Reading Order
Narcissus and Goldmund Reading Order
Narcissus and Goldmund (1930) by Hermann Hesse is perhaps the most immediately accessible of his major novels — a medieval love story and quest, organized around the friendship between Narcissus (an ascetic scholar-monk who will become an abbot) and Goldmund (a passionate, artistic wanderer who becomes a sculptor). The two meet as boys at the Mariabronn monastery; Narcissus sees that Goldmund is not suited to the monastic life and sends him out into the world; and the novel follows Goldmund's journey — through love, plague, murder, and artistic creation — over many years, and his eventual return to find Narcissus. The novel is a meditation on the two fundamental human types: the man of spirit (Narcissus, the ascetic intellectual) and the man of nature (Goldmund, the passionate artist), and on the relationship between them — on what each type lacks and needs from the other. It is Hesse's most explicitly Jungian novel and one of the most beautifully written.
Where to start
Narcissus and Goldmund (1930) — the complete novel in the Leila Vennewitz translation (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) or the Geoffrey Dunlop/Ludwig Lewisohn translation. Best Hesse reading order: Siddhartha → Steppenwolf → Narcissus and Goldmund → The Glass Bead Game.
Complete Narcissus and Goldmund Book List
- 1Buy
Narcissus and Goldmund
Hermann Hesse·1930·The complete novel — Narcissus the monk and Goldmund the wandering artist. One of Hesse's most beautifully written novels; the Leila Vennewitz translation is the standard English version - 2Buy
Steppenwolf
Hermann Hesse·1927·The companion — Harry Haller and the Magic Theatre. The companion investigation of the same Hessean theme: the man who exists between the world of the spirit and the world of the senses and cannot be fully at home in either - 3Buy
Siddhartha
Hermann Hesse·1922·The companion — the young man who follows Buddha's path and then departs from it. The companion investigation of the same theme: the relationship between the spiritual life and the life of experience, and the question of whether a synthesis is possible - 4Buy
The Glass Bead Game
Hermann Hesse·1943·The companion — Josef Knecht and the Castalian intellectual world. The companion investigation of the same Narcissus-Goldmund theme in a more elaborate and futuristic setting: Knecht must eventually choose between the protected world of the intellect and the active world of engagement - 5Buy
The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco·1980·Eco's companion medieval intellectual novel. The companion investigation of the same medieval intellectual world — the monastery, the library, the relationship between intellectual life and the world outside — from a different angle: Eco's ironic postmodernism versus Hesse's romantic idealism - 6Buy
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce·1916·Joyce's companion Bildungsroman — Stephen Dedalus's artistic development. The companion investigation of the same theme: the young artist's departure from the world that formed him in order to find his own voice, and the question of what must be sacrificed to art - 7Buy
Doctor Faustus
Thomas Mann·1947·Mann's companion investigation of the German artist who makes a bargain with the Devil. The companion investigation of the same theme — the relationship between artistic genius and moral responsibility — but in a twentieth-century setting and with the darkest possible conclusion - 8Buy
Confessions
Saint Augustine·400·Augustine's companion autobiography of a man who lived as Goldmund lived (lover, seeker, wanderer) and eventually found the Narcissus-like peace of monastic commitment. The companion as the theological predecessor: Goldmund's journey is a secular version of the Augustinian pattern — 'our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee'
Narcissus and Goldmund — Frequently Asked Questions
What are the themes of Narcissus and Goldmund?
The central theme of Narcissus and Goldmund is the relationship between the two fundamental human types: the man of spirit (Narcissus, the ascetic intellectual who disciplines his nature through reason and will) and the man of nature (Goldmund, the passionate artist who follows his desires and creates from his experience of life and death). Hesse uses the medieval setting to explore this opposition without the complications of modern psychology, and the friendship between Narcissus and Goldmund is organized around what each type lacks and needs from the other: Narcissus lacks the fullness of lived experience; Goldmund lacks the discipline and clarity that would allow his experience to be fully expressed. Secondary themes include the role of the artist in relation to death (Goldmund's great work is inspired by a plague figure he sees), the relationship between love and creation, and the Jungian concept of the anima (Goldmund's relationship to his mother-image as the source of his creativity).
What does the title Narcissus and Goldmund mean?
The title refers to the two protagonist-companions: Narcissus (Narziss in German) is the ascetic scholar-monk, and Goldmund (which means 'golden mouth') is the passionate wandering artist. The names are Hesse's own invention — he is not retelling the Greek myth of Narcissus — but the name Narcissus suggests the enclosed, self-referential nature of the intellectual life (gazing at its own reflection), while Goldmund suggests the golden speech of the artist, who communicates his inner life to the world. The title puts the two figures in a relationship of equality: the novel is not the story of one or the other but of the friendship between them and what each gives to and takes from the other.
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