Reviews

4 ☆ — this was the spiritual awakening i didn't know i needed.
i wanted to start reading something from hesse for a long time (i began siddartha one year ago but dropped it since i didn't feel like i could enjoy it at its max) and i believe this was THE perfect moment to read narcissus and goldmund. tbh the middle part bored me a little, but the monologues, the close contact between death and love, how their relationship evolved and the way until the last part of the book i believe it was narcissus who had changed goldmund, but at the end both of them were irremediably changed by one another. all of this was amazing

awilderm23's review against another edition

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4.0

'Oh, how incomprehensible everything was, and actually sad, although it was also beautiful. One knew nothing. One lived and ran about the earth and rode through forests, and certain things looked so challenging and promising and nostalgic: a star in the evening, a blue harebell, a reed-green pond, the eye of a person or of a cow. And sometimes is seemed that something never seen yet long desired was about to happen, that a veil would drop from it all: but then it passed, nothing happened, the riddle remained unsolved, the secret spell unbroken, and in the end one grew old and looked cunning like Father Anselm or wise like Abbot Daniel, and still one knew nothing perhaps, was still waiting and listening.'

'He thought that the dear of death was perhaps the rot of all art, perhaps also of all things of the mind. We fear death, we shudder at life's instability, we grieve to see the flowers wilt again and again, the leaves fall, and in our hearts we know that we, too, are transitory and will soon disappear.'

'Goldmund had shown him that a man destined for high things can dip into the lowest depths of the bloody, drunken chaos of life, and soil himself with much dust and blood, without becoming small and common, without killing the divine spark within himself, that he can err through the thickest darkness without extinguishing the divine light and the creative force inside the shrine of his soul.'

carp's review against another edition

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emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

leti1702's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

highfiveasquid's review against another edition

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5.0

If you have a heart it will be destroyed by the end of this novel. Man's search for the divine in all facets of life leads to a life-long friendship that will make all your friendships pale in comparison. Philosophical analysis of religion and art are big 'ole themes here. Hope you have tissues handy.

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