Customer Reviews
A great masterpiece - By: Humpty Dumpty, 14 May 2008 
I agree with the other reviewers, a masterpiece. A book to grip you, make you think, make you breathe deep, make you cry, laugh, feel the pain & ecstacy of Narziss & Golmund. A book of the Middle Ages but of all time also. Thrilling & violent & yet gentle.......
If there were 50 stars I'd give it that!
Totally superb - By: S. Kearon, 30 Apr 2008 Although I have to confess that Hesse is my favourite author, this is my absolute favourite book ever. Hesse is an absolute master writer & his tales can often livein your head for a long while after you close the covers; while they are open, each line captures you. This book is,in my opinion, one of his very best & a brilliant view into aspects of the pale psyche too.
In all, most highly recommended!
unexpected joy - By: J. Kennedy, 13 Mar 2008 As with the other comment on this book, this is also the first Hesse i've read, but surely not the last. Really impressed, if i had read a page at randomin Whsmith's i think might have put it back down, as a times it reads like a fairytale & you do need to suspend everything you know about the modern age to fully get into the spirit of the book,
but then when you do that, you find a resonancein everything that happens to our trusted wayfarer, Goldmund, & you start to scratch beneath the surface of Hesse's story, & its sentiment keeps unfolding before you on the page. Then you're at the end, & you need to go back & check for what you missed.
And Graham Coxon's introduction is really sweet as well.
Fantastic - By: Justin Pumfrey, 03 Jun 2007 I'll begin by saying that I haven't read any other of Hesse's books. After reading Narcissus & Goldmund, I can hardly wait. However, I find it hard to imagine how anything he has written could possibly surpass the singing, joyously spiritual prose that lies on every page of this effort. A book that positively resounds with the twin elements of ecstasy & grief, of life & death, of light & dark, it is the ultimate tribute to life & all its incredible avenues. Sprawling yet succinct, philosophical yet free spirited, it is,in two words, life affirming.
It is unusual for such a modestly sized book to tackle such large, important themes so effectively, & so excitingly. In Goldmund, we can all see ourselves, or can all see what we might be, if we had the gumption. He is one the best illustrated characters, best illustrated concepts, to ever grace our pages. His artistic & amorous wanderings are delightfully redolent of the very joy of being. A primitive, soulful vagabond, blessed with an artist's mind, & cursed with an artist's depression, he wheels through life, from woman to woman, from valley to valley, from light to dark. Narcissus, his mentor & the thinker, bookends the bookin a pleasingly structural manner, his brooding intellectualism, & peaceful scholarly outlook providing the perfectly balanced contrast, to impetuous, free-spirited Goldmund.
A veritable mine of inspiration awaits the sensitive reader,in what is surely Hesse's crowning achievement. To read the poetic, fable-like prose is to gain insight like no other, to be inspired time & time again, to be uplifted & to be guided. It is a book to which doubtless you will return.
