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Summary: Great!
Review: This book is awesome. Just read it!
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Summary: Take your pick: Material/Sensual or Spiritual world?
Review: So are you spiritual? Are you in touch with the other side? Or do you just live your life sensually, in touch with the Earth, instinctual and materialistic? Are you Narcissus? Or are you Goldmund? This is the story of the two sides of human nature set in the backdrop of the path of two friends, Narcissus, the priest, a spiritual God-fearing man and Goldmund, the lover, the traveller, the artist. This book describes the experiences of the two friends in life and love and makes it clear that we all have a little bit of Narcissus and Goldmund inside of us...very nice...
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Summary: Explores spiritual and character differences
Review: A disturbing, thought provoking and often touching work. Two very different men form a lifelong bond, that transcends physical distance and orientation of character. One aspires toward a life of service and sacrafice, the other a life of indulging in the experiential world of the senses. Does one path have more merit than the other? This book may alter your view on this issue. Another heady Hesse work that challenges our ideas of a virtuous existence.
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Summary: Enter into the spirit of old Europe
Review: This is where Hermann Hesse is really at home, in the streets and villages and countryside of old Europe. One wonders what he must have been thinking as much of it was bombed into oblivion in the 1940s. It is certainly a very idyllic place, and one in which it might have been, under certain conditions, pleasant to live. Social politics is not Hesse's strong point; he is more concerned with the individual. In this novel Hesse takes us into the Europe of the Middle Ages to explore the relationship between student and master. I think it is really my favourite, but then, there are so many trying to lay claim to the title, it's hard to be sure. It is a book about youth, about enquiry and about travelling, all at once. Hesse's writing, or the very fine translation of it, has a poetic quality that is unsurpassed for me in modern literature. It seems to help the reader form a deeper impression of the very countryside through which this pair of travellers passes. At the same time, there is a landscape of the mind to which one wishes to return, time and again. For me, Narcissus and Goldmund is a voyage into a time lost, where the very air is somehow rarefied and the colours of grassy fields are at once, soft and vibrant. Tremendous writing; timeless literature.
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Summary: Exquisite.
Review: This is the best book that I have ever read. It rescued me from my adolescent turmoil by understanding myself. I own three copies of the book, a paperback edition, a hardback and also a copy in German which I cannot read but which I bought on holiday many moons ago while visiting Germany. I have read it more than any other book, and although I am now in my mid forties every time that I hold the book in my hands I am reminded of my youth.
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Summary: Comments on Comments
Review: I loved this book because my prespective of people changed. No longer do I look at people as one dimensional. Books have been written about the differences between races, genders, and classes. This book speaks to the profound and potentially divisive differences inside each of us. The book shows with passion and insight the very essence of man and how with love and respect these differences can be reconciled. But most interesting to me is that by reading the comments of the readers it is easy to tell who is more Narcissus and who is more Goldmund. Each reader has demonstrated by his/her comments which side of the divide he/she prefers to show us. Thus, the truth Hesse wrote about is borne out in the comments of his readers.
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Summary: influenced my entire system of thought
Review: This book had more of an impact on me than any other I've ever read. It explores the two sides of the human experience, the sensual and the intellectual, in such facinating depth and with such insightfulness that a reader cannot help but be changed by reading it. Best book I've ever read, and I read like a fiend!
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Summary: Inspirational, but you have to be ready for it!
Review: Narcissus and Goldmund is not a light read. Hesse's message isdifferent for every reader; the way it should be. The love, respectand enduring friendship of the two main characters speaks its own story; most of us are not whole beings, but need the qualities we lack in another to reach that goal. It is sad really, that each man was not complete, but beautiful that both realized what the other gave to him. I agree that the characters were arrogant and the descriptions at times lacking in vigor. Women were mere sex objects awaiting the presence of the beautiful Goldmund to satisfy their desires. This, I found to be a turn-off. The dull scenic descriptions and lack of action are purposely designed for more focus on the spiritual message. Happy Reading!
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Summary: Hesse at his very best
Review: I am a big admirer of Hermann Hesse and regard Narziss and Goldmund as his greatest work. Man's role on earth, in Narziss and in Goldmund - the ascetic and the Dionysian - a masterpiece full of the ripe wisdom from Hermann Hesse.
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Summary: Shallow and unrealistic.
Review: I picked up this book because I had heard that the author was a Nobel Prize winner for literature. I find that extremely hard to believe. I like books that are thoughtful, sophisitcated, and realistic, with complex characters, and detailed description. This book had none of those qualities. The "two-dimensional" characters are unrealistic and predictable. They are very badly written, and the contradictions and inconsistancies in their personalities (if they even have personalities) are downright absurd. They will be geniuses on one page, and absolute fools on the next, and no, not in a realistic way. Real people can be intelligent but make foolish choices, but that is not what I'm talking about here. Their levels of intelligence, insight, introspectiveness, intuition, etc. jump dramatically up and down like a rollercoaster, making you wonder if the author has ever associated with a real human being. The characters are all arrogant, naive fools, but will make brilliant revelations and accomplishments that real people with their intellects would never dream of. It is as if the author wanted all his characters to be super heroes, or Gods, or what a writing professor might call a "Mary Sue", and then gave them the IQs of chimpanzees in an attempt to add balance. Even if the characters had been written well, their extreme religious nature makes it impossible to identify with them if you are not a member of their religion. As if the characters hadn't already ruined this book (which at some points it almost seems is the author's goal), the writing is absolutely dreadful. The descriptions of places, characters, events were bland and minimalistic. I felt like I was reading a novel written for third graders, or adults who just don't like to read, in which the author is afraid to go into the slightest bit of detail for fear of boring the unintelligent reader. If you are a fan of sophisticated writing, skip this book. If you are a 12 year old with an IQ of 80, you might be able to read this without laughing out loud at the author's incompetence.
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