Narziß und Goldmund = Death and the Lover = Narcissus and Goldmund, Hermann Hesse

Narcissus and Goldmund is a novel written by the German–Swiss author Hermann Hesse which was first published in 1930. At its publication, Narcissus and Goldmund was considered Hesse's literary triumph; chronologically, it follows Steppenwolf.

Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of a young man, Goldmund, who wanders aimlessly throughout Medieval Germany after leaving a Catholic monastery school in search of what could be described as "the meaning of life," or rather, the meaning of his life.

عنوانهای چاپ شده در ایران: «نارتسیس و گلدموند»؛ «نرگس و زرين دهان»؛ نویسنده: هرمان هسه؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه آگوست سال2008میلادی

عنوان: نرگس و زرین دهان؛ نویسنده: هرمان هسه؛ مترجم: سروش حبیبی؛ تهران، رز، 1350، در 425ص؛ چاپ دوم 1361؛ موضوع داستانهای نویسندگان آلمانی تبار سوئیس - سده 20م

عنوان: نارتسیس و گلدموند؛ نویسنده: هرمان هسه؛ مترجم: سروش حبیبی؛ تهران، نشر چشمه، پاییز 1384، چاپ دوم پاییز 1385؛ در 368ص؛ شابک9643622606؛

عنوان: نرگس و زرین دهان؛ نویسنده: هرمان هسه؛ مترجم: فرزانه معزی؛ مشهد، سخن گستر، 1385، در 400ص؛ شابک ایکس-964477132؛

عنوان: نارسیس اثر هرمان هسه ؛ مترجم وحید منوچهری‌واحد؛ تهران: جامی، ‏‫ 1393؛ در 272ص؛ شابک9786001760976؛
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عنوان: نارسیس و گلدموند؛ ن‍وش‍ت‍ه‌ ه‍رم‍ان‌ ه‍س‍ه‌؛ مترجم محمد ب‍ق‍ائ‍ی‌‌ (م‍اک‍ان‌)؛تهران انتشارات تهران، آلما، 1392؛ در 462ص؛ شابک9789642911578؛ چاپ دوم 1397؛

عنوان: نارسیس و گلدموند؛ تالیف هرمان هسه؛ مترجم ساره خسروی؛ تهران، حباب، 1397؛ در 280ص؛ شابک9786226315210؛

عنوان: نارسیس و گلدموند؛ نویسنده هرمان هسه؛ مترجم مهدی لطیفی؛ تهران: انتشارات منوچهری‏‫، 1397؛ در 295ص؛ شابک9786005994421؛
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با عنوانهای: «نرگس و زرين دهان»، و «نارتسیس و گلدموند»، مترجم: سروش حبیبی، انتشارات رز و چشمه، و با عنوان: «نرگس و زرين دهان»، ترجمه: فرزانه معزی، انتشارات سخن گستر در مشهد؛

گلدموند (زرین دهان) بیابانگردی، با روحی لطیف، و دیدی هنرمندانه، به خوانشگر معرفی شده، و نارتسیس (نرگس) عابدی والامقام، که گناهی مرتکب نشده، و عمرش را به عبادت گذرانده است؛ همین چند روز پیشتر نیز باز هم ترجمه ی جناب «سروش حبیبی» را خواندم، شاهکار «هرمان هسه» است

نقل از متن کتاب: (زرین دهان: فکر میکنم که یک گلبرگ گل یاس کوچک که میلولد، بسیار بیشتر از تمام کتابهای کتابخانه، حرف دارد؛ با حروف و کلمات، نمیتوان تمام حقیقت را بیان کرد؛ «نارتسیس»: برای فراگیری علوم، این چند حرف کافی نیست؛ روح جهان، جسم را دوست دارد، کالبد را دوست دارد، تا در آن از روح خود بدمد؛ او میخواهد که ما آیات الهی را بشناسیم؛ او بودن را دوست دارد، نه شدن را؛ حقیقت را دوست دارد، نه ممکن را؛ او تحمل نمیکند، که حرف دلها، به شکل مار، یا پرنده ای درآیند؛ در طبیعت، روح نمیتواند ماده باشد، بلکه ضد آن، و در تضاد با آن است.)؛ پایان نقل

نقل دیگر: (گاه درِ اتاقِ «گلدموند» را، که پیکره ی «مریم» در آن قرار داشت، باز میکرد، و با احتیاط، روپوش از صورتش عقب میزد، و در برابرش میماند؛ از منشأ آن، چیزی نمیدانست؛ «گلدموند» هرگز داستان «لیدیا» را، برای او نقل نکرده بود؛ اما «نارتسیس»، همه چیز را حس میکرد؛ میدانست که اندیشه ی اندام آن دوشیزه، مدتی دراز در دل دوستش، جایی داشته است؛ شاید «گلدموند» او را فریفته بود، یا چه بسا با او بی وفایی کرده، و تنهایش گذاشته بود؛ اما او را در جان خود همراه داشته، و وفادارانه تر از هر شوهری، از یاد او حراست کرده، و سرانجام شاید پس از سالهای بسیار، که طی آن‌ها او را هرگز ندیده، این صورت دل‌ انگیز را، از او پرداخته، و چهره و اطوار، و دست‌هایش، تمام مهر و ستایش اشتیاق، و دلدلدگی را متجلی ساخته بود)؛ پایان نقل

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 27/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 06/07/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

رواية ستنضج في رأسك مئات الأسئلة..

عن ثنائية العقل و الروح
المادة و الفكر.
عن إنعزال في الدير أو غوص في غمار الحياة
عن كل الأضداد و الثنائيات
n  n
تحدث هسه بالأسلوب مزج بين سلاسة السرد و عمق الفكرة.
أخيرا رواية نجحت في مزج بين الاستمتاع و الفكر.
رائعة .
أكملتها رابعة صباحا

A young boy is sent... make that taken by his father to be raised in a monastery never to return, the reader suspects the man believes , not the child's parent. This in medieval Germany isn't unusual , since the pretty mother ran away, the bitter gentleman felt betrayed... The adolescent named Goldmund is quite unhappy you don't need to be a psychic to understand why, alone, abandoned a sheltered life becomes nightmarish, no one to trust in this strange place..but his horse Bess is there in the stable, the only friend. Narcissus is a bright ambitious monk and only a few years older than the newcomer, they become close and the boy grows up missing the mother who will disappear like the father till the end of time. The friends are different in temperament, goals, devoutness, work habits, and the monks see this genial Goldmund is not hardworking, yet special and the other school boys there after a few altercations causing alterations, admire his tenacity and respect him if not greatly like . Problems are always crushing the spirit of Goldmund, the unwanted child no longer that, perpetually restless and needs to leave and experience the world, the good and bad the bizarre. The kindly Abbot Daniel a gentle soul is fond of the virtual orphan in the cloister, as are all the monks but still the boy-man needs to escape the safe but suffocating confines and breathe the fresh air of freedom... unfortunately. The handsome young wanderer discovers women frequently , both will nevertheless be disappointed. Unreliable male companions, some with murderous intentions the vagabond discovers almost too late, living in dark cold forests, hearing unknown alarming sounds, falling in cold rivers, starving for want of nourishment, eluding the Black Death or trying to, seeing corpses piled up in carts and smelling what once were humans in cottages or streets, the long roads leading him to decay and probable expiration. Maybe the return to the monastery would be a good idea after years of travel and be an atonement for his many sins. A magnificent book for anyone who wants to feel how the medieval era was. Herman Hesse was a great writer, some say it is his best novel and the usual weird stories are shown skillfully by a master craftsman. Not his most famous creation yet the passion and effort never wavers. Second thoughts... a wonderful but dark narrative not for all but come to think of it, this applies to every book.

این کتاب رو به لاکپشت وارترین شکل ممکن خوندم چون اصلا دلم نمی خواست تموم بشه ، اما افسوس که هر شروعی بالاخره پایانی هم به همراه داره

کتاب "نارتسیس و گلدموند" شاهکار دیگری هست از "هسه" که مانند بسیاری از آثار او، ساختاری دو قطبی دارد... یکی قطب مادرانه و مادینه که به جنبه های فلسفی از قبیل عشق ،هنر و لذت می پردازد و دیگری قطب پدرانه یا نرینه که جنبه های تفکر و منطق را در بر می گیرد
این نویسنده ی خوش ذوق و هنرمند این بار معجونی گوارا پدید آورده که در آن از تمامی عناصر شخصیت پردازی، توصیفات و تشبیهات ، آرایه ها و کنایه ها به غایت بهره برده و می تواند سیراب کننده ی عطش اشتیاق هر خواننده ای باشد

نوشتن ریویوی کامل در باب این کتاب رو به بعد موکول می کنم ، فقط چند توصیه برای دوستانی دارم که مایل به مطالعه ی این کتاب هستند

اول اینکه از این کتاب دو نسخه با ترجمه ی بسیار خوب سروش حبیبی وجود داره ، یکی نسخه ای که اخیرا" و از طرف نشر چشمه چاپ شده و دیگری نسخه ای که در سال 1350 چاپ شده
من نسخه ی قدیمی تر رو ترجیح دادم. این نسخه ، کامل و بدون ساسنسور بود(با نسخه ی انگلیسی چک کردم) ، بعد اینکه در نسخه ی نشر چشمه شیوه ی نگارش کتاب به قدری نامفهوم و سخت خوان بود که من نه تنها هیچ لذتی از مطالعه ی کتاب نبردم بلکه درهر صفحه حداقل دو یا سه کلمه ی جدید وجود داشت که اصلا در زبان فارسی به گوش من نخورده بود چه برسه به اینکه معنی این کلمه ها رو بدونم
:))
با این حال اگر باز هم نسخه ی نشر چشمه را انتخاب کردید یادتون باشه که مقدمه ی کتاب رو بزارید آخر بخونید چون همه ی داستان از ابتدا تا انتها به طور خلاصه در مقدمه توضیح داده شده که از نظر من چندان خوشایند نبود

در آخر اینکه می تونید نسخه ی پی دی اف و بدون سانسور این کتاب رو با نام "نرگس و زرین دهن" در اینترنت پیدا کنید

“Narciso y Goldmundo” es una novela filosófica con aires de cuento tradicional en el que se narra el viaje que emprende un joven hermoso y encantador llamado Goldmundo, que terminará siendo un camino al centro de sí mismo. Un viaje que inicia aconsejado por su maestro, Narciso, poseedor del don de intuir el fondo esencial de cada persona, y espoleado por un anhelo, una especie de culpa innata que le desasosiega y le empuja a buscar algo que no se sabe qué es ni dónde lo podrá encontrar.

n   “Mientras Narciso era sombrío y magro, Goldmundo aparecía radiante y lleno de vida, Y así como el primero parecía ser un espirito reflexivo y analítico, el segundo daba la impresión de ser un soñador y tener alma infantil…n

Bien pronto descubriría Goldmundo que su anhelo pudiera estar íntimamente relacionado con la muerte. Aprender a enfrentarse a ella será el objetivo de su vida errante.

n   “Sí, mi estimadísimo amigo, el mundo está lleno de muerte, lleno de muerte; sobre cada vallado aparece sentada la pálida dama, escondida detrás de cada árbol, y de nada vale que edifiquéis muros y dormitorios y capillas e iglesias, porque atisba por la ventana, y se ríe, y os conoce a todos, y en medio de la noche la oís reírse ante vuestras ventanas y pronunciar vuestros nombres. ¡Seguid cantando vuestros salmos y encendiendo hermosos cirios en los altares y rezando vuestras vísperas y maitines y coleccionando plantas en el laboratorio y libros en la biblioteca!... Todo se irá, todo se irá al diablo, y en el árbol aguardan los cuervos, los negros frailucos.” …n

Vivir el presente, disfrutar de lo que la vida le regala en cada momento, soportar el sol, la lluvia, la sequía, la nieve con la misma dulzura y mansedumbre que lo hacen los bosques, deleitarse con todo el placer que le procuran las mujeres, por las que es generosamente adorado, esa fue su primera respuesta.

n   “Podía entregarse a aquella tristeza y a aquel espanto de la transitoriedad con el mismo fervor que al amor, y esa melancolía era también amor, era también carnalidad. Así como el goce erótico, en el instante de su máxima y más dichosa tensión, sabe que inmediatamente después se desvanecerá y morirá de nuevo, así también la íntima soledad y la melancolía sabían que serían tragados súbitamente por el deseo, por una nueva entrega a la faceta luminosa de la vida.” …n

Y vio que todo era bueno y necesario, pero también que “lo bello y amado es efímero”, que su búsqueda del placer no terminaba con su desasosiego y, una vez saciado el deseo, volvía a estar en medio del desierto.

¿Podría ser Dios la respuesta? No, Goldmundo no podía confiar en un Dios que, “o bien no existía en absoluto o no podía darle ayuda”, un Dios que había creado un mundo horrible poblado de seres miserables. Un Dios curioso es también aquel en el que cree Narciso, abad de la congregación de la que era alumno Goldmundo, un Dios perfecto, pero creador de un mundo imperfecto, un Dios para el que nuestros actos son pueriles, por lo que quizás valiera tanto una vida de esfuerzo y sacrifico permanente, de renuncia al mundo y a la sensualidad, que la vida de un artista, vagabundo y seductor de mujeres. ¿No era Dios quién nos había creado con “sentidos e instintos, con sangrientas tenebrosidades, con capacidad para pecar, para gozar, para desesperarse?”

n   “… tal vez el llevar una vida como la de Goldmundo no fuera tan sólo más inocente y más humano, sino que también, a la postre, fuera más valiente y más grande abandonarse a la violenta confusión y al torbellino, cometer pecados y cargar con sus amargas consecuencias, en vez de llevar una vida pura apartado del mundo, con las manos limpias, y construirse un hermoso jardín intelectual lleno de armonía y pasearse sin pecado entre sus resguardados macizos.” …n

¿La necesidad de crear nace del deseo de asentar algo que dure mas que nosotros? ¿Podría ser el arte una respuesta al temor a la muerte? Pero el arte necesita una dedicación absoluta, absorbente, incompatible con la libertad de las grandes aventuras.

n   “… o bien uno se defendía y se encerraba en un taller y trataba de levantar un monumento a la vida huidiza, y entonces había que renunciar a la vida y uno era un mero instrumento, y aunque estaba al servicio de lo perduradero, se resecaba y perdía la libertad, la plenitud y el gozo de la vida… ¡Ah, y, sin embargo, la vida sólo tenía un sentido si cabía alcanzar ambas cosas a la vez, si no se veía escindida por esa tajante oposición! ¡Crear sin tener que pagar por ello el precio del vivir! ¡Vivir sin tener que renunciar a la nobleza del crear! ¿Por ventura no era posible?” …n

Quizá la única solución es ver a la muerte más como una aliada que como una enemiga. En definitiva, “qué sería el placer de los sentidos si no estuviera tras ellos la muerte”. Cuando, pasados los años, ya no se siente esa necesidad del placer, esa necesidad de perpetuarse en la creación, cuando las llamas se han apagado, solo queda esperar que “la muerte será una inmensa dicha, una dicha tan grande como el primer abrazo amoroso… en lugar de la muerte con su guadaña, será mi madre la que me llevará de nuevo hacia sí, reintegrándome al no ser y a la inocencia.”

n   “…la terrible canción de la muerte sonaba en él de muy distinta manera, no áspera y macabra, sino más bien dulce y seductora, hogareña, maternal. Allí donde la muerte metía su mano en la vida no sonaba tan sólo de aquel modo estridente y guerrero sino también de una manera profunda y amorosa, otoñal y harta, y en la proximidad del morir, la lamparilla de la vida ardía con más claro e íntimo resplandor. Si para otros la muerte era un guerrero, un juez o un verdugo o un padre severo, para él era, también, una madre y una amante, su llamada un reclamo de amor, un estremecimiento de amor su contacto.” …n

Me gustó su tono, su planteamiento, muchas de sus reflexiones, las preguntas... la respuesta que aporta puede que le sirviera al autor, aunque lo dudo mucho.

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. My next goal is to learn German so I can read his books again in his native tongue.

Goldmund and Narcissus is about that duality except in the form of two separate characters. One is a thinker the other a feeler, one values rationality and reason and the other values intuition. One lives in the world of abstract ideas and the other in the world of sensuality and the senses. One lives the life of a duty bound priest the other an Artist. Neither is held in higher regard over the other. Both struggle to find the meaning of their nature.

I especially enjoyed the part where Narcissus talks about when someone who is meant to be an artist tries to live the life of a thinker evil ensues. There is danger in trying to force themselves into that false role. He calls the artist-thinker a mystic. Thinkers and artists alike have their place in the world and neither should think they are superior to the other for they are antithesis of each other.

I have reread a few Hesse novels in the past year or so, but for some reason skipped this one, also published as Death and the Lover, in 1930, that many considered to be his literary triumph. Hesse was less respected by the literary establishment than his fellow German countryman Thomas Mann, but he was way more of an international popular sensation, especially in the romantic sixties, when I and many of my friends read him. I was talking to a student who is reading James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man with me this summer about how Demian reminded me of Portrait, and he suggested I reread Narcissus, especially since he knew I had been reading plague-related novels (Camus’s The Plague, Daniel DeFoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year). Hesse’s novel is set in the middle ages, during the time of The Black Death, which figures in the story in an important way.t

There might be a spoiler here and there within my review.

The novel is, like his earlier Demian in many ways, about the struggle between two characters, two souls, two ways of life, that in many ways represented Hesse’s own struggles between the German religion and scholasticism with which he was brought up, and the sensual life, the life of passion, of art. A struggle between a life of the mind/spirit (faith) (represented by the monk Narcissus) and a life of the body (represented by Goldmund). The question might be put this way: Can you live a life of wine, women and song (or to put it another way, live a life of the body, of joy, and passion) and still get into Heaven, and if so, how? The novel is in part an answer to that question. But to be clear, the religion with which he was raised did not have a clear path to Heaven; the paths of the body and soul were separate. You renounce the body t make way for the soul.

Goldmund meets a girl and kisses her, and abruptly leaves monastery school (insert here Tom Waits singing, "I lost my Saint Christopher, now that I've kissed her" from "waltzing Matilda--we know what choice Waits made, to find his soul through his body! Or maybe it was to deliberately lose it?) where he has made deep and lasting connections with his young teacher Narcissus. This kiss might be described as an early epiphany and moment he knows he can't be a celibate monk! He then "wanders across Germany," which is code for the gorgeous Goldmund (also, Gold mouth) living a more physical life, and yes, having sex with women as he travels. Consensually, always. As much approached as approaching. And he falls in love with a couple of them. Women represent a kind of ideal for Hesse and Goldmund.

The book is a kind of allegory, as most of Hesse’s books are, a kind of Pilgrim's Progress of the way to life, somewhat updated from Bunyan's view. Since Hesse knows we do not want to read a novel about Narcissus in prayer, the book focuses on the multiple transformations of Goldmund, from abbey to road, something that connects women with his own mother, and also The Universal Mother, the great feminine spirit that he needs to get in touch with. And get in touch with them he does indeed. I haven’t read this book in decades, but I can clearly see again why Hesse was such a popular author during the sixties’ sexual revolution.

“On the Road to Find Out,” Cat Stevens:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHo_Y...

At one point, Goldmund is offered a wonderful artisan position by Nicholas, a mentor and teacher, based on his obvious artistic skills, but he responds as anyone might do in 1968; he turns down the job and says, no, nope, that’s too conventional, that's working for The Man, "I must be free.” Cue “Free Bird” or several other sixties romantic songs, and view here a meme from On The Road. The road of “self-discovery,” which initially is mainly wine, women and song. But lust, he finds, is only good for the short term. In the long term sex is like any drug, leading to a desert of want. And you already knew that, maybe, so are not surprised to find that the time of hot and heavy page-turning will have to come to an end. This is, after all, Hesse and not Peyton Place. In other words, if Woman is an ideal for Goldmund, he needs to see Heer as Spirit, as Soul, and not just Body, to learn that path for himself.

And right: This is, as I said, a novel about the middle ages, the time of The Plague; which of course has a sobering effect on the party, though Goldmund still seeks ways to sing and love and find joy.

“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.”

But eventually, all this death (recall the original title) takes its toll on Goldmund's love fest, and he returns to Nicholas’s workshop to work, to art, reconnecting as well in the process with the monastery, and Narcissus, whom he teaches to do art even as Narcissus teaches Goldmund more about spiritual practice. The point here is that these two twin souls, these opposites attracted to each other, need to both be present in one person; Mind and Body, lover of God and lover of the world. It can happen, Hesse says, in principled (and clearly romantic) ways.

“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.”

Hesse does create binaries, between the Apollonian and Dionysian, the masculine and the feminine, a further development of the ideas I associate mostly with Demian, and they feel to me a bit out of date, but they are nevertheless interesting and useful for any young seeker. And, as with Joyce’s Stephen, Goldmund and Hesse choose Art as their spiritual vocation, their way to live a “unified” life. And love (body and soul) as part of this process, of course.

“We fear death, we shudder at life's instability, we grieve to see the flowers wilt again and again, and the leaves fall, and in our hearts we know that we, too, are transitory and will soon disappear. When artists create pictures and thinkers search for laws and formulate thoughts, it is in order to salvage something from the great dance of death, to make something last longer than we do.”

I really liked reading this book again and seeing in it some of my own early struggles, thanks TD. I read Thomas Merton’s Seven Story Mountain in my late teens/early twenties and loved it; it made me commit to some form of a spiritual life, which is always still evolving for me. I was in theater, I was a writer, too, but chose teaching as my vocation, and ultimately chose a more conventional family life over the road. This book and all Hesse’s works were part of my learning how to live in the world.

Oh, and you know the contemporary term “woke”? Here’s Hesse on the topic, in 1930:

“I call that man awake who, with conscious knowledge and understanding, can perceive the deep unreasoning powers in his soul, his whole innermost strength, desire and weakness, and knows how to reckon with himself.” Who wouldn't want to be "woke" in that way?

This is an extremely trite and obvious thing to say, but it must be said: Herman Hesse is a wonderful writer. His translator must also take some credit. I found 'Narcissus and Goldmund' utterly riveting. I haven't viscerally enjoyed the style and atmosphere of a novel so intensely since I read Summer. The measured and philosophical, yet tenderly emotional, tone is quite distinctive from other writers. I would find myself carried along by the lyrical prose espousing love and the natural world, then be absolutely floored by a paragraph like this:

Perhaps, he thought, the root of all art, and perhaps of all intellectual activity, is the fear of death. We fear it, we shudder at the ephemeral nature of things, we grieve to see the constant cycle of fading flowers and falling leaves and are aware in our own hearts of the certainty that we too are ephemeral and will soon fade away. So when as artists we create images, and as thinkers we search for laws and formulate ideas, we do so in order to salvage something from the great Dance of Death, to create something that will outlast our lifetime. The woman after whom the master fashioned his beautiful Madonna may have already faded or died, and soon he too will be dead: others will live in his house, others will eat at his table. But his work will remain. In the quiet monastery church it will continue to shine for another hundred years and much longer; it will always remain beautiful, always smile with that same mouth which is as full of life as it is of sadness.

Reading something like that, you have to sit down. If you are already sitting down, you might need to lie down. I don't really know how to respond to it in words, other than, "Ooof". Hesse's themes are so universal and examined so beautifully that it's hard to imagine 'Narcissus and Goldmund' losing its classic status. Life, death, love, art, freedom, and conflict are all examined with extraordinary astuteness and subtlety within a mere 250 pages.

I suppose I should mention the plot and characters, as they aren't mere flimsy props for philosophical abstractions. In medieval Germany, Goldmund is sent to a monastery school by his father as a teenager and makes friends with Narcissus, an older boy with such scholarly talents that he acts as a student teacher. The pair have an intense and romantic friendship that changes them both. Narcissus leads Goldmund to realise that the religious life of the mind is not suited to him, so Goldmund departs for an itinerant life of wandering through the world seducing women. Meanwhile Narcissus remains in the monastery and takes holy orders. The majority of the narrative follows Goldmund's progress. One of the most powerful sequences was his experience of the Black Death. This encounter with a Jewish girl whose father has been murdered in a pogrom will linger in my memory:

"Listen," he said, "don't you see that death is all around us, that in every house and every town people are dying, that there is misery and death everywhere? Even the rage of those stupid people who burned your father to death is nothing but anguish and despair, simply the result of unbearable suffering. Look, soon death will come for us too, and our bodies will decay somewhere under the sky, and moles will play dice with our bones. Until then, let us live and be kind to each other. Oh Rebekka, it would be such a waste of your white neck and your little foot! Dear, beautiful girl, come with me - all I want is to see you and look after you!"

He went on and on pleading until it suddenly became clear even to him that it was useless to woo her with words or reasons. He fell silent and looked at her sorrowfully. Her proud, regal face was rigid with rejection.

"That's how you are," she said at last, in a voice of hatred and contempt, "that's how you Christians are! First you help a daughter bury her father, whom your people have murdered and whose little fingernail is worth more than you, and hardly has that been done when the girl is supposed to fall into your arms and go to bed with you! That's how you are! At first I thought you might be a good person. But how could you be good? Oh, you're all pigs!"

There is so much to 'Narcissus and Goldmund' that deserves (and has undoubtedly received) vastly more detailed analysis than I could ever offer. It is rich in meanings. Instead, I will comment on the foreword by Graham Cox. This is brief and sincere. He states, 'It is a book that you can never grow out of because you grow into it.' That I can well understand. A quote on the back cover calls it, 'The quintessential book of adolescence', yet I don't think I would have appreciated it nearly as much in my teens. Hesse considers the dilemmas of later years just as insightfully as those of adolescence. I was also intrigued that Cox wrote, 'I think we can all see ourselves in Goldmund.' I can't, not one bit. Instead, I saw a little of myself in the aloof, intellectual, ascetic Narcissus. The relationship between the two has the particular intensity of love between people who accept and value their immense differences of personality, habits, and priorities. Like Narcissus, I greatly admire friends who can throw themselves into adventure, intense emotions, and artistic creativity, while not wishing to emulate them. Hesse focuses on Goldmund's journey, but does not take sides between the lives chosen by his two protagonists. Goldmund often doubts himself and Narcissus is clearly not without regret. Although I find Goldmund's choices much harder to understand than those of Narcissus, the writing gives such full account of why both make them that I am entirely sympathetic. Actually, I think it's more than that. The whole book invites intense empathy for all of those it depicts, in part by emphasising what all living beings share: life, death, and uncertainty.

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In this novel, Herman Hesse presents Nietzsche's thesis from the Birth of Tragedy that man has an Apollonian and Dionysian side to his nature. Women in contrast are purely sexual.

Do not waste your time with this novel if you have not read the Birth of Tragedy. Women should avoid this book unless they take a pleasure in getting angry with male chauvinists.

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