Peter Camenzind, published in 1904, was the first novel by Hermann Hesse and contains a number of themes that were to preoccupy many of Hesse's later works, most notably the individual's search for a unique spiritual and physical identity amidst the backdrops of nature and modern civilization and the role of art in the formation of personal identity. The style of Peter Camenzind is easy to follow, even as it is a Bildungsroman in an atypical sense.