Product ReviewsNarcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse (1969, Trade Paperback)

Unsurpassed writing from one of Europe's masters

This is where Hermann Hesse is really at home, in the streets and villages and countryside of old Europe. One wonders what he must have been thinking as much of it was bombed into oblivion in the 1940s. It is certainly a very idyllic place, and one in which it might have been, under certain conditions, pleasant to live. Social politics is not Hesse's strong point; he is more concerned with the individual. In this novel Hesse takes us into the Europe of the Middle Ages to explore the relationship between student and master. I think it is really my favourite, but then, there are so many trying to lay claim to the title, it's hard to be sure. It is a book about youth, about enquiry and about travelling, all at once. Hesse's writing, or the very fine translation of it, has a poetic quality that is unsurpassed for me in modern literature. It seems to help the reader form a deeper impression of the very countryside through which this pair of travellers passes. At the same time, there is a landscape of the mind to which one wishes to return, time and again. For me, Narcissus and Goldmund is a voyage into a time lost, where the very air is somehow rarefied and the colours of grassy fields are at once, soft and vibrant. Tremendous writing; timeless literature.Read full review...