Review of Narcissist and Goldmund 4.18.22

Book Review

As I have mentioned on prior posts, I am currently in a book club with my sons.  It is wonderful when your children begin to teach you things. That has been happening now for many years – and it continues. I would never have read War and Peace without them encouraging me to do so.  And I cannot wait to post a review of that book when we are finished.

But this is not a review of that book, but of another, a book that was recommended to me by a friend while we were vacationing together at The Homestead.  We were discussing something philosophical, and he asked if I had ever read anything by Herman Hesse. I told him I had not, and quite frankly, was not even familiar with him. He recommended that I read Narcissist and Goldmund. So, I did.

Before I talk about the book, a few words on Hesse. Hermann Hesse was born in the Black Forest of Germany in 1877, shortly after Germany became a unified country, which was in 1871. He became a Swiss citizen in 1923.  So, he is known as a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. In addition to Narcissist and Goldmund, other novels include Demian, Steppenwolf, Siddhartha, and The Glass Bead Game.  Like Narcissist and Goldmund, each explores an individual’s search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.  So, the guy is quite accomplished. And as I found out, worth reading.  One common belief he held was that “for different people, there are different ways to God.” And although not a major theme in Narcissist and Goldmund, it is there.

Set in medieval Germany during the Black Death (1346-1352), the novel centers around two characters, a gifted young teacher (Narcissist) at a cloister school, and a teenager (Goldmund) who attends the school.  Narcissist befriends Goldmund, as they are only a few years apart, partly because Goldmund is extremely intelligent. Goldmund looks up to Narcissus, and Narcissus almost thinks of Goldmund as his protégé, and has a great deal of fondness for him.

But then the novel turns when Goldmund has an epiphany.  He realizes he is not meant to be a monk. With Narcissus’ help, he leaves the monastery and embarks on a wandering existence. Most of the novel follows Goldmund during his years of wandering. Eventually, the two characters are reunited. And it is a very powerful.  One of my favorite passages in the novel occurs after the two have been reunited. Narcissus reflects, “At any rate, Goldmund had shown him that a man destined for high things can dip into the lowest depths of the bloody, drunken chaos of life, and soil himself with much dust and blood, without becoming small and common, without killing the divine spark within himself, that he can err through the thickest darkness without extinguishing the divine light and the creative force inside the shrine of his soul.”

At the end of the novel, the two reflect upon the different paths their lives have taken, contrasting the artist with the thinker. And through that beautiful dialogue, with Goldmund’s life as a backdrop, the reader is drawn into the discussion and into what it means to live a life well lived. I will read more of Hesse.