Narcissus and Goldmund

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 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 stays in the monastery and struggles, with equal difficulty, to lead a life of spiritual denial. A 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—startling, in its different way, as Hesse's "Siddhartha" and "Steppenwolf.".