Narcissus and Goldmund: Hermann Hesse

One 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.