First published in 1930, Narcissus and Goldmuna is the story of two diametrically opposite men one, an ascetic monk firm in his religious commitment, and the other, a romantic youth hungry for worldly experience.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.