The Glass Bead Game
Das Glasperlenspiel is the last work of noted German author Hermann Hesse. Known in English as The Glass Bead Game or Magister Ludi, he began it as his magnum opus in 1931, and it was published in 1943.
The Glass Bead Game centers around an aesthetic society of intellectuals in the fictional province of Castilla. At the epicenter of this society lies the glass bead game. Essentially a synthesis of the arts, the game consists of a player making different correlations between seemingly unrelated objects. For example, a Bach concerto may be related to a mathematical formula. The concept of the glass bead game seems similar to some ideas by Leibniz about a universal calculus or formal system, such as his Calculus ratiocinator.
In this setting of Castilla the movements of Joseph Knecht (whose name "Knecht" translates to "servant" or "farm hand") are chronicled by the book. Of particular interest is the relationship Knecht holds with a learned monk, Father Jacobus. In his introduction to Demian Thomas Mann likens his relationship to Hesse in terms of the relationship of Knecht to Jacobus, going to say that their knowledge of each other was not possible without a great extent of ceremony. He even extrapolates on Hesse's observence of Oriental customs in the novel. Hesse's communal perspective of East combined with West is apparent even in this last work of his old age.