As excitement mounts for the forthcoming Glass Bead Game, Joseph Knecht's doubts about the Castalian way of life are compounded by his newly acquired position.

Joseph is a rising star in the Castalian Order, a band of elite intellectuals who live a closeted life of study and Glass Bead Game playing.

But Joseph's elevation to one of the highest and most respected ranks of the Order coincides with a crisis of conscience

His ever-deepening doubts about this idealistic and sanitised society threaten to topple its very foundations...

Hermann Hesse's classic novel set in a futuristic, utopian society - first published in 1943.

Starring Derek Jacobi and Tom Ferguson.

Dramatised by Lavinia Greenlaw

Biographer .... Derek Jacobi
Joseph Knecht ....Tom Ferguson
Fritz ....Toby Hadoke
Music Master.... Malcolm Raeburn
Plinio .... David Seddon
Helena .... Olwen May
Tito .... Oliver Gomm

Director: Susan Roberts

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in July 2010. Show less