Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse - Review

The Meaning of Life

Hermann Hesse's sensitively crafted novels, with their abiding focus on man's quest for identity and spiritual fulfilment, continue to have a powerful resonance and are perhaps more pertinent today than when they first came into print more than half a century ago. Among Hesse's novels, Siddhartha and Journey to the East are the two that most strongly show the influence of Buddhism, but the search for nirvana is a recurrent theme throughout much of his work, perhaps most poignantly in Narcissus and Goldmund. First published in 1930, this utterly beguiling novel was the crowning achievement of Hesse's literary career, a deceptively simple fable set in the Middle Ages in which two contrasting individuals follow different paths towards personal fulfilment.

One of these men, the slightly older Narcissus, is content to lead the ascetic life of a monk-teacher in a monastery, dividing his time between his devotional duties and the pupils whose education and personal development he is charged with. Among the latter is a handsome and gifted teenage boy, Goldmund, who idolises Narcissus and appears ready to follow in his footsteps - until he has a dalliance with a gypsy girl which draws him towards a different path, one that is strewn with the scented petals and sharp thorns of sensual experience. Whilst Narcissus stays within the confines of his monastery, Goldmund goes out into the world and, living as a carefree spirit, has a series of adventures that have a massively transformative effect upon him.

The pleasures of the flesh are eagerly indulged in, helped by Goldmund's seemingly irresistible sexual magnetism, but the young man's fancies are soon directed towards other, more fulfilling ends, when he discovers he has a talent for carving. Through hard work and perseverance, Goldmund becomes a master of his craft, but rather than accept the easy and privileged life that is suddenly thrust upon him, he gives all this up and resumes his former life as a penniless wayfarer, eking out a meagre existence in the countryside.

When, finally, he returns to Narcissus at the monastery, after committing violent murder and witnessing the horrors of the Black Death, Goldmund is a completely changed man. He has seen and experienced everything that the world can offer a man, but whilst he no longer wishes to live like his old friend, he now appears content to pursue a life of seclusion, within the monastic refuge. The question we are invited to ponder is: which of the two men has led the better life? The answer, of course, is neither. Each has found his own way to the truth of his existence, both have fulfilled their divine purpose.

Leila Vennewitz's recent (1994) translation for Penguin Books brings a freshness and an incredible sense of immediacy to this classic of German literature. The fluidity of her prose, whilst retaining Hesse's very distinctive voice, makes this a compelling modern fable that cannot fail to resonate with anyone who reads it. There is a particular, almost cinematic, vividness to the description of the plague-riddled landscape, and Goldmund's anguish as multiple tragedies rain down upon him in the latter third of the book is keenly felt - each blow more painful than its predecessor. Narcissus and Goldmund is the most accessible and rewarding of Hesse's novels, a dazzlingly humanist work that both inspires and consoles us as we make our own search for meaning in a world that seems to offer so much freedom and so little real satisfaction.