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Narcissus and Goldmund

by Hermann Hesse, Ursule Molinaro (Translator)

4.08 · rating details · 8,339 ratings · 482 reviews

Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teacher’s fierce intellect and sense of discipline. When...more

Paperback, 320 pages

Published February 1st 2003 by Picador (first published January 1st 1385)

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May 15, 2011

Erik Graff rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Erik by: Rachel Nelson

Shelves: literature

At the time of reading, this was my favorite Hesse book and, indeed, it is probably his quintessential novel, the one to recommend for anyone wanting to check him out. I have given away copies of it for this purpose to several persons over the years.

Contrary to the description in Wikipedia, I read the novel from the perspective of Goldmund being lost and then found. Seduced by the snares of the world, he leaves the peace of the monastic life for a life of trial and error, ultimatel...moreAt the time of reading, this was my favorite Hesse book and, indeed, it is probably his quintessential novel, the one to recommend for anyone wanting to check him out. I have given away copies of it for this purpose to several persons over the years.

Contrary to the description in Wikipedia, I read the novel from the perspective of Goldmund being lost and then found. Seduced by the snares of the world, he leaves the peace of the monastic life for a life of trial and error, ultimately, as an old man, returning to where he began. Since in his case experience led to wisdom, Goldmund represented to me the via positiva, the path to enlightenment which leads through lovingly appropriated experience, while Narcissus, remaining behind in the monastery, represented the via negativa, the path to enlightenment obtained by critical thinking and contemplative withdrawal. This, the essential identity behind two ostensibly very different paths along life's way, reminded me also of the two main schools of Buddhism, the big and little boats, Mahayana and Hinyana Buddhism. One is also reminded of the same distinction when the lives of Christian saints as different at Francis of Assisi and Simeon of the Desert are sympathetically compared. There is truth to it.

This is not to say that the reference made by the Wikipedia writer to Nietzsche's Apollonian and Dionysian is incorrect. Given the intellectual influences obtaining in Hesse's circles and the nature of his missionary family it is likely that both were considered. My own reading was influenced by having studied mysticism by this time and not yet having read Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy.

What I really like about Hermann Hesse, here and elsewhere, is that he really cared, cared about people, cared about culture and cared about the natural world. Most everything he wrote, from his novels and short stories to his political essays, attempts to be constructive, to share something of what he had learned of importance with others. He wrote to the better side of our natures, both emotional and intellectual. I am so glad that young people are still reading him despite the many years which have passed since his last great work, The Glass Bead Game, in 1943.(less)

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May 13, 2010

Lorenzo rated it

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Shelves: german, 2009-readings, aaa-my-library

When I was a child my parents used to punish me for my bad actions in their own way: I often had the prohibition of reading for a week.
Of course I wasn't so nerd at that time and together with reading there could be no tv, no bmx rides with friends, no late night awake and all sorts of "normal" don'ts.
But the worst one was definitely the "no reading week".

Later in my teenage years, I remember how my mum was very glad about my reading activity, but not...more

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Dec 23, 2009

Salma rated it

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رواية جميلة و عميقة أخرى من روائع هرمان هسه...
نرسيس أستاذ غولدموند و صديقه في الدير... نرسيس ينفذ لأعماق الروح و رأى أن تلميذه غولدموند ذا روح شاعر حرة و لا ينبغي أن يعيش حياة الرهبان مثله... و هكذا يحثه لينطلق و يبحث عن طريقه عبر الحياة، فينطلق و يعيش حياة متشرد فاسق منغمس بالمتع الدنيوية... بينما يتابع نرسيس في طريق الفكر المجرد و حياة الدير الصارمة...
ثم بعد سنوات طوال يلتقيان... على اختلاف طريقيهما و على اختلاف كل منهما ما يمثله يخلصان لنفس النتيجة تقريبا...
مع أن هسه رجح كف...moreرواية جميلة و عميقة أخرى من روائع هرمان هسه...
نرسيس أستاذ غولدموند و صديقه في الدير... نرسيس ينفذ لأعماق الروح و رأى أن تلميذه غولدموند ذا روح شاعر حرة و لا ينبغي أن يعيش حياة الرهبان مثله... و هكذا يحثه لينطلق و يبحث عن طريقه عبر الحياة، فينطلق و يعيش حياة متشرد فاسق منغمس بالمتع الدنيوية... بينما يتابع نرسيس في طريق الفكر المجرد و حياة الدير الصارمة...
ثم بعد سنوات طوال يلتقيان... على اختلاف طريقيهما و على اختلاف كل منهما ما يمثله يخلصان لنفس النتيجة تقريبا...
مع أن هسه رجح كفة غولدموند في النهاية في الحصول على المعنى... العودة للأم... أو بكلمة أدق _برأيي_ للمصدر...

سألت نفسي أيهما أحق؟ أيهما طريقه أولى و موصل للمعنى؟ أيهما أختار لو كان علي الاختيار؟
لم يعجبني طريق غولدموند، وجدته مفرطا جدا لدرجة شعرت معها بالغثيان و القرف...
و لم يعجبني طريق نرسيس فحياته باردة و جافة حد الملل القاتل...

سألت نفسي تارة أخرى؟ و لماذا أخيّر نفسي بين أقصى اليمين أو الشمال؟
طريقا وسطا بين هذا و ذاك هو ما سأختار...

أشعر بـ هسه و في كثير من جمله و كأنه يكاد يقبض على ما يتجلى من وراء كل ما في الكون... سواء فكرا صرفا أو حياة و جمالا و متعا...
اقتربت كثيرا يا هسه، شعرة واحدة فقط، لولا أن...

أسلوب هسه راق و مهذب و عميق...
الترجمة جميلة جدا...
قرأتها بترجمة أسامة منزلجي
عن دار حوران(less)

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Jul 06, 2009

Hans rated it

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Shelves: philosophy, spiritual-development, hermann-hesse, favorites, german-literature

Can I just say that I absolutely love Hermann Hesse. For me his words speak directly to my soul. I have never exclusively followed an author except Hesse. He is absolutely brilliant and his works are so nuanced to the point where they only mean anything to the reader unless they can relate in some profound way. I have now finished all of his major works and I must say "bravo".

All of his books are about the turmoil and duality of the human soul. He speaks my language....more

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May 30, 2007

Michael Pinson rated it

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This is a book I picked up and began to read several times. Finally after reading several other Hesse novels and craving more I seriously opened this book which after getting through a tedious groundlaying first chapter, I was swept up into the heartbreaking story of the two friends that met in a monastery during the medieval times. Narcissus, was destined to be a monk from the beginning, knowing as a very young man that he was resigned to live a monastic life filled with religion and ritual. Go...more

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Jul 08, 2008

David S. rated it

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Recommends it for: passionate people, artists, lusties.

Shelves: recommended

Great book, incredibly sad and so beautifully written. Really, the book could have been called Goldmund and his friend Narcissus. It focuses so much more on Goldmund's travels through the world and through many women (the book is a huge turn on). It's a journey of the senses and experience, and along the way he encounters death and is forced to examine the transitory nature of life, all life, forcing him to embrace it much more fully.

It's a quick and easy read I found, something...more

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Jul 09, 2007

Wavegenerator rated it

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Hesse has always been one of my favorites, and it is difficult to rank the books in terms of quality, but this one is near the top. It is set in the middle ages and concerns two friends, one of whom chooses the chaste religious path through life, becoming a monk, and the other who chooses the worldly path of seeking money, sexual pleasure and personal freedom. All of Hesse's books concern this sort of dichotomy in the individual, and here he breaks the components into two different characters...more

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Feb 07, 2009

Ari rated it

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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 17, 2012

Rich rated it

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Inspired by Narcissus and Goldmund (01/16/12):

The greatest thing about life is mystery. All the great things in life have mystery.

Life itself, love and romance, dreams, and purpose.

Mystery leads to discovery. Discovery leads to enlightenment. Discovery is empowering and gives purpose.

This is my meaning of life right now. To enjoy the mystery. To discover. To ebb and flow and think and grow. To love alive.

Some people are borne fro...more

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Jun 08, 2011

Conroywt rated it

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Reading Hesse is a really pleasant thing to do. In this novel his prose is almost musically strung together from line to line, paragraph to paragraph and the sentence structure is delightfully simple at times, dense at others but fairly balanced throughout. Each paragraph made me want to read the next. Equally as pleasing is the subject matter he approaches. Hesse is completely unafraid to address the largest of questions that go hand and hand with mortality of all life and yet does it in a ...moreReading Hesse is a really pleasant thing to do. In this novel his prose is almost musically strung together from line to line, paragraph to paragraph and the sentence structure is delightfully simple at times, dense at others but fairly balanced throughout. Each paragraph made me want to read the next. Equally as pleasing is the subject matter he approaches. Hesse is completely unafraid to address the largest of questions that go hand and hand with mortality of all life and yet does it in a way that doesn't come across as overly didactic or phony...I found myself shocked by the quality philosophical insights the Hesse speaks from the minds and mouths of his two title characters, something that doesn't occur in a lot of modern fiction, at least not in such a direct manner. Hesse is unconcerned with paying close attention to realism and chooses instead ask the deepest and most complicated questions that ping-pong around every person's head in their darkest and most pensive moments...questions like (and my personal favorite) whether to live "deeply aware of the fleeting fragility of all living things, of how pettily and fearfully each living creature carries its bit of warm blood through the glaciers of cosmic space" or to "merely follow the commands of his poor stomach with childlike greed...because he does not wish to be reminded that all existence is transitory, that life is constantly wilting, that merciless icy death fills the cosmos all around"...I mean seriously? Not many people write sentences like that any more, or ever did. The ending is poignant and rings true to the rest of the novel and at that end a reader cannot help but to sit quietly and ponder their own meagre existence. Though certain (possibly false and problematic) binaries infest the novel in frustrating ways at times, such a book is always worth the read because of its thought-provoking nature and swing-for-the-fences thematic explorations, not to mention the poetic and beautifully rendered prose. (less)

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May 02, 2011

Leonard rated it

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Shelves: literature-german

Goldmund could not fit into the Mariabronn Monastery anymore than a square peg could fit into a round hole and soon left the cloister for the vagrant life. By sleeping in the woods, killing Viktor the thief, meeting the plague, studying under Meister Niklaus and romancing with Lydia and Julie, Lene and Agnes, he explored the sensual life as an artist. When Agnes rejected the old man that he was, he returned to the monastery to meet his friend and mentor Narziss before leaving the world.

...more

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Apr 19, 2011

Stephen rated it

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Shelves: favorites

I'm not going to make any pretense of conducting criticisms of this book, and I pursue nothing else other than to write extensively about the experience I've lived through reading it and what is immediate of my personal growth. The reason for this is I find this novel by Hesse, the second of his I've read, to be among those works, lacking in today's fiction, that deserves to be read as a work in progress, a work to be lived more than anything else there is, one which to say something about it...more I'm not going to make any pretense of conducting criticisms of this book, and I pursue nothing else other than to write extensively about the experience I've lived through reading it and what is immediate of my personal growth. The reason for this is I find this novel by Hesse, the second of his I've read, to be among those works, lacking in today's fiction, that deserves to be read as a work in progress, a work to be lived more than anything else there is, one which to say something about it, to criticize it like a cultural arbiter would do, would not only bring it a great injustice, but would also lead to me criticizing myself, which, quite frankly speaking, is something I'm not good at. Surely though, judging from the time I normally would rather spend doing something else & the time I have laid down for reading the book and writing this, together with the stars and tag I've appropriated as my rating, it should be clear that this novel in question is one which I hold to be complex and beautiful and illuminating; one you'd have to read for yourself to make real sense of. There are only a few of its kind I've encountered so far; the books of Iris Murdoch, a criminally underread author, being those I instantly recall. To compare, this should be in the same vein of the Greek philosophers in its exploration, and between the late 19th and early 20th-century Europe in its treatment of characters and themes.

Like I've said, I consider this book as one that requires to be brought everywhere and taken in doses, a book that ought to be taken to the park, the patio, the garden, the plane, at school, or whenever you're batshit depressed or drunk or whatever. It's on this route that I discovered a genuine escape and a whole alternative life, a retreat that at once a safe and dangerous . And it's in this slow unfolding of the story--which, to summarize, is a story of two beautiful and youthful men, of two polar-opposites who give and take from one another, who take and transgress through diverging paths to achieve enlightenment-- that I have acquired numerous insights and plenty of revelations.

Of these revelations, I've gotten around to see that, in terms of temperament, attitude, and perspective—of my overall being: I'm both Narcissus and Goldmund, both Apollonian and Dionysian, both ordered and muddled; a control-freak and a fucked-up mess. I see duality present itself in me year round, in years and repeating years without fail; like, for instance, in how, on some days, I would prefer daydreaming and being lost in thought, conjuring in my mind colors and tints, hues and tones, aromas, tastes, textures, and so on, which I match with physical objects like maiolicas, glass vials, modern furnishings, "amorphous" sculptures, and how, on other days, I would rather devote my time to scholarly endeavors, to examine subjects in the fashion of the Medieval exactness for herb and scripture naming and cataloguing; and like how there are nights and seasons wherein I would gladly waste my life away, to self-destruct and imagine curlicued, gilded, gemmed, and stoned visual surroundings; and how there are also times when I want nothing else but to absorb infinite knowledge, to ruminate over geometria, alchemia, magia, cabala and grammaria and esoterica. This has been my life, from the beginning of what my memory permits me to make of leading up to this very day. My life which has sort of been forever obscured.

I don't know how to accurately put it, but my life has, for a very long, long time, been a journey to seek out myself, to know who I really am and who I should be, an exploration that is unfortunately marred by the contradictory long phase of holding back, that crunching in isolation, that great pause and that hesitation that yields to stagnancy and linear progress and, ultimately, to abandonment. I don't have a clear picture of myself. And if asked, I would, on different occasions, give out different answers to the same questions about myself. Sometimes I could definitely feel that I have a large split running through my life. A split I've unknowingly toyed with it, and which I've somehow always strayed from only to find that I'd be back to where I was in the beginning, in that rift--that place of uncertainty.

All of it is frustrating, especially so now that I have realized that this divide goes deeper within, taking in its scope my beliefs, my identity, my reality. Like how I'm always torn between East and West when it comes to what I should believe in and practice. Like how a part of me, or most of it, likes to put a line between good and bad, black and white, to bifurcate and split concepts, to think rationally, to treat actions and impressions morally, and to categorize objects as falling to one genre or the other; and like how another part of me seeks sums, totalities, rebirths, cycles, equality. And like how I oscillate between two choices: science and art--the former forming a huge slice off of my life, being the path, the discipline, the profession that I have chosen from a very young age; whereby the latter being so deep and profound in my heart so as to sufficiently drag sideways and confuse and befuddle everything I was adamant about in myself. I want to know a cure for it and to know why this happens.
Sometimes I do wonder if this is a an aspect of my starsign Pisces, which is under the Mutable Signs, of which the bearers are known to have dual, split personalities, and sometimes I think, like at this moment, this confusion is but a product of overanalysis and an overwrought desire for a connection, for a meaning that stretches beyond the corners of thought, an explosion that would answer my deepest questions. And I do wonder if I should let it be, or if I should anywhere be near peace when I address and get rid of the confusion.

How all this relates to Narcissus and Goldmund, well, I foresee that, if my life were to be chronicled fictionally and elaborately, the result would be similar to the aforementioned novel, but it be more of a diptych, a long yet empty peregrination with two major arcs; the first arc being a dive into my male-ish psyche and persona, and with the second arc being a combobulation of my anima. It would say about what I have become and how I ended.

**Last edit 04/19(less)

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Jan 25, 2011

Elsje rated it

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Shelves: read-2009

Mijn leraar Duits van de middelbare school liet bij mij zo'n afkeer voor de Duitse taal en literatuur achter dat ik, nadat ik dat vak had laten vallen, nooit meer ook maar een woord in die taal of van een schrijver uit dat taalgebied las. Wat jammer! Want daardoor wist ik niet eens dat er zoiets moois te lezen is als Narziss en Goldmund van Hermann Hesse. Dankzij de meer dan warme aanbeveling van Gufler las ik dat onlangs.

Het verhaal
De jongen Goldmund wordt door zijn vader naar ee...moreMijn leraar Duits van de middelbare school liet bij mij zo'n afkeer voor de Duitse taal en literatuur achter dat ik, nadat ik dat vak had laten vallen, nooit meer ook maar een woord in die taal of van een schrijver uit dat taalgebied las. Wat jammer! Want daardoor wist ik niet eens dat er zoiets moois te lezen is als Narziss en Goldmund van Hermann Hesse. Dankzij de meer dan warme aanbeveling van Gufler las ik dat onlangs.

Het verhaal
De jongen Goldmund wordt door zijn vader naar een kloosterschool gebracht. Daar krijgt hij les van de amper oudere leraar Narziss. Beiden zijn nogal buitengewoon en vinden daarom in het klooster eigenlijk niet zoveel aansluiting bij de andere kloosterbewoners. Meer over het verhaal kun je vinden op mijn blog:
http://elsjelas.blogspot.com/2009/05/her...

Hesse probeert aan te tonen dat er eigenlijk twee uitersten zijn om je leven te leven: een geestelijke en een zinnelijke manier. En dat het onmogelijk is om die twee manieren in één persoon te verenigen.
Zo schrijft hij (in mijn AP-pocketeditie uit 1992 op p. 216):
Alle vormen van bestaan leken te berusten op het twee-zijn, op tegenstellingen; je was ofwel vrouw of man, ofwel landloper of burgermannetje, ofwel verstandig of gevoelig - er bestond nergens een mogelijkheid om inademen en uitademen, man zijn en vrouw zijn, vrijheid en orde, drift en geest tegelijkertijd te beleven, je moest altijd voor een van de twee betalen met het verlies van het ander, en het een was altijd even belangrijk en begerenswaardig als het ander.
Daar kun je het mee eens zijn, of mee oneens. Dat doet er eigenlijk niet toe. De manier waarop Hesse dit gegeven heeft uitgewerkt is gewoon buitengewoon goed.

Ik dacht trouwens eerst dat het verhaal zich in de eerste helft van de vorige eeuw afspeelde (omdat het in 1957 uitgegeven is) maar daarna ging mijn tijdbeleving steeds verder terug. Uiteindelijk ben ik ergens in de middeleeuwen blijven hangen, gezien de ridders, maar vooral gezien de pestepidemie die het land teistert.(less)

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Dec 04, 2010

Nick rated it

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Hesse is 2/2 for me so far (The Glass Bead Game).

I guess it's not much of a surprise I see myself closer to Narcissus than Goldmund, though lacking the powerful insight.

Somebody maybe I'll sit down and try to carefully think about them, analyze them, or something. For now, I seem to be quite content to pull out quotes (lots of):

42: I call a man awake who knows in his conscious reason his innermost unreasonable force, drives, and weaknesses and knows how to deal with...more

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Nov 02, 2010

Monique rated it

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Please, give me back the hours devoted to reading this book which, had it not been this month's selection for my book group, would have been thrown against a wall long ago.
The premise was interesting enough, i.e., two young men in medieval Germany, one a monk, the other an artist, used to show the dichotomy between intellect/art; Apollo/Dionysus; father/mother. We get it, mostly because we are beat over the head with the "philosophy". What should have been an essay or, perhaps, a...morePlease, give me back the hours devoted to reading this book which, had it not been this month's selection for my book group, would have been thrown against a wall long ago.
The premise was interesting enough, i.e., two young men in medieval Germany, one a monk, the other an artist, used to show the dichotomy between intellect/art; Apollo/Dionysus; father/mother. We get it, mostly because we are beat over the head with the "philosophy". What should have been an essay or, perhaps, a short story, is force-fed us in a novel through which we slog for more than 300 pages (hip-high boots recommended). The characters exist to illustrate the author's inconsistent philosophy and not because they offer any sort of illumination in their own right. Contrived would be a kind way to describe the plot.
Goldmund, the character featured throughout, sustains his decision to live free from all societal constraints by using everyone he meets - for food, safety, shelter, and sex. He wanders the country for years, ostensibly to gain enough understanding from which to create art, but, apparently, thinks about nothing during his voyage. Every so often he offers what he seems to believe is an insight into the motivation for his actions, or to suggest he should conduct himself in a more enlightened manner, but promptly ignores these little attempts at introspection to go on to do whatever he damn well pleases. There are somewhat interesting descriptions of the horrific results of the plague throughout Germany but even that devastation does nothing to encourage Goldmund to do anything differently. We learn nothing, unfortunately, about Narcissus, until the final pages of the book.
There is no humor in this book except for a couple of passages which made me laugh out loud, a result unintended by the author. Goldmund, who is, for some unexplained reason, irresistible to women, tells his newest conquest that her hair is the same mushroom brown as the "fat mushrooms in the woods in autumn" and "it smells as good". Wow, that's some sweet-talking.
The prose is turgid. The few attempts at dialogue are awkward. The descriptions of Goldmund's behavior have inherent contradictions. There are huge leaps of logic and unexplained gaps in the plot. I didn't learn anything and I wasn't entertained.

P.S. I didn't like, Siddhartha, either and, if there were time, I think I could make the case that it, and Narcissus and Goldmund, are the same story, told twice.

(less)

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Feb 24, 2010

Patrick Gibson rated it

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Shelves: contemporary-literature

If you have a penchant for poetic language, a love for new experiences, and a sensitivity to life's struggles, you will find hope and deep beauty in this story. I recommend finding a place of solitude and spiritual transcendence before delving into this as you will inevitably flip back to the beginning once finished and have to read it again.

“If I know what love is, it is because of you.

It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to...more

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Jan 07, 2010

مريم شهریاری rated it

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Shelves: رمان

نارتسیس و گلدموند
کتابی که اینقدر از خوندنش لذت بردم که واقعاً نمی دونم چطوری باید توضیحش بدم. شاید کتابی باشه که بد نباشه هرکسی بخوندش. شاید با خوندنش راه زندگی خیلی ها تغییر کنه. شاید با خیلی از شک و تردید های خودشون کنار بیان و بتونن جسارت تغییر و مواجه شدن با اون رو در خودشون ایجاد کنند...
نارتسیس و گلدموند کتابی بود که برای من همین نقش رو ایفا کرد. یه روزگاری با خوندن ماهی سیاه کوچولو و بعدتر انجمن شاعران مرده خط سرنوشتم تغییر کرد و جدی تر شد، و الان هم این کتاب باعث شد گلدموند د...more

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Jan 04, 2010

Kitty rated it

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I may have read this over 40 years ago, but read this over Christmas before passing it on to my son.
Goldmund's search, his exploration of being in the world, survival and witnessing of horrors is as apropos to the human condition today as it was over a hundred years ago. I was particularly drawn by the description of emptiness he suffers after creating art . Both his statue of St. John and his big work at the cloister -- and the reflection about how what might have made him happy, workin...more

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Aug 08, 2009

Mazel rated it

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Shelves: littérature-étrangère, roman

C'est dans l'Allemagne du Moyen Age qu'Hermann Hesse, prix Nobel de Littérature, a situé l'histoire du moine Narcisse et de Goldmund, enfant très doué qu'on lui a confié et auquel il s'attache. Il sent que sa vocation n'est pas le cloître et l'aide à choisir sa voie. C'est alors pour Goldmund la vie errante, les aventures galantes ; il se décide, par sagesse, à devenir sculpteur : l'art sera une façon de chercher le beau.

Philosophe autant que poète et romancier, Hermann Hesse aspire...more

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Jun 06, 2009

Carrie rated it

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Jan 27, 2012

Roger DeBlanck rated it

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Like all of Hesse’s now classic novels, Narcissus and Goldmund investigates the inner-voice. Through the competing souls of the two title characters, a teacher and a student, Narcissus and Goldmund respectively, Hesse shows how the voice within takes control and guides an individual. As much a story of the destiny of two men, the novel presents the idea that humans are capable of awakening to instincts that guide them towards fulfilling more than they ever imagined. The courage and discipline to...more

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Apr 09, 2009

Samuel rated it

· review of another edition

The central theme is one that permeates literature : the mother/father dichotomy. It was seen in the Greek plays, notably in the Oresteian Trilogy, and, more pertinently, it was seen, in another form, in the philosophical work of Nietzsche. He wrote, instead, about the Dionysian/Apollonian dichotomy, which is nearly identical, but not quite, to the mother/father dichotomy presented in N&G.

I refuse to spoil the book. None of my reviews will ever do such a thing. Let me just say that t...more

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Apr 20, 2011

Nathan rated it

· review of another edition

From a serious Hermann Hesse fan, I very much recommend Narcissus and Goldmund. I found it very thoughtful and deep.
One might notice that the book itself is rather lengthy, but although it takes a little bit longer to read, it was so, so very worth it.
It mainly follows the story of Goldmund's life, and in its detailed description of his life, complete with his death, the story leaves readers with a sense of fufullment, a sense of being both captivated and rewarded by H...more

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Jul 16, 2011

Maria rated it

· review of another edition

This is the story of 2 medieval men, one a young student, the other a novice monk, living in a European cloistered abbey, separating, then coming together again, written in a soothing, maybe overly florid style -- but I don't presume to criticize Hermann Hesse. Hesse continues the philosophy of his earlier books (Siddhartha and Steppenwolf are both more powerful than this one, in my opinion) and if you are Hesse lovers, this is worthwhile.

The searching young artist, Goldmund, repr...more

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Apr 05, 2010

Rebecca rated it

· review of another edition

Perhaps this book is interesting as an example of the dichotomization of body/mind, angel/whore, ascete/wayfarer. Put the dicktalk aside (which is no small task here) and you still have an enormous vine from which to swing back and forth from pole to pole. At best woman is subject here, at worst she so thoroughly blends into the background she's invisible. More than bleak considering this is a meditation on the roles of the artist and thinker (and never the twain shall meet mind you) in a modern...more

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Feb 19, 2009

Pats rated it

· review of another edition

While it's unfair to judge this book just yet, these are a couple of my preliminary thoughts:

The setting of this novel nearly scared me away from reading it at all. A story about a monk and his pupil in medieval Germany is hardly my cup of tea. And to be honest, I cringe a little each time a knight is mentioned. So reading it at all is almost an ascetic act in itself. Like molehair rubbing at my raw flesh.

It only gets worse when Goldmund's rumspringa (essentially), turn...more

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Mar 05, 2011

Arnon Ram rated it

· review of another edition

A book where nothing really happens. Goldmund walks through life without ever actually doing anything. He's sensitive and women love him for some reason... that's about it. The only person he cares for, for some strange reason, is his "soul friend" Narziss; a friendship based on... i'm not really sure, it's never really explained (apart from maybe some form of physical attraction), They have nothing in common.

Throughout the whole book I never once felt myself caring what wi...more

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Dec 29, 2010

Andy T rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
12.23.2010

I spent Christmas weekend with Herr Hesse. You know what? He makes really really good eggnog. Just kidding. He’s been dead for almost fifty years.

Hesse is intellectually heavy but not forbiddingly so. One of the pleasures of reading him is his accessibility, especially in Narcissus and Goldmund. I don’t feel completely outgunned, like I do around Thomas Mann. I know I am not picking up everything Hesse is layin...moreNarcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
12.23.2010

I spent Christmas weekend with Herr Hesse. You know what? He makes really really good eggnog. Just kidding. He’s been dead for almost fifty years.

Hesse is intellectually heavy but not forbiddingly so. One of the pleasures of reading him is his accessibility, especially in Narcissus and Goldmund. I don’t feel completely outgunned, like I do around Thomas Mann. I know I am not picking up everything Hesse is laying down, but his ideas don’t lay there like great choking loaves of dry bread, not a glass of milk in sight. With my autodidact’s scattershot ken of intellectual history, I get the sense and the flavor of the ideas that inform his prose: there’s some Frued, some Jung (the feminine as the source of creativity. Wait, is that Jung? Don’t quote me), Nietzsche’s Apollo/ Dionysius dichotomy, the obsession with freedom that would later be called existentialist. And Hesse is a great storyteller. A PhD is not a prerequisite for enjoying his crisp, economical prose. And the protagonists aren’t just walking index cards with capital-I Ideas written on them. They are complex and contradictory.

And fuck I’m not an essay writer anyway, and you know it. Not like anyone but me has read this far.

Two friends in 14th Century Germany who could not be more different are drawn to each other with a quasi-sexual magnetism. Narcissus, a scholarly prodigy, distinction surrounding him ‘like a chilling draft,’ lives within his mind. Goldmund, beautiful and winsome, rides his emotions and the flowering chaos of the image world in his imagination. Yet they bond. They meet in Mariabronn Cloister, where Narcissus, who seeks comfort, order and certainty, burrows in like a holy tick. But Goldmund is passionate and expansive, unsuited for the routines and rigidities of a settled life, let alone the ascetic and asexual confinement a monk must embrace. Narcissus, though his name suggests self-absorption, is observant and caring and sees this very clearly. He confronts Goldmund, telling his friend plainly and painfully that he is strait-jacketing his soul by trying to become a scholar. He evokes his friend’s little-known mother whom Narcissus sees haunting his friend’s consciousness and iacta alea est.

Goldmund breaks down at the recollection of her, a wanton woman who seduced travelers and ran away when he was young. He realizes his entire dream of being a monk was imposed by his father who wanted to punish her. Goldmund, freed from his father’s strictures, allows his mother’s image to return to him, where through the course of his waking and dreaming life, she will merge with Eve, with the Virgin, and with every lover he will ever have.

Goldmund leaves the cloister and gives himself up to sensual and emotional experience, drifting from village to village, woman to woman. His driftings take up most of the novel.

He is not amoral. He always takes the path that gives him the most independence. Sometimes the choice is his: he refuses a comfortable sinecure as a master artisan. Sometimes the path is imposed on him: he is evicted from a knight’s home because of the sexual and emotional tension stemming from his refusal to marry one of his daughter or seduce the other one. By the way, the scene where Julia and Lydia both come to Goldmund’s bed is a jewel of erotic writing.

These choices are not simple for him. Moving on is always fraught, often melancholy and even despair-inducing, but Goldmund never regrets it. At his lowest, spending a frantic night in a prison cell, awaiting his execution at dawn for theft, he uses the edge of a stair tread to saw the ropes that bind his wrists and vows to murder the priest who will come in the morning to hear his confession before he is borne to the gallows. The priest, fatefully, is Narcissus, rechristened John, who has secured a pardon for his friend. Invited to resettle at Mariabronn, Goldmund tentatively agrees, but the cloister chafes as much as the ropes that bound his hands, and though eternally grateful, he decides to again move on.

Beautiful book.
(less)

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Jun 18, 2008

Erika rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Nick Leider

Recommended to Erika by: book group

This is the only book I've read by Hesse. I've heard great things about his more famous "Sidhartha". This novel was slow at first for me. However, I did like that it took the reader through the middle ages and the plague. I haven't read much from that time period. I also liked its philosophical bent. At times it got a bit heady and definately comes from a more male perspective. Lots of great sex scenes though!

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Sep 09, 2010

Gal Abiri rated it

· review of another edition

The book conveys the artist's struggle between the materialqsensual world and that of the spirit world. This struggle is conveyed by a story of two friends in medieval Germany; one is a monk - Narziss, who eventually becomes the head of the monestary he's in. The other, is an artist, Goldmund - who starts as a young student at Narziss's monestary, but then leaves the monastary, wanders the country for years, and becomes an artist. He is forever inspired by the "Great Mother", an abstra...more

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About Hermann Hesse

Hermann Hesse was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best known works include Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game (also known as Magister Ludi) which explore an individual's search for spirituality outside society.

Hesse was born in the Black Forest town of Calw to a Christian missionary family. Both of his pa...more

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Quotes from Narcissus and Goldmund

“We are sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each the other's opposite and complement.” — 75 people liked it

“Because the world is so full of death and horror, I try again and again to console my heart and pick the flowers that grow in the midst of hell” — 26 people liked it

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