Everything you need to understand or teach Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse.
Hermann Hesse's Narcissus and Goldmund, first published in 1930, is the classic tale of two best friends, a monk and a wanderer, whose lives come together, diverge, and reunite over the years. The novel takes the form of an extended parable, where the settings are generic rather than named and many of the characters represent specific qualities or modes of living. Narcissus is the first of the two title characters to be introduced. Apparently in the medieval period, Narcissus is a novice at a cloister called Mariabronn. He is a brilliant scholar with a gift for making keen, intuitive analyses of others and of what their futures might be. Goldmund is brought to the cloister by his father, who wants him to become a monk, which the boy also believes will be his future. He immediately develops admiration for both Narcissus as an intellectual and for the cloister's leader, Abbot... View more of the Narcissus and Goldmund Summary