Narcissus and Goldmund (Peter Owen Modern Classics) - Softcover

Hesse, Hermann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0720612918 ISBN 13: 9780720612912

Publisher: Peter Owen, 2006

Synopsis

From the Nobel Prize winning author of Siddhartha, Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game.

Narcissus is a teacher at Mariabronn, a monastery in medieval Germany, and Goldmund his favourite pupil. While Narcissus remains detached from the world in prayer and meditation, Goldmund runs away from the monstery in pursuit of love. Thereafter he lives a picaresque wanderer’s life, his amatory adventures resulting in pain as well as ecstasy. His eventual reunion with Narcissus brings into focus the diversity between artist and thinker, Dionysian and Apollonian. Full of philosophical insight, Narcissus and Goldmund is not only vintage Hesse, it is widely considered one of his best novels.

About this title

Review:

A novel that dramatises Nietzsche's conception of the Apollonian and the Dionysian. At the medieval monastery of Mariabronn, the restless Goldmund realises he isn't cut out for a cloistered life under the tutelage of his friend and mentor, the ascetic Narziss, and so begins a series of travels that see him work his way through most of the seven deadly sins before finding a psychic resolution of sorts in an apprenticeship to a master sculptor. Only by feeding his appetite for worldly experience does Goldmund finally find the courage to face death. --The Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read

His greatest novel --New York Times

One of his masterpieces . . . without doubt a great novel --Observer

Synopsis:

This book comes with a new foreword by Graham Coxon. Narcissus is a teacher at Mariabronn, a monastery in medieval Germany, and Goldmund is his favourite pupil. While Narcissus remains detached from the world in prayer and meditation, Goldmund runs away from the monastery in pursuit of love. Thereafter, he lives a picaresque wanderer's life, his amatory adventures resulting in pain as well as ecstasy. His eventual reunion with Narcissus brings into focus the diversity between artist and thinker, Dionysian and Apollonian.

About this edition

• Publisher: Peter Owen
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0720612918
• ISBN 13: 9780720612912
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256