Hesse: Narcissus & Goldmund

http://www.*********.com/author-46/Hermann-Hesse

For several years in the mid-1910s Hesse underwent
psychoanalysis under Carl Jung's assistant J.B.
Lang.

After receiving the Nobel Prize Hesse published no
major works. Between the years 1945 and 1962 he
wrote some 50 poems and about 32 reviews mostly for
Swiss newspapers. Hesse died of cerebral hemorrhage
in his sleep on August 9, 1962 at the age of
eighty-five.

In 1969 the Californian rock group Sparrow changed
their name to Steppenwolf after Hesse's classic,
and released 'Born to be Wild'. Hesse's books have
gained readers from the New Age movements and he is
still one of the bestselling German-speaking
writers throughout world.

Narcissus and Goldmund

Hesse's novel of two medieval men, one quietly
content with his religion and monastic life, the
other in fervent search of more worldly salvation.

This conflict between flesh and spirit, between
emotional and contemplative man, was a life study
for Hesse. It is a theme that transcends all time.
The Hesse Phenomenon "has turned into a vogue, the
vogue into a torrent. . .He has appealed both to. .
. an underground and to an establishment. . .and to
the disenchanted young sharing his contempt for our
industrial civilization

Goldmund has no mother (presumably she died giving
birth to him--or maybe she ran off. We can't be
sure.) His distant and cold father leaves Goldmund
at the monastery to be educated. Now in the Middle
Ages, there was nothing unusual in that;
monasteries were the schools, seats of learning,
medical centers and scientific research institutes.
Goldmund meets Narcissus, a handsome, ascetic young
novice monk who is well suited for the monastic
life and is an ideal monk and incredible scholar.
Goldmund, who is the complete opposite from

Narcissus (worldly, sexual, sensual) develops a
strong friendship with Narcissus, who senses
something is very wrong with Goldmund and tries to
help him.

Goldmund's subsequent wanderings take him on
fantastic adventures and ultimately to finding
himself. Narcissus, too, must discover himself, but
not in the way he had expected.

This is by far Hesse's most beautiful novel, and an
exciting story, too. This is a very good
translation; I've read the original German and this
translation preserves some of the rhythm of the
language that is naturally lost when brought into
English.

Hesse takes two young men - one devoted to the
hermetic religious life and another more into the
decadent artistic life - and follows them through
adulthood. There are some amazing scenes here -
scenes of great artistic creation, a journey
through a plague ravaged world, the reunion of the
two friends - that rank among the best things Hesse
ever wrote.

True the characters are more "types" than real
three dimensional characters. It is obvious that
Hesse wants to examine the spiritual/cerebral
approach to existence versus the more
artistic/physical approach to life, and to find
them both wanting. This is less a slice of life
novel than a modern parable. Taken on those terms,
this novel is Hesse at the height of his powers and
deserves to be better known and read than it
currently is.

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.

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.
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
single 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.


============

The happiest is the one who never asks the question
"who is the happiest?" - Sitaram

i happened to get a copy of Narcissus and Goldmund in a box of old Steven King novels (one of those- please take these, you can have them all for $2 type deals), read it, and it was one of those life changing books, i felt that these were the same ideas that i had been struggling with as vague, barely graspable concepts elucidated with eloquence and poetry. it was from there that i was introduced to the world of literature and incidently, therefor why i am here now. Its still one of my favorite novels, ive read it again at various points. While it has a special place in my heart, though, Steppenwolf is my favorite of his novels- it won me over with its bizarre, bitter phantasmagoria, and I think the same duality that is perhaps more overtly, even obviously, explored in Narcissus and Goldmund, is in the heart of harry haller, and is brought from the more 'universal', (or was it timeless, however it was that you put it) setting and explored in its relationship with the bourgeois and an individuals place in contemporary society ( the contemporary society of then, which i would say is closer to where i am than medieval monastary.) i would suggest reading both.