysis as an excuse not to start reading actual books again so any input would be appreciated submitted by /u/skylucario [link] [comments]