'One of his masterpieces . . . without doubt a great novel' * GuardianOne of Hermann Hesse's greatest novels, Narcissus and Goldmund *is an extraordinary recreation of the Middle Ages, contrasting the careers of two friends, one of whom shuns life in a monastery and goes on the road, tangled in the ...

'One of his masterpieces . . . without doubt a great novel' * GuardianOne of Hermann Hesse's greatest novels, Narcissus and Goldmund *is an extraordinary recreation of the Middle Ages, contrasting the careers of two friends, one of whom shuns life in a monastery and goes on the road, tangled in the extremes of life in a world dominated by sin, plague and war, the other staying in the monastery and struggling, with equal difficulty, to lead a life of spiritual denial.

An superb feat of imagination,* Narcissus and Goldmund can only be compared to such films set in medieval Europe as Bergman's The Seventh Seal and Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev *. It is a gripping, profound reading experience - as startling, in its different way, as Hesse's Siddhartha and Steppenwolf.