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"Narcissus and Goldmund "is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teacher's fierce intellect and sense of discipline. When Narcissus persuades the young student that he is not meant for a life of self-denial, Goldmund sets off in pursuit of aesthetic and physical pleasures, a path that leads him to a final, unexpected reunion with Narcissus.… (more)
This may be my favorite Hesse novel, although its impact on me was not as strong as that of Steppenwolf. The conflict between the artist and the spiritual man spoke to me, the truths uttered are well-balanced between the two. Can also be read as expressing two sides of one personality that struggle to be integrated without fully succeeding. ( )
Am I over Hermann Hesse? The psychoanalysis overkill was a bit much to stomach this time around. Were Demian, Siddhartha, and Steppenwolf all like this? I used to adore Hesse, and Narcissus and Goldmund wasn't terrible (though I guessed the ending despite my dislike for doing such a thing), but I'm rethinking the remaining Hesse books taking up a good, weighty chunk of my bookshelf. Ho hum. ( )
Immensely sad and touching, a story about love, the kind of love few of us know, the brotherly love that is born rather than formed and grown. It also speaks about the importance of art versus mind, how neither is rather superior than the other, but that they are equal and even complement each other. ( )
A young boy goes into a monastery where he becomes a temptation for the sex starved monks but this is where the plot goes feral and you will swear I'm making this up or mixing this up with some porno plot but when out pickibg herbs he wakes up in a meadow with his head in the lap of some random woman and immediately has sex with her. He escapes the convent and proceeds to cuckold every farmer in the land. Apparently all other men are impotent in this world. He ends up in a castle where a thresome with two sisters goes badly and their father chases him away. He proceeds to play gigolo moving from town to town. At one point he finds a fresh corpse of a girl and for a moment I didn't know where it's going to go but thank God he finds in small child instead. But it's OK because despite being an absolute shitstain and a leech on society, murdering, stealing and ruining people's lives he gives the world a few sculptures of saints so that's OK. The end. ( )
Hesse, phenomenal as always. This story, set in medieval Germany, tells of Narcissus (the thinker) and Goldmund (the artist) and tells an allegorical tale of what Hesse presents as a dichotomy between these schools of thought through the behaviours of both characters. This novel is playful and striking. ( )
Isolated here in the North, planted long ago by a Roman pilgrim, a chestnut grew, strong and solitary, by the colonnade of rounded double arches at the entrance to the cloister of Mariabronn: a noble, vigorous tree, the sweep of its foliage drooping tenderly, facing the winds in bold and quiet assurance; so tardy in spring that when all glowed green around it and event the cloister nut trees wore their russet, it awaited the shortest nights to thrust forth, through little tufts of leaves, the dim exotic rays of its blossom, and in October, after wine and harvests had long been gathered, let drop the prickly fruits from its yellowing crown; fruits which did not ripen every year, for which the cloister schoolboys fought one another, and which Gregory, the Italian sub-prior, burned amid the logs of his fireplace.
Outside the entrance of the Mariabronn cloister, whose rounded arch rested on slim double columns, a chestnut tree stood close to the road. [Molinaro translation]
Quotations
... thoughts of Goldmund whilst with the wood sculptor, Master Nicholas ... 'Narziss had been his friend: yet strangely it had beeen this learned Narziss who had shown him his inaptitude for learning and had conjured up a beloved mother-image in his mind. So that, instead of learning, virtue and monasticism, the stongest primal urge in his nature, had mastered him - lechery and carnal love, the longing to depend on none, and to wander. Then came Master Nicholas' sorrowful Virgin, to reveal to him an artist in himself, with a new way of life, and fetters again. How were things with him now? Where would life carry him in the end? Whence came these obstacles in his mind?'
Had dat allemaal zin, was het op deze manier de moeite waard om te leven? Hij kreeg het benauwd om het hart, van minachting voor hemzelf en een besef van zinloosheid. (blz 272 bij 40e druk)
Je mag bedroefd zijn, zolang je daar behoefte aan hebt. Bij mij moet je bedroefd of opgewekt kunnen zijn, je moet nooit iets anders doen, dan waar je zin in hebt. (blz 283, 14e hfst. 40e druk)
Last words
Goldmund's last words burned like fire in his heart.
"Narcissus and Goldmund "is the story of a passionate yet uneasy friendship between two men of opposite character. Narcissus, an ascetic instructor at a cloister school, has devoted himself solely to scholarly and spiritual pursuits. One of his students is the sensual, restless Goldmund, who is immediately drawn to his teacher's fierce intellect and sense of discipline. When Narcissus persuades the young student that he is not meant for a life of self-denial, Goldmund sets off in pursuit of aesthetic and physical pleasures, a path that leads him to a final, unexpected reunion with Narcissus.
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Alcuni sanno fin da subito a che vita sono destinati e quale attitudine si rivelerà tanto spiccata da plasmare il futuro. Altri, invece, sentono di possedere una caratteristica singolare che, tuttavia, non sono ancora capaci di esprimere e dovranno viaggiare a lungo prima di arrivare a destinazione. "Narciso e Boccadoro" è il racconto degli uni e degli altri, e dell'apprendistato alla vita di due amici, l'erudito Narciso e l'inquieto Boccadoro, dai caratteri opposti e complementari. (piopas)
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