"Siddhartha" is an allegorical novel-parable by Hermann Hesse, first published by the Berlin publishing house S. Fischer Verlag in 1922. Siddhartha is the story of a young Brahmin's search for ultimate reality after meeting the Buddha. His search leads him from post-degenerate life to asceticism, from the illusory joys of sensual love with a beautiful courtesan, wealth and fame to a painful struggle with his son and the supreme wisdom of renunciation.