Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse

Published 1930 · 324 pages · 97,324 words · about 7 hours at an average pace · Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction

How hard is Narcissus and Goldmund to read?

Narcissus and Goldmund scores 52 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.

Vocabulary: 52 out of 100
Hesse writes in clear, almost fable-like prose, with vocabulary that evokes the medieval setting without requiring historical expertise. The simplicity is deliberate, serving the novel's archetypal quality.
Sentence structure: 50 out of 100
Sentences flow with classical balance, neither challenging nor particularly experimental. The prose serves the story's philosophical content without calling attention to itself.
Abstraction: 62 out of 100
The novel explicitly explores dualities—spirit and flesh, intellect and art, discipline and freedom—through its two protagonists. These abstractions are discussed directly in philosophical dialogues.
Information density: 50 out of 100
The narrative moves at a leisurely pace through Goldmund's wanderings, with episodic adventures that accumulate into a meditation on life's meaning rather than a plot-driven story.
Narrative indirection: 48 out of 100
Hesse tells his story straightforwardly, following Goldmund's journey from monastery to wandering artist. The novel's meanings are stated directly in conversations between the two friends.
Symbolic density: 62 out of 100
Narcissus and Goldmund themselves are symbols for opposing ways of living—the ascetic intellectual and the sensual artist. Their friendship becomes an allegory for the human struggle between spirit and nature.
Ironic distance: 48 out of 100
Hesse writes with romantic sincerity rather than irony. The philosophical themes are presented earnestly, and the narrative voice shares the characters' search for meaning.
Resolution withholding: 50 out of 100
The novel reaches a clear, even moving conclusion to both friendship and philosophical argument. Hesse provides resolution that, while poignant, answers the questions the book raises.
Structural complexity: 48 out of 100
The novel follows Goldmund's life chronologically, with periodic returns to Narcissus that structure the philosophical dialogue. The form is traditional and serves the content without complication.

How Narcissus and Goldmund is regarded

Narcissus and Goldmund holds a literary regard score of 64 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.

Prizes

Where Narcissus and Goldmund sits in Northrop Frye's Anatomy of Criticism

Placed by a full reading of the text (181 passages), not from reputation. Each verdict quotes the passage that earned it. On the axis from myth to irony, Narcissus and Goldmund scores 58 out of 100. A second mythos, tragedy, pulls at it with a weight of 0.3. About the map of stories.

Mode: Low Mimetic
He had become a beautiful, strong man, much desired by women, little popular with men.
Symbol: Mythical (archetypal)
The figure he hoped to be able to make visible some day was not to represent any specific woman, but the source of life itself, the original mother.
Mythos: Romance iii (romance iii)
something he had so often mocked or envied in others: a goal!
Genre: Romance + Confession
Without solemnity Narcissus received his confession.

Where the story of Narcissus and Goldmund takes place

  • Mariabronn cloister and the wandering German Empire, medieval plague era (1340 to 1380), the main setting
  • The Black Death across the German lands (1348 to 1351)

5 things that are true of Narcissus and Goldmund, with the passage for each

  1. Goldmund kills the thief Viktor by stabbing him several times with a hunting knife while being strangled.

    he thrust the knife several times into the body that was kneeling on him

  2. After Lene dies of the plague, Goldmund burns the hut with her body inside.

    In an instant the dry juniper wall burned brightly.

  3. Goldmund's first statue in the bishop's city portrays his friend Narcissus as St. John under the cross.

    The first statue I carved in those days was a wooden, life-size disciple with your face, but its name is not Narcissus, it is John, a St. John under the cross.

  4. Narcissus, as Abbot, has taken the name John.

    Since the day I took the vows, my name has been John.

  5. Goldmund's last words to Narcissus concern a mother.

    Without a mother, one cannot love. Without a mother, one cannot die.

Scenes in Narcissus and Goldmund that Frye would name

50 sightings of Frye's terms in the text. The strongest:

Anagnorisis, untitled
He rediscovered the image, and trembled with pain and joy. Goldmund recovers the lost memory of his mother after Narcissus's words, the pivot of his life.
Agon, untitled
he thrust the knife several times into the body that was kneeling on him A physical contest on the road ends in the killing of Viktor.
Pathos, untitled
Those last two days Narcissus sat by his bed day and night, watching his life ebb away. The hero's own death closes the book.
Sparagmos, untitled
Goldmund looked in: fifty or more persons lay there, piled one on top of the other, many of them naked. The mass grave is the world torn apart.
Agon, untitled
smashed his head against the sharp-edged rocks, broke his neck, and threw the body down Goldmund fights and kills the man attacking Lene.
Pathos, untitled
She died the following night. She died without complaining. Lene's plague death is the sacrificial scene of the wandering phase.

Books that share these scenes with Narcissus and Goldmund

About the author

Hermann Hesse