I have always had a relationship with butterflies and other fleeting and ephemeral beauties, while lasting, firm, and so-called solid relationships have never succeeded for me, writes Hermann Hesse in a letter in 1926. This preference, which sometimes borders on elective affinity for flowers and butterflies—ephemeral symbols of imperishable things, as he states in one of his poems—has left traces throughout Hesse's entire body of work. This volume gathers the most charming of his stories, memories, reflections, and poems about butterflies.