Rating: 
Summary: A Balance
Review: The beauty and harmony of this work remains unsurpassed.
The author begins telling the tale of two young men at a cloister. One is the student of the other. Their paths of life diverge from this point. One follows the introspective
path of a saint. The other follows the path of a wayfarer. He leaves no aspect of life
, beautiful or tragic, untested. These two
men, so different, cannot exist without each other. Together, they acheive a perfect balance.
Rating:
Summary: Find Your Equilibrium in Life!
Review: If you choose to interpret 'Narciss and Goldmund' in the way that I have, you may find it to be one of the best (unintentionally written) self help books around. It's all about finding an equilibrium between the spiritual/educational side of self (represented here by Narcissus, the monk), and the free-loading/pleasure loving side (Goldmund, adventurer extraordinaire). Maybe I'm taking this novel too much to heart, but it makes a far greater read than 'Dianetics' or even 'Sixty Days to Tighter Buns' ever will
Rating:
Summary: One of the greatest novels ever
Review: Hermann Hesse's novel Narcissus and Goldmund is the story of two friends in a monastery. While Narcissus lives a life seeking God and enlightenment, Goldmund seeks truth and beauty. Despite the differences between the two, they are drawn towards each other. This is set in the middle ages and the times are captured wonderfully. It shows the gradual transformation of Goldmund from the shy kid to the youth who feels that he is not meant for a monastic life and sets out in the world. The conversation he has with Narcissus before leaving is very special as it shows that Narcissus understands a lot about his friend and tells him that he has more courage in life. Goldmund's description of his mother and how she was an unusual person is a heartbreaking story, it makes one feel that his father left him in the monastery as a penance. Though times are difficult, it is the times of the plague, Goldmund drifts from place to place seeking beauty. He settles down with a person who is a stone carver of exceptional calibre and creates a statue of his friend that mystifies his teacher, he has never had a student of such talent. In the end, he comes back to the monastery to be with his friend. The friendship between these two is very special. Though it shows two friends, the story could actually be about two parts of one person, one part that wishes to be ideal, noble and ascetic and the other part that wishes to seek out the world, its richness, its beauty and not be held down by all the trappings in one's life. The dichotomy is brought out wonderfully in the book along with the fact that one always faces this and fights this at all times in life. Each book of Hermann Hesse is remarkably different from the other. He lived in the village of Montagnola and wrote them over a long period of time. Some consider this as one of his finest. Though the "Glass Bead Game" has more creativity, it is more difficult to understand compared to this one. This book is a work of art and should not be missed.
Rating:
Summary: Great tale of different perspectives
Review: Hermann Hesse put together a wonderful story about a friendship between people who are entirely different. The contrast between the emotional and artistic vrs. the rational and intellectual put in a medieval setting certainly causes the reader to look inside and see aspects of Narcissus and Goldmund in their own lives. Since reading the book, I've often caught myself saying "that person sure is a Goldmund" or "Narcissus has nothing on THAT guy" or "Geez, I've really gone Goldmund this week."
I gave my copy of this book to a girlfriend who dumped me shortly thereafter. So don't give this as a gift. Buy it, keep it and read it from time to time. I wish I did.
Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous, but with flaws (4.5 stars really)
Review: This novel is a philosophical and allegorical story of the friendship between two exact opposites, one staying in the medieval monastery to pursue his career of deprivation, intellectualism, scholarship and logic, the other becoming a vagabond who wonders from landscape to landscape, trouble to trouble, love affair to love affair. The two are almost personifications of opposites, but this only strenthens their friendship built on differences and ensures that despite years of separation, they continually think of each other and enrich each other's life through a different worldview.
This is one of Hesse's most famous novels, and yes, it does have flaws. I agree with some readers who found the whole thing to drag a bit too long. It's hard for a writer to keep up a philosophical work, especially an allegory without giving the impression that they are struggling to continually be profound and yet failing. This occasionally happens in the book. This is because the picaresque in the middle drags on without continuing the idea of the two characters' friendship as they are separated.
Despite all this, I found the best thing about this was Hesse's style as it's magical, filled with mystic wonder and yet very penetrating. The problems faced by the characters about the way in which we should pursue meaning in our lives, about the balance of opposites (especially the "mind" and "soul") as well as the meaning of science and art, are so universal that their mere presence in this work gives it an atmosphere of grandness. But to me, this work is mainly an account of an amazing friendship.
The edition I read was another translation which I couldn't find in the catalogue, so I'm not sure which aspects of the book might be better or worse because of this being a different translation.
While many people may dislike this, and I don't consider it a masterpiece, it is moving and thoughtprovoking.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of Tales
Review: Why don't more people know about this novel? I came across it when asking at a second hand bookshop about Hesse. It's the only Hesse that the owner had at the time. But what good luck, what good fortune: it's one of the best tales that I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Tale, Beautifully Told
Review: This, above all other of his works, should be listed as Hesse's masterpiece. It is a novel so full of ideas, a story posing so many challenges to its heroes that it is impossible not to think about the choices each man makes for his life for days, weeks - or a lifetime after. Few books have affected me with the profundity and beauty as Narcissus and Goldmund.
On each page Hesse captures the spirits of these two friends - as different as night and day - yet united in the bond of friendship that is as strong as filial or romantic love. Goldmund's global wandering and Narcissus's remaining leads each man to view the world uniquely and when again together, to share those opinions in a manner that is, to the reader, almost voyeuristic.
A beautiful tale, beautifully told.
Rating:
Summary: A superb parable, a fable for all time
Review: I first read Narcisus and Goldmund when I was 23 and was in psychology graduate school. I could not stop reading once I opened the book and read the book all night. I finished the book at 5 am and had to walk around the campus until the sun rose to sort out my impressions and thoughts. This book was very meaningful to me and influenced my future. Thirty years later I re-read the book before giving it to my nephew who is in college.
The novel is basically a beautiful well written long parable. The setting is 14th century Germany during the plague years of the Black Death. A young man, Goldmund, is taken to a monestary by his merchant father after the death of Goldmund's beautiful mother. Here he is treated with kindness by Brother Daniel even though he gets into conflicts with the other students. He meets a fellow student, Narcissus, who is a contemplative seeker of God, enlightenment,and spiritual contentment. Through this friendship Goldmund calms down and is eventually recognized by Father Anselm as having potential.
However, after having intercourse with a young married woman outside the monastary, Goldmund must go into the world to seek truth, beauty, adventure, sex, and eventually the discipline of the arts. He becomes an appretice with a master artist, Master Niklaus, and creates a sculpture of the Madonna that allows Goldmund to fully express the loss of his mother and capture the beauty and grace of the feminine.
As is the case with most good parables, the book can be understood in a wide range of interpretations. The classic Apollo/Dionysius duality from classical studies is definitely present. Narcissus takes the path of Apollo, toward light, God, reason, contemplation, reflection, insight, enlightenment. Goldmund takes the path of Dionysius toward the truth and call of the body, the lessons of earthly pleasure and pain, the sacrifice of the body in work and sexuality, the search for truth and the creation of beauty.
There is another interesting way to view this parable. I thought that the life of Goldmund demonstrated the role of the son, lover, and sacrificial victim in relationship to the mother, consort, layer-out White Goddess archtype. The role of the male is defined in relationship to the various relationships a male has with females in his life. Thus the contrast is not between Narcissus and Goldmund but between Goldmund and the eternal feminine. He dreams and grieves over his lost beutiful mother and wishes to regain her presence and love. He becomes a lover of many women in many different relationships. He creates the sigle work of sculpture that allows him to build in real matter the archtype he has followed. He finally returns to the monastary and dies with visions of returning to the feminine manifestation of God.
If I could control public school education, I would have every child between ages 12-14 read Mark Twain's "Huckelberry Finn", every young teen between 14-16 read Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird", every teen between 17-21 read J. D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" and every young adult 22-26 to read Hesse's "Narcissus and Goldmund".
I say this because the duality between the characters of Narcissus and Goldmund is a duality that young people feel in the depths of their soul. they ask: Do I seek God? Do I seek beauty? Do I find myself in sexual experience? Do I find myself in contemplation? Do I create and what do I create?
Narcissus and Goldmund shows these paths, the rewards and costs of following each, and the final resolution of these paths.
Rating:
Summary: insightful
Review: A book for all those who know the infidelity of women, the suffering, and meaninglessness of life, but still, thirst for the eternally recurring fountain.
Also recommended: Toilet: The Novel by Michael Szymczyk (A Tribute to the Literary Works of Franz Kafka)
Rating:
Summary: Hesse's greatest novel
Review: This was the fourth Hesse novel I read, not counting the false start I had on 'The Glass Bead Game' (which otherwise would have been my third Hesse novel). It contains many of Hesse's frequent themes, such as friendship, duality, a search, and esoteric wisdom. And though it certainly wasn't really intended as such, it's also a great work of historical fiction.
Young Goldmund is deposited at the Mariabronn cloister sometime in the 14th century, because Goldmund looks just like his mother, and his father doesn't want any reminder of her. Goldmund's mother was very sexually free and promiscuous and therefore a pariah in their town and in that day and age. In the beginning Goldmund is very unhappy, getting into lots of fights, only accepted by Brother Daniel and the sensitive, thoughtful, caring Narcissus. However, before long Goldmund is getting along with the other boys and having great fun with them, even becoming accepted by the monks, priests, and friars at Mariabronn. Due to this newfound respect, Father Anselm sends the young man off one day to get some healing herbs, and while Goldmund is gathering the St. John's Wort, he encounters a beautiful young (married) woman named Lise, with whom he has his first sexual experience. This so changes Goldmund that he tells Narcissus he is leaving Mariabronn to be with Lise again, to follow a different path from that of his friend. Goldmund only has one more experience with Lise when he meets her again that night, for she tells him she must go back to her husband, but Goldmund still wants to explore the outside world and experience life and women. Thus begins his amazing journey through life and love in Medieval Germany, a sojourn which includes many lovers, narrow escapes from danger, the awakening of his interest in art, an apprenticeship with a master artist, and the Black Death.
A key moment in Goldmund's wanderings is when he sees a woman giving birth and discovers that the look on her face at the very moment of birth is the very same expression he has seen on the faces of women at the height of sexual ecstasy. Never before did he think there could be such a close relationship between the two extremely opposite emotions of agony and ecstasy. The image stays in his mind, but it doesn't occur to him to put it into art until he sees a beautiful Madonna in a church where he is confessing, a Madonna done by Master Niklaus. He not only wants to capture the image on the face of the woman giving birth but also to create a perfect image of beauty, a representation of the feminine and maternal ideal, to last for all time, particularly because he lost his own mother. It is said that every artist who makes a Madonna makes it in the image of what he believes to be the ultimate image of feminine beauty, and Goldmund hopes to recapture his lost mother in his work as well as that of all of the women he's loved. As he asks Narcissus, who never even knew his own mother, how can he love, how will he die when his time is up, without a mother? Despite how opposite the two old friends are, these words leave a poweful and lasting impact on him.
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