
Hesse was a great writer in precisely the modern sense: complex, subtle, allusive: alive to the importance of play. Narcissus and Goldmuna is his very best. What makes this short book so limitlessly vast is the body-and-soul-shaking debate that runs through it, which it has the honesty and courage not to resolve: between the flesh and spirit, art and scientific or religious speculation, action and contemplation.
Hermann Karl Hesse -pseudonym: Emil Sinclair- (* 2. Juli 1877 in Calw; † 9. August 1962 in Montagnola, Schweiz), war ein deutsch-schweizerischer Schriftsteller, Dichter und Maler. Bekanntheit erlangte er mit Prosawerken wie *Siddhartha, Demian, Der Steppenwolf* sowie auch *Narziß und Goldmund* und mit seinen Gedichten (z. B. *Stufen).* 1946 wurde ihm der Nobelpreis für Literatur und 1954 der Orden Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste verliehen. ---------- Hermann Karl Hesse (2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include *Demian, Steppenwolf, Siddhartha,* and *The Glass Bead Game,* each of which explores an individual's search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Hesse was a great writer in precisely the modern sense: complex, subtle, allusive: alive to the importance of play. Narcissus and Goldmuna is his very best. What makes this short book so limitlessly vast is the body-and-soul-shaking debate that runs through it, which it has the honesty and courage not to resolve: between the flesh and spirit, art and scientific or religious speculation, action and contemplation.
Hermann Karl Hesse -pseudonym: Emil Sinclair- (* 2. Juli 1877 in Calw; † 9. August 1962 in Montagnola, Schweiz), war ein deutsch-schweizerischer Schriftsteller, Dichter und Maler. Bekanntheit erlangte er mit Prosawerken wie *Siddhartha, Demian, Der Steppenwolf* sowie auch *Narziß und Goldmund* und mit seinen Gedichten (z. B. *Stufen).* 1946 wurde ihm der Nobelpreis für Literatur und 1954 der Orden Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste verliehen. ---------- Hermann Karl Hesse (2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter. His best-known works include *Demian, Steppenwolf, Siddhartha,* and *The Glass Bead Game,* each of which explores an individual's search for authenticity, self-knowledge and spirituality. In 1946, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.