Narcissus and Goldmund Mass Market Paperback – March 1, 1984

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 remain 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 which 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

More a book of philosophical musings, this novel tells the story of Goldmund, a beautiful young man delivered to an abbey by an uncaring father. Goldmund is a brilliant student and he is befriended by the scholar monk Narcissus. The two become close friends, but Goldmund soon must travel to appease his wild nature.The wandering takes the bulk of the novel, and Goldmund learns how easy it is to seduce women when one is beautiful and young. He also finds within himself a rare artistic talent which gets him into trouble as much as the women.This is a beautifully written work which would not be published today because of its stately pace. Still, it is well worth reading due to its gorgeous prose, it’s striking story, and the deep philosophy of the pull between art and intellect.

Published in 1930, this is Herman Hesse's brilliant story of two friends in medieval Germany. Largely metaphorical, this has the feel of a cautionary fairy tale with no true compass as to geography or time. The story begins when Goldmund, a student, and Narcissus, a teacher only a few years older, become friends at a cloister school. At first, Goldmund earnestly focuses on his studies, but then a few fellow students invite him to go off campus, where he's seduced by a young Gypsy girl. From that day forward, his mind never wanders far from thoughts of women, their sheer beauty and the pleasures of the senses.He leaves and on his journeys he has numerous affairs with women of all ages, statuses and sizes (similar to Wilt Chamberlain in legion and legend). All women find him irresistible. He falls for the first young lady to say no, loses her to the serpent of lust for her younger, prettier sister, and then travels far and wide. He settles to become a sculptor for several years, able to brilliantly capture the beauty he has seen. He becomes restless, continues his travels and runs into the unmitigated ugliness of the Black Plague. There's much more, but I'll add no more so I don't spoil the story, except to say that when both he and Narcissus, now an abbot, are much older, they visit and converse at length with each other.The novel provides perhaps the most vivid contrast I've read between art, the beauty of the skin and sensual pleasures, on the one hand, and beauty of the spirit, stability, thinking and structure on the other.