Beneath the Wheel Author:Hermann Hesse Cover design by Milton Glaser. — Beneath the Wheel, Hermann Hesse's second novel, was originally published in 1906. It belongs to the genre of "school novels" that includes Heinrich Mann's The Blue Angel, Emil Strauss's Friend Death, and Robert Musil's Young Torless, all of which were published around the same time. — The story it tells, based in... more » part on Hesse's own experience, constitutes an attack on educational systes that foster intellect, purposefulness, and ambition to the detriment of emotion, instinct, and soul.« less