Customer Reviews

Narcissus and Goldmund

5 star:		(84)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Like most people, I read Hesse's better known novels like Damien and Steppenwolf first. I found a copy of this at a used book store, bought it, and let it sit on the bookself for a while before actually reading it. Was I surprised - this is one of Hesse's greatest novels.

Hesse takes two young men - one devoted to the hermetic religious life and another more into the decadent artistic life - and follows them through adulthood. There are some amazing scenes here - scenes of great artistic creation, a journey through a plague ravaged world, the reunion of the two friends - that rank among the best things Hesse ever wrote.

True the characters are more "types" than real three dimensional characters. It is obvious that Hesse wants to examine the spiritual/cerebral approach to existence versus the more artistic/physical approach to life, and to find them both wanting. This is less a slice of life novel than a modern parable. Taken on those terms, this novel is Hesse at the height of his powers and deserves to be better known and read than it currently is.

I first read Narcissus and Goldmund when I was about 20. The conflicts between mind/heart, reason/passion, intellect/emotion were the fulcrum around which my personal voyage of self-discovery turned - at that age.

Now, at 42, I have reread this book. I never appreciated the first time 'round that Hess was describing a completed life. I was too fixated on Goldmund's emancipation through travel. But in the end, after his return to the cloister to create true art, Goldmund hit the road again. He tried in vain to recapture youth only to be spurned by Agnes, the woman he considered to be the most beautiful - and the most like himself. This was a classic description of what we now call the "mid-life crisis".

Neither Narcissus nor Goldmund ended up truly happy, I believe. But that is not the point at all. There was a mutual recognition of the richness in their separate lives. And there was a love and a respect for those differences.

As we all grow up it is these deeper lessons that Hess seeks to impart to us. I'm glad I picked up this excellent book once again and am not surprised to see other reviewers who have done the same with similar results.

A book for living dangerously, and fully.

DH

Having read all of Hesse works, I find them all fascinating and profound, but none more so than Narcissus and Goldmund. This masterpiece explores the balance between living for yourself and living for others. These two characters and how they relate and understand the other is just beyond words. I first read this book in High School and over the next 20 years have re-read it many times. It never grows old as it invokes our innermost desires and failures. Do miss out on this great read.

_Narcissus and Goldmund_ by Hermann Hesse is the story of two men: one an ascetic scholar, the other a passionate student of life. The book chronicles their fateful meeting, Goldmund's pursuit of truth and beauty, and a final reunion of the two friends late in life. It is quite simply the best book I've read thus far. In it, I find artfully and poignantly demonstrated the central conflict of my life, perhaps of all life: the struggle between the intellect and the emotions. The book is best read as a juxtaposition of both of these motivators in our lives. Narcissus represents pure intellect and reason, while Goldmund represents pure emotion and passion. Neither one could truly exist in the world, but Hesse creates them as archetypes of these two motivators in all humans. The struggles they encounter in understanding each other, and the struggles Goldmund encounters in making sense of the world, help us to better understand these two sides of our own character. The struggle teaches us of the beauty that aches, and friendship that knows no bounds. In this conflict one can ultimately find the beauty of truth, and the truth of beauty.

I was first introduced to Hermann Hesse through "Demian" which I enjoyed immensely - I felt as though he understood the mind of the artist. Then one day, I recalled a friend mentioning "Narcissus and Goldmund" in the past - not knowing what it was about, I bought it. Call it impulse or instinct - regardless of how I came across this novel...it made a tremendous impact on my life...how I perceived myself as well as those around me. It made me question what my artistic and physical approach to life was.

That was five years ago and to this day, there hasn't been a book that's touched me as deeply nor have I experienced an epiphany as huge as the one I was struck with when I finished the book. The theme that comes across all of Hesse's novels is the road to self-discovery and frankly, having read other popular books by Hesse, none seem to match the profoundness of "Narcissus and Goldmund" or as eloquently written. This book epitomizes the struggle between the mind and the heart. Hesse forces the reader to come to terms with this inevitable conflict and realize that neither is above the other. Actually, both need each other to survive. I will admit that Narcissus and Goldmund are presented as two types of characters - literally. BUT the dimensionality that comes to define the two types as two individuals, are their journeys which, leads to their eventual reunion. It's what wasn't said between Narcissus and Goldmund that allows the reader to analyze and interpret accordingly.

Some reviewers have stated that they found this book disappointing because Hesse didn't delve further in defining the essence of life or that it's didactically written. I strongly disagree with both notions - with this novel Hesse points out the subtleties we often miss and poignantly defines how our creative passion needs to be feed...how the love we develop for those we come across in our lives needs to be nurtured...as well as the necessity to be loved by another human being...but more importantly, the certitude in ourselves - to feed the very passion that drives us and ultimately defines us. In this novel, he punctuates things that most are aware of but don't fully recognize. And as simple as it sounds, I truly believe that that, is the philosophy he is trying to convey - nothing less, nothing more. He executes this theory throughout the book with a delicately intricate voice, but one with a deafening roar that will linger in your mind.

As much as I loved "Demian", I think "Narcissus and Goldmund" surpasses "Demian" mainly because it has the ability to relate to almost every individual, instead of the exclusiveness or isolation that can arise through one's road to self-discovery. This novel manages to juxtapose the intellectual thinker with the instinctual spirit in the simplest manner while evoking myriad thoughts, forcing you to question and engage yourself to your present surroundings.

This is the third novel of Hesse's that I have had the joy of reading (Sidhartha and Demian are the other two). After finishing it, I wondered why as an educated man and student of literature I had not heard about it years ago. Of the three Hesse novels I have read, this is the best. Like the other two, it is a testament to searching for your own path in life and refusing to be lead by the status quo, but it is so much more.

The story revolves around, as the title implies, Narcissus, a young monk who urges Goldmund, a cloister student, to find out who he really is rather than be bullied by his father's wishes into a life of religious servitude. The novel focuses on Goldmund's journies through the German Empire of the 1300s and his discovery of art, nature, and love. It reveals powerful scenes of plague-ridden Europe as well as introspective conversations between the two men on the nature of reason and imagination. Hesse carefully questions love, life, religion, god, education, and complacency without making his conclusions mere propaganda. This is one of those books that, when all is over, makes the reader wish there were more.

I can't recommend it enough.

This book had more of an impact on me than any other I've ever read. It explores the two sides of the human experience, the sensual and the intellectual, in such facinating depth and with such insightfulness that a reader cannot help but be changed by reading it. Best book I've ever read, and I read like a fiend!

I live quite close to Calw, Germany, where Hesse grew up, and even nearer to Maulbronn, whose cloister is a World Heritage Site and the setting for Mariabronn, where Narcissus and Goldmund meet. If you visit Maulbronn today, the cloister looks amazing like it is described in the opening scenes of Narcissus and Goldmund.

Hesse was mightily unhappy when he was sent to school at Maulbronn; he translated that misery into the restlessness of the student Goldmund in this novel.

Goldmund has no mother (presumably she died giving birth to him--or maybe she ran off. We can't be sure.) His distant and cold father leaves Goldmund at the monastery to be educated. Now in the Middle Ages, there was nothing unusual in that; monasteries were the schools, seats of learning, medical centers and scientific research institutes.

Goldmund meets Narcissus, a handsome, ascetic young novice monk who is well suited for the monastic life and is an ideal monk and incredible scholar. Goldmund, who is the complete opposite from Narcissus (worldly, sexual, sensual) develops a strong friendship with Narcissus, who senses something is very wrong with Goldmund and tries to help him.

Goldmund's subsequent wanderings take him on fantastic adventures and ultimately to finding himself. Narcissus, too, must discover himself, but not in the way he had expected.

This is by far Hesse's most beautiful novel, and an exciting story, too. This is a very good translation; I've read the original German and this translation preserves some of the rhythm of the language that is naturally lost when brought into English.

_This is the story of two very different young would-be monks in the medieval cloister of Mariabronn. Narcissus was a lunar type- introverted, a thinker and a scholar. On the other hand, Goldmund was a classic solar type- extroverted, a lover and an artist.

_Yet, these two beings of seemingly opposite temperaments became the deepest of life-long friends. This is because different strengths- and different weaknesses- complement each other. In this way two unbalanced natures may in strange alchemy fulfill each other. They may be able to see their shadow in the other- and their pivotal conflict.

_It was in this way that Narcissus saw his friend Goldmund's central repressed crisis. It was this shattering revelation that drove Goldmund out into the world beyond the sheltered cloister. It drove him to a life on the edge as a life-long wanderer. He started in a search for his nearly forgotten mother and ended by finding the eternal feminine in all women. Yet the years of hardship and horror (including murder, the Great Plague, and prison) took their toll on him. When after over a decade of wandering, he finally encountered his friend Narcissus again it saved his life- both literally and spiritually.

_I could not imagine a more Jungian novel. Nor could I imagine a better expression of the meaning of profound friendship.

As with most Hesse novels, the storyline in Narcissus and Goldmund too, is an elegantly linear one, with few characters and no tangle of events. Much like tea leaves; it appears light on a perfunctory reading but reveals its deep underlying philosophy only when one attempts to read beyond the written words.

This is a tale of two medieval monks at the Mariabronn cloister - Brother Narcissus and his pupil Goldmund - both of whom are on a quest to seek peace and salvation. Though there is a convergence of their ultimate goal, the two strive to achieve it by setting out on two apparently diametrically opposite paths in life.

Blessed with a superbly analytical mind guided by intelligence, reason and logic alone, Narcissus is an ascetic of the highest order. He has shunned the world of senses to devote himself completely to the service of God. By contrast, Goldmund's being is dominated entirely by `feelings', unshackled by the bonds of intellect. He gives up the austere discipline and abstemious cloister life in pursuit of worldly pleasures as also its pains - the realm of the `Maya'. (Concept of Hinduism wherein Maya refers is the cosmic illusion that creates ignorance and veils the vision of the one Reality.) He becomes a wondering wayfarer, traveling through sun, snow and rain; swamp and peat; hunger and fatigue. This is symbolic of his journey through life itself. Celebrating life in all its facets, he plumbs the depths of lust, wades through snow fields, surviving on frozen, wilted berries, escaping from the jaws of death. He experiences a surfeit of life's every aspect until he feels they no longer bring him happiness.

A beautiful wooden statue of Madonna in the `bishop's city' is a turning point in his life. Its beauty touches him so deeply that it ignites his hitherto dormant creative spark and sets it on fire. Awakened, Goldmund decides to try his hand at sculpting. The experience turns out to be so sublime that he sacrifices his `freedom' at the altar of creative bliss. He settles down to a sedentary life for a few months, giving his heart, soul and fiber to making wonderfully beautiful wooden figures.

While Narcissus represents the masculine mind, Goldmund is the embodiment of all that is feminine- imagination, creation, passion and attachment. The two epitomize the eternal battle between the mind versus the senses, thinker versus the artist. Hesse addresses the perennial question - Which of the two is superior? Which of the two roads is the shorter route to salvation?

The book ends on a very touching note. ...