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“Hesse was a great writer in precisely the modern sense: complex, subtle, allusive; alive to the importance of play, to the desperate yet frolicsome game of writing....Narcissus and Goldmund is his very best....What makes this short book so limitlessly vast is the body-and-soul-shaking debate that runs through it, which it has the honesty and courage not to resolve: between the flesh and spirit, art and scientific or religious speculation, action and contemplation, between the wayfaring and the sedentary in us.” —The New York Times Book Review
“One of the most profound and magical novels published in our age.” —Kirkus Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Contrast in Characters,
By traseru (Seattle) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Narcissus and Goldmund (Mass Market Paperback)
Narcissus and Goldmund, by Hermann Hesse, is a contrast in the characters of a school boy, Goldmund, who abandons his scrict life to attempt to please himself, but winds up pleasing others; and Narcissus, the schoolmaster who believes that it was his fate to become a schoolteacher though truly he would be happier elsewhere.As Goldmund 'hitch-hikes' through the middle ages, Narcissus stays where he is, routinely and repetitively teaching. Neither is truly happy. However, it seems that their characters require them to act as they do. This book is one that prompts you to ponder. I approve.
5.0 out of 5 stars
rocking,
By A Customer
This review is from: Narcissus and Goldmund (Mass Market Paperback)
i love this book. hermann is the man for his time in place... i wont say hero cuz whats a hero....
5.0 out of 5 stars
Images and ideas,
By A.J. (Maryland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Narcissus and Goldmund (Mass Market Paperback)
Hermann Hesse's "Narcissus and Goldmund" is, in Nietzschean terms, a study of the conflict between the Apollonian (form, order, restraint, the world of ideas) and the Dionysian (passion, frivolity, lust, the world of images), without favoring one or the other. In fact, it seems to suggest that the highest state of humanity is a result of the peaceful coexistence of ideas and images. The novel takes place in Germany, evidently some time in the late Middle Ages. Narcissus (the Apollonian) is a stoic young monk who teaches at a cloister called Mariabronn. One day a very handsome boy named Goldmund (the Dionysian) is dropped off at Mariabronn by his father to get a religious upbringing. Goldmund is artistic and takes his studies seriously enough, but he is obsessed with thoughts of his departed mother, an issue over which he and Narcissus become close friends. As he grows older, Goldmund realizes that he does not have much use for a monastic life, especially when he discovers the carnal pleasures of the opposite sex. With Narcissus's reluctant approval, he decides to run away from the cloister and blindly follow his passions. Goldmund wanders around the countryside for many years as a vagrant. A regular Lothario, he survives by pleasuring the various women and girls he meets in every village and homestead. Although living this way makes him tough, even enough to kill a man when provoked, he retains his religious and artistic sensibilities and a certain compassion for the defenseless and the innocent. Impressed by a wooden madonna he sees in a church one day, he seeks out the sculptor who created it and requests to study under him. Goldmund eventually develops into a skillful artist himself, and, eventually returning to Mariabronn, he uses his skill to create wonderful wood carvings and statues for the cloister. It would appear that Goldmund's life comes full circle by the end of the novel, but his years of wandering permanently alter the convictions he developed as a youth. He tells Narcissus that he can never take religious vows because, while he can accept poverty, he can't abide chastity or obedience. His belief that God has made the world "badly" stems from his experiences during the Black Plague that lays waste to the population: Stopping in a church once, he addresses God with a question that must have been on the minds of many people back then: "...Are you completely disgusted with your creation, do you want us all to perish?" More lucid and coherent than Hesse's more popular opus "Steppenwolf," "Narcissus and Goldmund" is a great soul-searching type of novel, one that allows a reader, especially a young one, to confront questions about his or her own life. If we consider that Narcissus and Goldmund represent the two extremes of humanity -- Narcissus, the "perfect" Apollonian, and Goldmund, the "perfect" Dionysian (although admittedly there are even more extreme forms of passion than what Goldmund exhibits) -- we might be able to recognize that most of us fall somewhere in the middle; our satisfaction in life lies in finding out where in the middle we are most comfortable.
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