Wish I'd read this earlier.
(A potential life changer)!

A highlight of my reading year, this novel will linger long with me.

Here are my random thoughts which cannot do justice to the book.

It looks at Life in the world of medieval Germany c 1325 – 80 and monastic life then. The world of Science and Philosophy represented by Narziss and that of the artist by Goldmund – young teacher and pupil respectively. They are lovers in the Greek tradition of Plato: a love which transcends earthy lusts and passions – but these are essential to fire up the genius and imagination of the artist, represented here by Goldmund.

The world depicted here and mine are essentially the same – as far as choices and challenges go. Each world has its sceptics around religion and spirituality.

Having lived through a recent pandemic, how reassuring or otherwise was it to find that the medieval reaction to the Black Death and curbing its spread was very similar to our own in 2020/1 in relation to Covid?

Прекрасний філософський твір з неспішним плином викладу, символічний на всіх рівнях, повний прекрасних художніх метафор і який сам, цілком, є метафорою на вічне зіткнення духу і тіла, пристрастей і змирЕння, мінливості авантюризму і потягу до сталості і порядку.

Багато кому не заходить, здавалось би, монотонна манера викладу Германа Гессе, його уміння три сторінки описувати каштан який росте при вході в монастир. Але що то за каштан і що то за опис! Це прекрасний вхідний портал який задає ритм всьому читанню, який заводить вас під стіни цього монастиря. Гессе ледь не змушує читати його вголос, щоб знайти ту мелодику тексту яку він туди старанно закладає.

بسیار عالی بود.به شدت با تمایلات و یلگی و رهایی گلدموند هم ذات پنداری میکردم.عاشق فهم والای نارتسیس شدم و به قول مختاری درک حضور دیگری.با تشکر بسیار ویژه از امانت دهنده یِ جان: آهنگ!

I see this book as a meditation on the beauty and the power of Art. Any flaws that appear in the narrative therefore I find to be irrelevant. I think that I don't even experience Narcissus and Goldmund as a novel. It's more philosophical in nature, more a novel of ideas, more like reading a religious text than anything else, and that is the beauty of it... or at least that is what I have found in it.

I loved the contrast between the two main characters, Narcissus and Goldmund and the true friendship that exist between them. I believe that such a friendship is a very rare thing. Perhaps what I liked most about this book is how it acknowledges the fundamental differences that can and often do exist between two people. So much more refreshing (and closer to truth) than saying we're all alike.

Observing that delicate friendships that oddly sometimes exist between the people who see the world in completely different way somehow feels enriching. Not all differences are differences and not all the similarities similarities, one could say. However, one might mean different things by saying this. The meaning of words is harder to pin down than we think. We're so used to thinking in a certain way, most of us anyway, that we fail to understand that there is always something more, something behind our words that we cannot explain.

From a worldly perspective, these two man have nothing in common and yet on some higher level they feel a deep connection, the kind that most people never experience...and yet the similarity between them is as important as the difference is. Perhaps I'm not making any sense...Anyway, I guess that generally it could be said that there was plenty to think about while reading this novel.

If I would cared to, I could find many illogical parts in this novel(unrealistic stories or plot developments, characterization of minor characters etc), many imperfections and weak points. However, the point is that I don't care to do so...and the reason why I don't care to is because this is a work of art...and because I really do feel that is perfect as it is. You don't dissect a work of art.

Rereading Narcissus and Goldmund

This past Fourth Of July, I tried to think of an American book which expressed something of our country in a fresh way. I settled on Kerouac's "On The Road", a book I have read several times and reviewed some time ago. A wonderfully kind and intelligent friend praised the choice and suggested parallels between Kerouac's book and my reading of it and Herman Hesse's 1930 novel, "Narcissus and Goldmund". Since reading Hesse in my college years of fifty years ago I have tended to avoid him (with the exception of rereading "Steppenwolf"). Hesse reminded me too much of the turbulence of the 1960s, when he became popular with American readers and of the influence of these years which remains with us, mostly for the worse in my view. Still, my friend's reminding me of "Narcissus and Goldmund" struck a nerve and I wanted to revisit the book. The sins of American counterculture are not to be laid at the door of Hesse.

I remembered little beyond the bare outlines of "Narcissus and Goldmund" from my reading of years ago. The book indeed has its similarities to "On The Road" in that it tells the story of two friends with markedly different outlooks on life, portrays the life of wandering from place to place (with one protagonist but not both), and deals with dualities and with searches for the meaning of one's life. These themes have a strong appeal to students and young people. They tend to be covered up and rejected as people get older and settled into ways of living and earning a living. I think that is in some ways necessary but it also is a pity. People still have to deal with themselves even if the exigences of the day sometimes make them feel, unjustifiably, that they have resolved youthful questions by settled living.

Hesse's novel is set in medieval Europe in the mid-14th century and tells the story of the friendship of its two title characters. Narcissus is a young highly intellectual person with a disciplined mind and a degree of intellectual arrogance. He teaches Greek and grammar in the cloister and in later years becomes the Abbot. He befriends the slightly younger Goldmund who is abruptly left at the cloister by his father. Goldmund has an artistic, sensual and sexual nature, far removed from the analytical mind of his friend. The story of the book takes place over many years and opens and closes in the cloister. The book also includes scenes of Goldmund wandering for years on the road as a wastrel and meeting danger, sex, and the gruesome reality of the Black Death. Goldmund also lives for some years in a large medieval city and learns the skills to be a sculptor and artist.

The book contrasts the life of the mind with the life of the flesh. The characters are types in this book but also come alive as individuals. The two friends have many discussions about mind and heart and live out their different natures in the course of the book. The dualities are more sharply drawn than would be the case in the lives of most individuals, but that fact does not lessen the value of recognizing and understanding them. Many readers will find strong echoes of Jung, Freud and Nietzsche in the pages of this novel. The strongest influence remains that of Plato. It is a Plato of reason and the mind but a Plato fully aware of the power of art and the senses. Late in the book, Narcissus says to his friend:

"The thinker tries to determine and to represent the nature of the world through logic. He knows that reason and its tool, logic, are incomplete -- the way an intelligent artist knows full well that his brushes or chisels will never be able to express perfectly the radiant nature of an angel or a saint. Still they both try, the thinker as well as the artist, each in his own way. They cannot and may not do otherwise. because when a man tries to realize himself through the gifts with which nature has endowed him, he does the best and only meaningful thing he can do. That's why, in former days, I often said to you: don't try to imitate the thinker or the ascetic man, but be yourself, try to realize yourself."

Hesse's book is moving and penetrating in its portrayal of the life of the mind and of the life of the heart and of the forces of human sexuality. There is much to be loved in the book and much contemporary American readers may relearn about sexuality and male-female relationships. I was glad to have the opportunity to read "Narcissus and Goldmund" again after a lifetime and to reflect again about broad questions of philosophy and art which can be buried sometimes but which never go away.

Robin Friedman

I was disappointed by this book. I expected a thoughtful meditation on the appetites of a young man; instead, this is a travel story with a lot of sex. Nothing about either title character is explained in the literary sense: each of them just is, and events fit their personalities. Thus, Goldmund wanders around and gets laid a lot. This got old fast, and if it wasn't for the section that deals with the Black Death, I might have given up on the book.

I should have read this when I was younger - say, 18. Then I might have appreciated the idea of a young man sowing his wild oats across all of medieval Germany. There are a few interesting ideas here, and some well-written moments, but across over 300 pages, they feel far apart and bogged down by a thin premise.

(2nd reading, 10-9-24)

Finally giving this awesome work a re-read. Hesse's writing is absolutely incredible. After reading various fiction books over the last few months, returning to certain authors is like a breath of fresh air, like, "ohhhh, this is how it's done..."

(1st reading 7-22-22)

This was truly a magical reading experience for me. It came out of nowhere -- I'd never heard of this particular title before, despite my bibliophilic tendencies, and I had always avoided reading Hesse out of some nonsense premonition that I wouldn't enjoy his writing style. I was so wrong about that last part.

A dear friend loaned this book to me while I was hospitalized last spring. The hideous front cover was held on by a thread, and didn't even make it to the finish line. The pages were brown, marked up. It was slow-going at first, with all the endless conversations about monastery life, and I ended up putting it on hold. But at least I had enough sense to realize it was my less-than-ideal reading environment, combined with my slipshod state of mind at the time, to know that it wasn't the book itself, but the circumstances surrounding my reading of it.

When I picked it up again, my affection for Narcissus and Goldmund was almost immediate. Set in medieval Germany, this book is not exactly a fantasy, but it has that sense of timelessness that I imagine characterizes epic fantasy. It explores huge themes: duality, the human longing for purpose, aging and mortality, the nature of art, the conflict between flesh and spirit. (I'd probably be able to explain it better if I had read more philosophy texts in college.) The philosophical musings don't feel ultra-ponderous; they're luscious and they flow and they feel intrinsic to the story.

This whole book is sensual as fuck. Goldmund is a ladies' man, dedicating his young adulthood to the art of seduction and the pleasures of the flesh. The depictions of women are sometimes problematic -- although I do commend Hesse for never buying into the whole virgin/whore dichotomy -- but this was such a small grievance for me that it didn't ruin my experience.

I won't belabor my review with a plot summary. It's best to just dip your feet straight into the warm bath of its bewitching language.

"نارتسیس و گلدموند" پیچیده و در عین حال ساده بود. از دیِر آرام ماریابرون آغاز شد و به سرعت به درختان و جنگل و کوه و دشت‌ها، آب رودخانه‌ها و آرامش دهکده‌ها رسید. از کنار قلعه‌ی شهسواری گذشت و به شهر اسقف و استاد خبره‌ی مجسمه‌سازی رسید. لیزه و لیدیا و یولی و ربکا و لنه و آگنس و لیسبت همه در جهان سپری شدند و طاعون داس مرگ را به رقص واداشت. دِیر و صومعه و کلیسا در نظم ناقوس‌ها باقی ماندند و دنیا از حرکت نایستاد. به راستی، ارزش زندگی در چیست و چه چیزی پس از مرگ در انتظار ما نشسته است؟ در چشمان خدا، زندگی‌های ما در این پایین چگونه هستند؟

به او می‌گفت: "نارتسیس، تو نمی‌ترسی؟ غصه به سراغت نیامده؟ خبردار نشده‌ای؟ آری عزیزم‌. دنیا همه مرگ است. همه مرگ! مرگ بر سر هر پرچین در کمین است. پشت هر درخت در انتظار است و شما بیهوده رنج می‌برید و دیوار برپا می‌کنید و خوابگاه و نمازخانه و کلیسا می‌سازید. مرگ از روزن مترصد است و می‌خندد. هر یک از شما را به درستی می‌شناسد. در دل شب ندایش را نمی‌شنوید که پشت پنجره‌تان می‌خندد و نامتان را می‌خواند؟ حالا دعاتان را بخوانید و در نمازخانه‌هاتان شمع برافروزید و صبح و شام نماز بگزارید و در داروخانه گیاه و در کتابخانه کتاب گرد آورید. دوست عزیز، آیا هنوز روزه می‌داری؟ و خواب بر خود حرام می‌کنی؟ و شب تا صبح بیدار می‌مانی؟ خاطر آسوده دار یار قدیمی، ملک الموت بهنگام یاریت خواهد کرد و از همه چیز محرومت خواهد ساخت. حتی استخوان برایت نخواهد گذاشت. راه برو عزیز دلم. شتاب کن که بزم مرگ در انتظار است. تندتر برو و استخوان‌هایت را پیوسته نیک در پیوند دار. می‌خواهند از هم بپاشند، آن‌ها نزد ما ماندنی نیستند. آه استخوان‌های مسکین ما، حلق و معده‌ی بی‌پناه ما، اندکی مغز و جمجمه‌ی بینوای ما همه از ما گریزانند، همه می‌خواهند تباه شوند. لاشخورها، این سیاه لبادگان مردارخوار بر شاخ‌های عریان درخت در انتظار نشسته‌اند."

Qual è l'ideale di vita che può vantare valore universale e assoluto? L'esistenza condotta da Narciso, dedito alla vita monastica, alle privazioni, alle regole o la vita dell'artista Boccadoro, raminga, spensierata, dedita alla continua scoperta? Sicuramente entrambe, visto che entrambi i protagonisti le perseguono sino in fondo. Sicuramente nessuna delle due, visto che in entrambi i protagonisti si avverte un celato senso d'insoddisfazione e, forse, il desiderio di partecipare della vita che non hanno scelto. Entrambe scelte vincenti, entrambe fallimenti. Perché (forse è la lezione che Hesse voleva trasmetterci), non esistono ideali di vita assoluti, ma solo continue ricerche, continue scoperte di sé che ci conducono in un viaggio che non conosce mai fine o compimento, ma solo susseguenti trasformazioni.

Non si spende una vita a plasmarsi se il fine non è quello di essere se stessi e di riconoscere nell'amore l'unica via da percorrere. Istinto o ragione? Nella complessità dell'essere umano non c'è spazio per i sensi unici. Siamo fatti di opposti e contraddizioni. Com'è difficile chiudere e riporre questo magnifico romanzo. Leggerlo è stato come leggere la vita. L'ultima pagina quindi si legge lentamente, ancor più lentamente degli ultimi capitoli.

Η λογοτεχνική απόδοση του νιτσεϊκού δίπολου, της τραγικής ανθρώπινης φύσης που ισορροπεί ανάμεσα στο Απολλώνιο (σύμφωνα με το οποίο το άτομο ενεργεί με βάση του τον ορθολογισμό) και το Διονυσιακό (σύμφωνα με το οποίο η δράση του ατόμου βασίζεται στα συναισθήματα και τα ένστικτα) πρότυπο.