2019/05/06

Nikos Kazantzakis - Wikipedia



Nikos Kazantzakis - Wikipedia



Nikos Kazantzakis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Nikos Kazantzakis

Born 18 February 1883
Kandiye, Crete, Ottoman Empire(now Heraklion, Greece)
Died 26 October 1957 (aged 74)
Freiburg im Breisgau, West Germany (now Germany)
Occupation Poet, novelist, essayist, travel writer, philosopher, playwright, journalist, translator
Nationality Greek
Education University of Athens
(1902–1906; LL.D., 1906)[1]
University of Paris
(1907–1909; Dr, 1909)[1]

Signature


Nikos Kazantzakis (Greek: Νίκος Καζαντζάκης [ˈnikos kazanˈd͡zacis]; 18 February 1883 – 26 October 1957) was a Greek writer. Widely considered a giant of modern Greek literature, he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in nine different years.[2]

Kazantzakis' novels included Zorba the Greek (published 1946 as Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas), Christ Recrucified (1948), Captain Michalis (1950, translated Freedom and Death), and The Last Temptation of Christ (1955). He also wrote plays, travel books, memoirs and philosophical essays such as The Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises. His fame spread in the English-speaking world due to cinematic adaptations of Zorba the Greek (1964) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).

He translated also a number of notable works into Modern Greek, such as the Divine Comedy, Thus Spoke Zarathustraand the Iliad.


Contents
1Biography
2Death
3Literary work
4Language and use of Demotic Greek
5Democratic Socialism
6Religious beliefs and relationship with the Greek Orthodox Church

7Bibliography of English translations
7.1Translations of The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, in whole or in part
7.2Travel books
7.3Novels
7.4Plays
7.5Memoirs, essays and letters
7.6Anthologies
8References
9Further reading
10External links
Biography[edit]

When Kazantzakis was born in 1883 in Kandiye, now Heraklion, Crete had not yet joined the modern Greek state (which had been established in 1832), and was still under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. From 1902 to 1906 Kazantzakis studied law at the University of Athens: his 1906 Juris Doctor thesis title was Ο Φρειδερίκος Νίτσε εν τη φιλοσοφία του δικαίου και της πολιτείας[1] ("Friedrich Nietzsche on the Philosophy of Right and the State"). Then he went to the Sorbonne in 1907 to study philosophy. There he fell under the influence of Henri Bergson. His 1909 doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne was a reworked version of his 1906 dissertation under the title Friedrich Nietzsche dans la philosophie du droit et de la cité ("Friedrich Nietzsche on the Philosophy of Right and the State").[1] Upon his return to Greece, he began translating works of philosophy. In 1914 he met Angelos Sikelianos. Together they travelled for two years in places where Greek Orthodox Christian culture flourished, largely influenced by the enthusiastic nationalism of Sikelianos.

Kazantzakis married Galatea Alexiou in 1911; they divorced in 1926. He married Eleni Samiou in 1945. Between 1922 and his death in 1957, he sojourned in Paris and Berlin(from 1922 to 1924), Italy, Russia (in 1925), Spain (in 1932), and then later in Cyprus, Aegina, Egypt, Mount Sinai, Czechoslovakia, Nice (he later bought a villa in nearby Antibes, in the Old Town section near the famed seawall), China, and Japan.

While in Berlin, where the political situation was explosive, Kazantzakis discovered communism and became an admirer of Vladimir Lenin. He never became a committed communist, but visited the Soviet Union and stayed with the Left Opposition politician and writer Victor Serge. He witnessed the rise of Joseph Stalin, and became disillusioned with Soviet-style communism. Around this time, his earlier nationalist beliefs were gradually replaced by a more universalist ideology. As a journalist in 1926 he got interviews from Miguel Primo de Rivera and the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

Epitaph on the grave of Kazantzakis in Heraklion. It reads "I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free."

The 50th anniversary of the death of Nikos Kazantzakis was selected as main motif for a high-value euro collectors' coin; the €10 Greek Nikos Kazantzakis commemorative coin, minted in 2007. His image is on the obverse of the coin, while the reverse carries the National Emblem of Greece with his signature.
Death[edit]

During WWII he was in Athens and translated the Iliad, together with the philologist Ioannis Kakridis. In 1945, he became the leader of a small party on the non-communist left, and entered the Greek government as Minister without Portfolio. He resigned this post the following year. In 1946, The Society of Greek Writers recommended that Kazantzakis and Angelos Sikelianos be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1957, he lost the Prize to Albert Camus by one vote. Camus later said that Kazantzakis deserved the honour "a hundred times more" than himself.[3] In total Kazantzakis was nominated in nine different years.[4] Late in 1957, even though suffering from leukemia, he set out on one last trip to China and Japan. Falling ill on his return flight, he was transferred to Freiburg, Germany, where he died. He is buried on the wall surrounding the city of Heraklion near the Chania Gate, because the Orthodox Churchruled out his being buried in a cemetery. His epitaph reads "I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free." (Δεν ελπίζω τίποτα. Δε φοβούμαι τίποτα. Είμαι λέφτερος.)
Literary work[edit]

Kazantzakis' first published work was the 1906 narrative, Serpent and Lily (Όφις και Κρίνο), which he signed with the pen name Karma Nirvami. In 1907 Kazantzakis went to Paris for his graduate studies and was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Henry Bergson, primarily the idea that a true understanding of the world comes from the combination of intuition, personal experience, and rational thought.[5] The theme of rationalism mixed with irrationality later became central to many of Kazantzakis' later stories, characters, and personal philosophies. Later, in 1909, he wrote a one-act play titled Comedy, which was filled with existential themes, predating the post-World War II existentialist movement in Europe spearheaded by writers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Camus. After completing his studies in Paris, he wrote the tragedy, "The Master Builder" (Ο Πρωτομάστορας), based on a popular Greek folkloric myth.

Medallion honoring Kazantzakis in the Venetian Loggia, Heraklion

Through the next several decades, from the 1910s through the 1930s, Kazantzakis traveled around Greece, much of Europe, northern Africa, and to several countries in Asia. Countries he visited include: Germany, Italy, France, The Netherlands, Romania, Egypt, Russia, Japan, and China, among others. These journeys put Kazantzakis in contact with different philosophies, ideologies, lifestyles, and people, all of which influenced him and his writings.[6]Kazantzakis would often write about his influences in letters to friends, citing Sigmund Freud, the philosophy of Nietzsche, Buddhist theology, and communist ideology and major influences. While he continued to travel later in life, the bulk of his travel writing came from this time period.

Kazantzakis began writing The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel in 1924, and completed it in 1938 after fourteen years of writing and revision.[6] The poem follows the hero of Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus, as he undertakes a final journey after the end of the original poem. Following the structure of Homer's Odyssey, it is divided into 24 rhapsodies and consists of 33,333 lines.[5] While Kazantzakis felt this poem held his cumulative wisdom and experience, and that it was his greatest literary experience, critics were split, "some praised it as an unprecedented epic, [while] many simply viewed it as a hybristic act," with many scholars still being split to this day.[6] A common criticism of The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel was aimed at Kazantzakis' over-reliance on flowery and metaphorical verse, a criticism that is also aimed at his works of fiction.[5]

Many of Kazantzakis' most famous novels were published between 1940 and 1961, including Zorba the Greek (1946), Christ Recrucified (1948), Captain Michalis (1950), The Last Temptation of Christ (1955), and Report to Greco (1961).


Scholar Peter Bein argues that each story explores different aspects of post-World War II Greek culture such as religion, nationalism, political beliefs, the Greek Civil War, gender roles, immigration, and general cultural practices and beliefs.[5] These works also explore what Kazantzakis believed to be the unique physical and spiritual location of Greece, a nation that belongs to neither the East nor the West, an idea he put forth in many of his letters to friends.[6] As the scholar Peter Bein argued, "Kazantzakis viewed Greece's special mission as the reconciliation of Eastern instinct with Western reason," echoing the Bergsonian themes that balance logic against emotion found in many of Kazantzakis' novels.[5]

Two of these works of fiction, Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ had major motion picture adaptations in 1964 and 1988 respectively.

Nikos Kazantzakis commemorative coin
Language and use of Demotic Greek[edit]

During the time when Kazantzakis was writing his novels, poems, and plays, the majority of "serious" Greek artistic work was written in Katharevousa, a "pure" form of the Greek language that was created to bridge Ancient Greekwith Modern, Demotic Greek, and to "purify" Demotic Greek. In his letters to friends and correspondents, Kazantzakis wrote that he chose to write in Demotic Greek to capture the spirit of the people, and to make his writing resonate with the common Greek citizen.[5] Moreover, he wanted to prove that the common spoken language of Greek was able to produce artistic, literary works. Or, in his own words, "Why not show off all the possibilities of demotic Greek?"[5] Furthermore, Kazantzakis felt that it was important to record the vernacular of the everyday person, including Greek peasants, and often tried to include expressions, metaphors, and idioms he would hear while traveling throughout Greece, and incorporate them into his writing for posterity.[5][6] At the time of writing, some scholars and critics panned his work because it was not written in Katharevousa, while others praised it precisely because it was written in Demotic Greek.

Several critics have argued that Kazantakis' writing was too flowery, filled with obscure metaphors, and difficult to read, despite the fact that his works were written in Demotic Greek. Kazantzakis scholar Peter Bein argues that the metaphors and language Kazantzakis used were taken directly from the peasants he encountered when traveling Greece.[5] Bein asserts that, since Kazantzakis was trying to preserve the language of the people, he used their local metahpors and phrases to give his narrative an air of authenticity and preserve these phrases so that they were not lost.[5]

Democratic Socialism[edit]

Throughout his life, Kazantzakis reiterated his belief that "only socialism as the goal and democracy as the means" could provide an equitable solution to the "frightfully urgent problems of the age in which we are living."[7] He saw the need for socialist parties throughout the world to put aside their bickering and unite so that the program of "socialist democracy" could prevail not just in Greece, but throughout the civilized world.[7] He described socialism as a social system which "does not permit the exploitation of one person by another" and that "must guarantee every freedom."[7]


Kazantzakis was anathema to the right-wing in Greece both before and after World War 2. The right waged war against his books and called him "immoral" and a "Bolshevik troublemaker" and accused him of being a Russian agent.[8] He was also distrusted by the Greek and Russian Communist parties as a "bourgeois" thinker.[8] However, upon his death in 1957, he was honored by the Chinese Communist party as a "great writer" and "devotee of peace."[8]
Religious beliefs and relationship with the Greek Orthodox Church[edit]

While Kazantzakis was deeply spiritual, he often discussed his struggle with religious faith, specifically his Greek Orthodoxy.[9] Baptized Greek Orthodox as a child, he was fascinated by the lives of saints from a young age. As a young man he took a month long trip to Mount Athos, a major spiritual center for Greek Orthodoxy. Most critics and scholars of Kazantzakis agree that the struggle to find truth in religion and spirituality was central to a great deal of his works, and that some novels, like The Last Temptation of Christ and Christ Recrucified focus completely on questioning Christian morals and values.[10] As he traveled Europe, he was influenced by various philosophers, cultures, and religions, like Buddhism, causing him to question his Christian beliefs.[11] While never claiming to be an atheist, his public questioning and critique of the most fundamental Christian values put him at odds with the Greek Orthodox church, and many of his critics.[10] Scholars theorize that Kazantzakis' difficult relationship with many members of the clergy, and the more religiously conservative literary critics, came from his questioning and reversal of the classic tenets of Christianity. In his book, Broken Hallelujah: Nikos Kazantzakis and Christian Theology, author Darren Middleton theorizes that, "Where the majority of Christian writers focus on God's immutability, Jesus' deity, and our salvation through God's grace, Kazantzakis emphasized divine mutability, Jesus' humanity, and God's own redemption through our effort," highlighting Kazantzakis' uncommon interpretation of traditional Orthodox Christian beliefs.[12] Many Orthodox Church clergy condemned Kazantzakis' work and a campaign was started to excommunicate him. His reply was: "You gave me a curse, Holy fathers, I give you a blessing: may your conscience be as clear as mine and may you be as moral and religious as I" (Greek: "Μου δώσατε μια κατάρα, Άγιοι πατέρες, σας δίνω κι εγώ μια ευχή: Σας εύχομαι να ‘ναι η συνείδηση σας τόσο καθαρή, όσο είναι η δική μου και να ‘στε τόσο ηθικοί και θρήσκοι όσο είμαι εγώ"). While the excommunication was rejected by the top leadership of the Orthodox Church, it became emblematic of the persistent disapprobation from many Christian authorities for his political and religious views.

Modern scholarship tends to dismiss the idea that Kazantzakis was being sacrilegious or blasphemous with the content of his novels and beliefs.[13] These scholars argue that, if anything, Kazantzakis was acting in accordance to a long tradition of Christians who publicly struggled with their faith, and grew a stronger and more personal connection to God through their doubt.[10] Moreover, scholars like Darren J. N. Middleton argue that Kazantzakis' interpretation of the Christian faith predated the more modern, personalized interpretation of Christianity that has become popular in the years after Kazantzakis' death.[12]
Bibliography of English translations[edit]

Postcard from Nikos Kazantzakis to his physician Max-Hermann Hörder, 13 September 1957, Chongqing

Bust in Heraklion
Translations of The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, in whole or in part[edit]
The Odyssey [Selections from], partial translation in prose by Kimon Friar, Wake 12 (1953), pp. 58–65.
The Odyssey, excerpt translated by Kimon Friar, "Chicago Review" 8, No. 2 (Spring/Summer 1954), pp. 12–18.
The Return of Odysseus, partial translation by Kimon Friar, "The Atlantic Monthly" 195, No. 6 (June 1955), pp. 110–112.
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, a full verse-translation by Kimon Friar, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1958; London: Secker and Warburg, 1958.
Death, the Ant, from The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, Book XV, 829-63, translated by Kimon Friar, "The Charioteer", No. 1 (Summer 1960), p. 39.

Travel books[edit]
Spain, translated by Amy Mims, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963.
Japan, China, translated by George C. Pappageotes, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963; published in the United Kingdom as Travels in China & Japan, Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1964; London: Faber and Faber, 1964.
England, translated by Amy Mims, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965; Oxford, Bruno Cassirer, 1965.
Journey to Morea, translated by F. A. Reed, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965; published in the United Kingdom as Travels in Greece, Journey to Morea, Oxford, Bruno Cassirer, 1966.
Journeying: Travels in Italy, Egypt, Sinai, Jerusalem and Cyprus, translated by Themi Vasils and Theodora Vasils, Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1975; San Francisco: Creative Arts Books Co., 1984.
Russia, translated by A. Maskaleris and M. Antonakis, Creative Arts Books Co, 1989.

Novels[edit]
Zorba the Greek, translated by Carl Wildman, London, John Lehmann, 1952; New York, Simon & Schuster, 1953; Oxford, Bruno Cassirer, 1959; London & Boston: Faber and Faber, 1961 and New York: Ballantine Books, 1964.
The Greek Passion, translated by Jonathan Griffin, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1954; New York, Ballantine Books, 1965; published in the United Kingdom as Christ Recrucified, Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1954; London: Faber and Faber, 1954.
Freedom and Death, translated by Jonathan Griffin, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1954; New York: Ballantine, 1965; published in the United Kingdom as Freedom and Death, Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1956; London: Faber and Faber, 1956.
The Last Temptation, translated by Peter A. Bien, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1960; New York, Bantam Books, 1961; Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1961; London: Faber and Faber, 1975.
Saint Francis, translated by Peter A. Bien, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1962; published in the United Kingdom as God's Pauper: Saint Francis of Assisi, Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1962, 1975; London: Faber and Faber, 1975.
The Rock Garden, translated from French (in which it was originally written) by Richard Howard, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963.
The Fratricides, translated by Athena Gianakas Dallas, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1964; Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1964.
Toda Raba, translated from French (in which it was originally written) by Amy Mims, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1964.
Report to Greco — see under 'Memoirs, essays and letters'
Alexander the Great. A Novel [for children], translated by Theodora Vasils, Athens (Ohio): Ohio University Press, 1982.
At the Palaces of Knossos. A Novel [for children], translated by Themi and Theodora Vasilis, edited by Theodora Vasilis, London: Owen, 1988. Adapted from the draft typewritten manuscript.
Father Yanaros [from the novel The Fratricides], translated by Theodore Sampson, in Modern Greek Short Stories, Vol. 1, edited by Kyr. Delopoulos, Athens: Kathimerini Publications, 1980.
Serpent and Lily, translated by Theodora Vasils, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

Plays[edit]
Julian the Apostate: First staged in Paris, 1948.
Three Plays: Melissa, Kouros, Christopher Columbus, translated by Athena Gianakas-Dallas, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1969.
Christopher Columbus, translated by Athena Gianakas-Dallas, Kentfield (CA): Allen Press, 1972. Edition limited to 140 copies.
From Odysseus, A Drama, partial translation by M. Byron Raizis, "The Literary Review" 16, No. 3 (Spring 1973), p. 352.
Comedy: A Tragedy in One Act, translated by Kimon Friar, "The Literary Review" 18, No. 4 (Summer 1975), pp. 417–454 {61}.
Sodom and Gomorrah, A Play, translated by Kimon Friar, "The Literary Review" 19, No. 2 (Winter 1976), pp. 122–256 (62).
Two plays: Sodom and Gomorrah and Comedy: A Tragedy in One Act, translated by Kimon Friar, Minneapolis: North Central Publishing Co., 1982.
Buddha, translated by Kimon Friar and Athena Dallas-Damis, San Diego (CA): Avant Books, 1983.

Memoirs, essays and letters[edit]
The Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises, translated by Kimon Friar, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960.
Report to Greco, translated by Peter A. Bien, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1965; Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1965; London: Faber and Faber, 1965; New York: Bantan Books, 1971.
Symposium, translated by Theodora Vasils e Themi Vasils, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1974; New York: Minerva Press, 1974.
Friedrich Nietzsche on the Philosophy of Right and the State, translated by O. Makridis, New York: State University of NY Press, 2007.
From The Saviors of God: Spiritual Exercises, translated by Kimon Friar, "The Charioteer", No. 1 (Summer 1960), pp. 40–51; reprinted in "The Charioteer" 22 and 23 (1980/1981), pp. 116–129 {57}.
The Suffering God: Selected Letters to Galatea and to Papastephanou, translated by Philip Ramp and Katerina Anghelaki Rooke, New Rochelle (NY): Caratzas Brothers, 1979.
The Angels of Cyprus, translated by Amy Mims, in Cyprus '74: Aphrodite's Other Face, edited by Emmanuel C. Casdaglis, Athens: National Bank of Greece, 1976.
Burn Me to Ashes: An Excerpt, translated by Kimon Friar, "Greek Heritage" 1, No. 2 (Spring 1964), pp. 61–64.
Christ (poetry), translated by Kimon Friar, "Journal of Hellenic Diaspora" (JHD) 10, No. 4 (Winter 1983), pp. 47–51 (60).
Drama and Contemporary Man, An Essay, translated by Peter Bien, "The Literary Review" 19, No. 2 (Winter 1976), pp. 15–121 {62}.
"He Wants to Be Free – Kill Him!" A Story, translated by Athena G. Dallas, "Greek Heritage" 1, No. 1 (Winter 1963), pp. 78–82.
The Homeric G.B.S., "The Shaw Review" 18, No. 3 (Sept. 1975), pp. 91–92. Greek original written for a 1946 Greek language radio broadcast by BBC Overseas Service, on the occasion of George Bernard Shaw's 90th birthday.
Hymn (Allegorical), translated by M. Byron Raizis, "Spirit" 37, No. 3 (Fall 1970), pp. 16–17.
Two Dreams, translated by Peter Mackridge, "Omphalos" 1, No. 2 (Summer 1972), p. 3.
Nikos Kazantzakis Pages at the Historical Museum of Crete
Peter Bien (ed. and tr.), The Selected Letters of Nikos Kazantzakis (Princeton, PUP, 2011) (Princeton Modern Greek Studies).
Anthologies[edit]
A Tiny Anthology of Kazantzakis. Remarks on the Drama, 1910–1957, compiled by Peter Bien, "The Literary Review" 18, No. 4 (Summer 1975), pp. 455–459 {61}.

References[edit]

^ Jump up to:a b c d "Nikos Kazantzakis - Friedrich Nietzsche on the Philosophy of Right and the State"at E.KE.BI / Biblionet
^ "Nomination Database". www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
^ The Philosophers' Magazine, Issues 13–20, 2001 p. 120
^ Nomination Database
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j Peter., Bien, (1989). Nikos Kazantzakis, novelist. Bristol: Bristol Classical Press. ISBN 1853990337. OCLC 19353754.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e Kimon., Friar, (1979). The spiritual odyssey of Nikos Kazantzakis : a talk. Stavrou, Theofanis G., 1934-, Σταύρου, Θεοφάνης Γ. 1934-. [St. Paul, Minn.]: North Central Pub. Co. ISBN 0935476008. OCLC 6314676.
^ Jump up to:a b c Bien, Peter (1989). Kazantzakis: Politics of the Spirit, Volume 2. Princeton University Press. pp. 265–266.
^ Jump up to:a b c Georgopoulos, N. (1977). "Marxism and Kazantzakis". Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. 3: 175–200.
^ Owens, Lewis (1 October 1998). ""Does This One Exist?" The Unveiled Abyss of Nikos Kazantzakis". Journal of Modern Greek Studies. 16 (2): 331–348. doi:10.1353/mgs.1998.0041. ISSN 1086-3265.
^ Jump up to:a b c 1966-, Middleton, Darren J. N., (2007). Broken hallelujah : Nikos Kazantzakis and Christian theology. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739119273. OCLC 71322129.
^ Middleton, Darren J. N. (24 June 2010). "Nikos Kazantzakis and Process Theology: Thinking Theologically in a Relational World". Journal of Modern Greek Studies. 12 (1): 57–74. doi:10.1353/mgs.2010.0139. ISSN 1086-3265.
^ Jump up to:a b Middleton, Darren J. N. (1 October 1998). "Kazantzakis and Christian Doctrine: Some Bridges of Understanding". Journal of Modern Greek Studies. 16 (2): 285–312. doi:10.1353/mgs.1998.0040. ISSN 1086-3265.
^ Constantelos, Demetrios J. (1 October 1998). "Kazantzakis and God (review)". Journal of Modern Greek Studies. 16 (2): 357–358. doi:10.1353/mgs.1998.0029. ISSN 1086-3265.

Further reading[edit]

Pandelis Prevelakis, Nikos Kazantzakis and His Odyssey. A Study of the Poet and the Poem, translated from the Greek by Philip Sherrard, with a prefaction by Kimon Friar, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1961.
Peter Bien, Nikos Kazantzakis, 1962; New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.
Peter Bien, Nikos Kazantzakis and the Linguistic Revolution in Greek Literature, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972.
Peter Bien, Tempted by happiness. Kazantzakis' post-Christian Christ Wallingford, Pa.: Pendle Hill Publications, 1984.
Peter Bien, Kazantzakis. Politics of the Spirit, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989.
Darren J. N. Middleton and Peter Bien, ed., God's struggler. Religion in the Writings of Nikos Kazantzakis, Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1996
Darren J. N. Middleton, Novel Theology: Nikos Kazantzakis' Encounter with Whiteheadian Process Theism, Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2000.
Darren J. N. Middleton, Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis' 'Last Temptation of Christ' Fifty Years On, New York: Continuum, 2005.
Darren J. N. Middleton, Broken Hallelujah: Nikos Kazantzakis and Christian Theology, Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006.
Helen Kazantzakis, Nikos Kazantzakis. A biography based on his letters, translated by Amy Mims, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1968; Bruno Cassirer, Oxford, 1968; Berkeley: Creative Arts Book Co. for Donald S. Ellis, 1983.
John (Giannes) Anapliotes, The real Zorbas and Nikos Kazantzakis, translated by Lewis A. Richards, Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1978.
James F. Lea, Kazantzakis: The Politics of Salvation, foreword by Helen Kazantzakis, The University of Alabama Press, 1979.
Kimon Friar, The spiritual odyssey of Nikos Kazantzakis. A talk, edited and with an introduction by Theofanis G. Stavrou, St. Paul, Minn.: North Central Pub. Co., 1979.
Morton P. Levitt, The Cretan Glance, The World and Art of Nikos Kazantzakis, Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1980.
Daniel A. Dombrowski, Kazantzakis and God, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.
Colin Wilson and Howard F. Dossor, Nikos Kazantzakis, Nottingham: Paupers, 1999.
Dossor, Howard F The Existential Theology of Nikos Kazantzakis Wallingford Pa (Pendle Hill Pamphlets No 359), 2002
Lewis Owen, Creative Destruction: Nikos Kazantzakis and the Literature of Responsibility, Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2003.
Ioannis G. Zaglaris, "Nikos Kazantzakis and thought leadership", 2013.
Ioannis G. Zaglaris, "Nikos Kazantzakis - end of time due to copyright", GISAP: Educational Sciences, 4, pp. 53-54, 2014
Ioannis G. Zaglaris, "Challenge in Writing", 2015

External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nikos Kazantzakis.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Nikos Kazantzakis

The Nikos Kazantzakis Museum, Crete
The Nikos Kazantzakis Pages at the Historical Museum of Crete
Iran to pay homage to Greek author Kazantzakis – Tehran Times, 10 April 2008
Society of Nikos Kazantzakis friends (in Greek)
Kazantzakis Publications (Patroclos Stavrou)
Nikos Kazantzakis at Library of Congress Authorities, with 128 catalogue records

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v
t
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Nikos Kazantzakis
Novels

Zorba the Greek (1946)
Captain Michalis (1953)
Christ Recrucified (1954)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1955)
Essays

The Saviors of God (1923)
Other writings

The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938)
Adaptations

Zorba the Greek

Zorba (musical)
Zorba the Greek (film)
Christ Recrucified

He Who Must Die (film)
The Greek Passion (opera)
Christ Recrucified (TV series)
The Last Temptation of Christ

The Last Temptation of Christ




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Categories:
Nikos Kazantzakis
1883 births
1957 deaths
20th-century dramatists and playwrights
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Report to Greco Kazantzakis



Report to Greco

was one of the final writings of Kazantzakis' life before died.

Kazantzakis's autobiographical novel Report to Greco was one of the last things he wrote before he died. It paints a vivid picture of his childhood in Crete, still occupied by the Turks, and then steadily grows into a spiritual quest that takes him to Italy, Jerusalem, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Russia and the Caucasus, and finally back to Crete again. At different times Nietzshe, Bergson, Buddha, Homer and Christ dominate as his spiritual masters.
More books by this author


Author bio:


Nikos Kazantzakis finally settled in Antibes with his second wife, and died there from leukaemia in October 1957. He is buried at Herakleion, where the epitaph on his tomb reads: 'I hope

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Nikos Kazantzakis was born in 1883 in Herakleion on the island of Crete. During the Cretan revolt of 1897 his family was sent to the island of Naxos. He worked first as a journalist and throughout a long career wrote several plays, travel journals and translations. His remarkable travels began in 1907 and there were few countries in Europe or Asia that he didn't visit. He studied Buddhism in Vienna and later belonged to a group of radical intellectuals in Berlin, where he began his great epic The Odyssey, which he completed in 1938. 
He didn't start writing novels until he was almost 60 and completed his most famous work, Zorba the Greek, in 1946. Other novels include Freedom and Death (1953) and The Last Temptation (1954). Return to Greco was published in 1961.


Biography & Autobiography


ISBN:9780571195077


Edition No:1


Publisher:Faber


Imprint:Faber Paperback


Pub Date:July 2005


Page Extent:512


Format:Paperback - A format

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Subject:Autobiography: general

Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Report to Greco

Jane Rogers




5.0 out of 5 starsA unforgetable work of art!September 3, 2016Format: PaperbackVerified PurchaseI read this book many years ago, and I was spiritually changed by it. I now want to read it a second time to review the mystery of it all.Nikos' search for more made his journey full because he was open to experience it ALL. He was a mystic individual.My schedule hasn't allowed me the pleasure to read it the second time yet, but I am definitely looking forward to it. I'll probably want to read it a third time.4 people found this helpful
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Bugs




5.0 out of 5 starsA Beautiful Autobiography of A Profound Thinker & Writer

May 15, 2005


Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase


The spiritual travels to find himself and his inner soul are fascinating and the geography covered is extensive and with Kazantzakis' descriptions of the scenery, one feels that they are walking right along side him from Europe to Greece, the Mid East and beyond.

At one point, Kazantzakis is traveling with his friend Buddhaki to Mt. Athos to visit the many monasteries there and they come upon a Father Makarios. They muse on the ego, separation from God, etc., and when it is time to go, the good Father says, ["Good luck. God be with you." And a moment later, mockingly: "Regards to the world." "Regards to heaven," I retorted. "And tell God it's not our fault but his-because He made the world so beautiful."] (p 225)

On a trip to Jerusalem they meet a young man who ["...was passionately condemning the dishonesty and injustice of present-day economic and social life. The masses went hungry while the great and powerful piled up fortunes. Women sold themselves, priest did not believe, both heaven and the infernal pit were here on earth. The afterlife did not exist; here was where we had to find justice and happiness.... Cries rang out: "Yes, yes, you're right!" "Fire and axe!" Only one person attempted to object." ..."It was frightening. The purpose of trip was to worship the sweet, familiar face of God-so gentle, so tortured, so filled with hopes for life everlasting." ..."...we were carrying as a terrifying gift the seed of a new, dangerous, and as yet unformed cosmogony."] (p 245)

Later and on the road to the Dead Sea, "I had found it necessary to purge my bowels and expel the demons inside me-wolves, monkeys, women; minor virtues, minor joys, successes-so that I could remain simply an upright flame directed toward heaven. Now that I was a man, what was I doing but enacting what I had so ardently desired as a child in the courtyard of our family home! A person is only born once; I would never have another chance!" (p 252)

*Kazantzakis begins to summarize his spiritual journey with, "Our journey to the fatal intellectual Golgotha thus becomes more loaded with responsibility because now, looking at the Cretans, we know that if we fail to become human, the fault is ours, ours alone. For this lofty species-man-exists, he made his appearance on earth, and there is no longer any justification whatever for our deterioration and cowardice." (p 441)*

At the end is, "Just then-as fate was in a mood to play games-I made the acquaintance of an elderly mineworker named Alexis Zorba." (Zorba the Greek). This leads Kazantzakis to an introductory chapter on Zorba wherein he states, "My life's greatest benefactors have been journeys and dreams. Very few people, living or dead, have aided my struggle. If, however, I wished to designate which people left their traces imbedded most deeply in my soul, I would perhaps designate Homer, Buddha, Nietzsche, Bergson, and Zorba."

(p 445)

Kazantzakis was a prolific writer with incredible insight and wisdom and some of his best known works are: "The Last Temptation of Christ" and "Zorba the Greek". Start in on any book, though, and one will most likely feel compelled to read them all!





18 people found this helpful

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Daniel Scalph




5.0 out of 5 starsGreat, thoughtful novel

April 11, 2016


Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase


This is the fourth Kazantzakis novel I've read, and each time I read one it becomes my new favorite of his. The Fratricides is no exception. If you are at all familiar with his writing but have not picked up this novel, I recommend you do so. If you are unfamiliar with his writing, I suggest starting with Zorba the Greek or this novel before tackling the more complicated books like his Odyssey sequel or The Last Temptation of Christ. I will say that the ending of the Fratricides is somewhat sudden, and depending on the reader's worldview could be seen as extremely nihilistic, or alternatively as hopeful.



5.0 out of 5 starsThis is a great Book

March 24, 2014


Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase


Get it and read a beautiful set of concepts, like:
“Freedom was my first great desire. The second, which remains hidden within me to this day, tormenting me, was the desire for honorable sanctity. Hero together with “ethics”: such is mankind's supreme model.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Report to Greco.
And from an inscription on his tombstone. “I hope nothing. I fear nothing. I am free.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis

But these ideas are as strange as is the so called "American Democracy', which could not be farther from the true sense of Periclean Democracy.
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Jane M. Wilder




5.0 out of 5 starsMy favorite writer

October 15, 2013


Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase


A friend of mine who is a serious writer told me that Nikos Kazantzakis is her absolute favorite writer. Report to Greco wasn't in our local library and I had to have it. I have savored every chapter, made notes and gone back to read it again. It's necessary to read this book when one's brain is awake or miss something wonderful. This is the story of a dedicated man's search for his soul through travel to sacred places and meeting challenging people and ideas.

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Jennifer Wilson




4.0 out of 5 starsWell written and gained understanding

January 11, 2016


Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase


Required reading but I ended up enjoying the book. Very sad content but it helped me gain a greater understanding of the Greek civil war and fight against communism.
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Sophia




5.0 out of 5 starsAwesome style and glimpse into the Greek soul

July 23, 2015


Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase


Kazantzakis has the primal spirit of a god, the power of a savage, and the lyricism of a poet. Awesome style and glimpse into the Greek soul...

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Juliette Balabanian




5.0 out of 5 starsA very Greek book

February 16, 2017


Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase


Brilliant for Greeks but I wonder if those not familiar with the nuances of Greek culture and the Orthodox religion could feel the passion in this book.
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Vicenta Cobo




5.0 out of 5 starsA golden fruit

January 24, 2016


Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase


A masterpiece, the golden fruit of a life of awakening, passion and exploration. This book is a treasure of knowledge and high conscience. A great adventure for the mind and spirit.

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P. N. Bakalos

4.0 out of 5 starsGreat, except for near the end of it

February 26, 2012


Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
I liked most of this book alot. Thought provoking and vivid telling of his experiences from child through adult. But the epilogue gets a little out there for me. It was very hard to stay with it and figure out what the hell he is really talking about for several pages near the end. A little over my head there. But hey, that's me...i'm not a "genius" like the reviewer on the back cover said he was.

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Nov 02, 2010Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: biography, fiction, literature, greece, 20th-century
Αναφορά στον Γκρέκο = Report to Greco, Nikos Kazantzakis 

Report to Greco is a fictionalized account of Greek philosopher and writer Nikos Kazantzakis’s own life, a sort of intellectual autobiography that leads readers through his wide-ranging observations on everything from the Hegelian dialectic to the nature of human existence, all framed as a report to the Spanish Renaissance painter El Greco. The assuredness of Kazantzakis’s prose and the nimbleness of his thinking as he grapples with life’s essential questions—who are we, and how should we be in the world?—will inspire awe and more than a little reflection from readers seeking to answer these questions for themselves. Originally published: 1961.
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May 06, 2011Peycho Kanev rated it it was amazing
What a writer! It is my fault that I discovered him just now, but I will read all of his work.
This is not a memoir or auto-biography as such, but something much deeper, much profound and spiritual. At times, the Christian and the spiritual preaching are too much for me, but his prose-poetry style clears it’s all.
And you have to visit Greece at least once to feel what he is talking about! The magic of this country will get you by the throat after you sink deep in his words.

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Aug 15, 2011PGR Nair rated it it was amazing
Shelves: favourites

Report to Greco

Vienna 1921. Closeted inside an apartment there, my favourite is deeply engrossed in writing a play on "Buddha'. He had been grooming himself into a state of ascetic discipline for some time to write this play. Cut off from the enticing city outside, he listened to the voice of this new master sitting inside him - " Desire is flame, love is flame, virtue, hope ,"I" and "you", heaven and hell are flames. One thing and one thing only is light: - the renouncement of flame". His mind was like a yellow heliotrope and Buddha the sun. Slowly, the writer was getting submerged in Buddha.

When he finished the play, he felt that he had paved a new road to salvation. Now he had no fear as no desire could conquer him. He slowly opened the window of his apartment. Leaning out of the window he looked at the men, women, cars, groceries, fruits and drinks on the street outside. He then went to the street outside to mingle with that wave of crowd and to breathe the city. He walked to the nearby movie theatre to see what was going on there. The movie appeared boring. Next to him sat a girl and he could smell her cinnamon breath. From time to time her knee touched him. He shuddered, but he did not draw away. In that semi darkness, he could see her smiling glance. He got up to leave and she followed him. Strangely, he struck up a conversation with her and soon they were in a park outside. It was summer and the night was sweet as honey. The moon shone above and the song of a nightingale hidden deep in the lilacs could be heard.

"Frieda, Will you spent night with me ". These terrible words escaped from his lips.

"Not tonight. I will come Tomorrow", the girl replied

He came back to his apartment. Something terrible suddenly happened to him. His face started swelling and he heard the blood rushing to his head. His soul had become enraged. Little by little, his lips, cheeks and forehead bloated into a big mass. Stumbling along the room, he went to look at the mirror and he was aghast with his horribly disfigured face. His eyes were like two barely visible slits.

The next day he remembered his promise to the girl Frieda. He called the chambermaid and gave her a telegram to be sent to Frieda- "Don't come today, Come tomorrow". A day went by, two, three and a week had passed with no improvement in his illness. Afraid that the girl might come, he kept on sending her the telegram- "Don't come today, come tomorrow". Finally he could not stand it any longer and fixed an appointment with Dr. William Stekel, the renowned professor of psychology and disciple of Sigmund Freud.

The professor began to hear his confession. He related his life history, the events in Vienna, his search for salvation in Buddha. At the end, the professor burst into a shrill, hysterical laughter and said -"Enough, Enough!, the professor laughed a bit sarcastically and continued, “This disease you are suffering is called "Ascetics' disease" and it is extremely rare in our times, because what body, today, obeys the soul?. In ancient times, the saints who stayed in Theban deserts used to run to the nearest city when they felt compelled to sleep with a woman. Just as they reached the city, their face used to turn as revolting just as yours. With such a face they could not face any woman. So they ran back to their hermitage in desert thanking God for delivering them from sin. You have the same situation. You will be rid of the mask glued to your face only if you leave this city".

My writer returned home. He did not believe it. Scientific fairy tales, he said to himself. He waited another two weeks. The disease showed no sign of parting. Finally, one morning he packed his suitcase and headed to the railway station to leave Vienna. The city was awakening. The sun had come down to the streets. He was in a fine mood and he felt weightless as he walked. He could move his eyes now. A cool breeze caressed his face like a compassionate hand. He could feel the swelling subsiding. When he reached the station, he took out his hand mirror and uttered a cry of joy. He had regained his normal face. The disease was gone.

In a country like India, where spiritual experience is full of sham shading, this experience of a spiritual adventurist is profound and authentic. The man who underwent this spiritual adventure was the literary giant of Modern Greece and one of the greatest novelists of the last century- Nikos Kazantzakis. This is not only the opinion of a humble admirer like me but also of great men like Albert Schweitzer, Jawaharlal Nehru and great writers like Thomas Mann and Albert Camus. (In 1957 when Camus received Noble prize, Kazantzakis was slated to win. The Academy thought he fostered communist ideologies and so he lost the prize by one vote. A month later Camus wrote a graceful letter stating that Kazantzakis had deserved the Nobel 'a hundred times more' than himself .)

There are certain writers who affect the very marrow of our being from the first reading itself. Like good wine, years have only matured my profound appreciation of this writer. No writer of the last century has experienced the interminable struggle between the flesh and the spirit as Kazantzakis. As a result, every molecule of his writing carries the dye of his flesh and blood.

Kazantzakis was born in Crete, an island that is now part of Greece but was once a Turkish colony. During the Cretan revolt of 1897, his family moved to Greece. He studied law in Athens and in 1907 he went to study under the great philosopher Henri Bergson, who influenced his writing considerably. Bergson's 'Elan vital'-the life force that can conquer matter became his motif in many of his astonishingly beautiful Novels like- Zorba the Greek, Greek Passion (I personally rank it as one the ten greatest novels of Twentieth century) , Freedom or Death, Last temptation of Christ and his famous autobiography "Report to Greco", from which I have summarized the above incident. In 1945, he married his lifetime companion and Greek intellectual, Helen Kazantzakis. Helen has incidentally written a famous biography about Mahatma Gandhi.

Kazantzakis was a highly religious man but he did not belong to any religion. He imbibed many ideologies like socialism and communism but never lifted any flag. The Greek Orthodox Church excommunicated him as he sought his own Christ in his famous Novel "Last Temptation'. When he died on October, 1957 due to an Asian Flue he contracted in a clinic in Germany, his body was not allowed a burial in Greek soil. He came to sleep beside his Grandfather in his birthplace Herakleion in Crete. His epitaph is a summation of his ideals- "I hope for Nothing, I fear nothing, I am free".

There is another fascinating incident that Kazantzakis mentions at the beginning of his autobiographical novel 'Report to Greco'. It is about his imaginary encounter with another great Cretan El Greco, the famous painter. He imagines himself being led up to the summit of 'God-trodden Sinai'. Suddenly he senses that the God with whom he has wrestled all his life is about to appear for a final reckoning. He turns, 'with a shudder'. But-

"It was not Jehovah, it was you, grandfather, from the beloved soil of Crete. You stood there before me, a stern nobleman, with your small snow-white goatee, dry compressed lips, your ecstatic glance so filled with flames and wings. And roots of thyme were tangled in your hair. You looked at me, and as you looked at me I felt that this world was a cloud charged with thunderbolts and wind, man's soul a cloud charged with thunderbolts and wings, that God puffs above them, and that salvation does not exist."

Yet Greco's message is not that 'salvation does not exist'. When Kazantzakis beseeches him for a command, Greco answers- "Reach what you can, child." But this does not satisfy him. He asks again. '"Grandfather give me a more difficult, more Cretan command." ' Now Greco vanishes, but 'a cry was left on Sinai's peak, an upright cry full of command, and the air trembled: "Reach what you cannot!"

'Reach what you cannot' can be a fine motto for every one of us. Unfortunately, we fail to transcend and realize our full potential in our daily drudgery for survival. We become slaves to the taverns of hope and cellars of fear in the path of our life. We have to smash boundaries, deny whatever our daily eyes see, rivet our eyes on our mission, ascend without descend and die every moment to give birth to the impossible. That alone gives a human meaning to our superhuman struggle.

May you have the courage to liberate yourself from the manacles of fear and forge ahead with full steam to "Reach what you cannot".

Read this book and get transformed yourself
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Feb 15, 2008Ade Bailey rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: biography-autobiography, fiction
A stunning autoiography of the Greek hero. In the best tradition of autobiography, about a journey shorn of irrelevant personal history. A breathtaking trip through his spiritual odyssey from Christianity, through Nietzche, Buddhism, Communism and more back to the point where old he has thickened into youth. Entelechy.
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Feb 21, 2015Sara Nasser rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: favs, سير-مذكرات, في-مكتبتي
سيرة قديس يبحث عن الله، الجمال، المعرفة.
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Feb 05, 2008Nicole rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: fiction
Reading Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel Report To Greco in the back room of the store. The world begins to get loud. The prologue begins. “I collect my tools:

sight

smell

touch

taste

hearing

intellect

Night has fallen, the day’s work is done. I return like a mole to my home, the ground. Not because I am tired and cannot work. I am not tired. But the sun has set.”

Tools are what I get from people. Sometimes I gain tools from living in the world and other times my tools are garnered through the living of others. Sometimes I’m working on being with people and other times I’m working on being with myself. Right now I am glad to have chosen to be with Kazantzakis’ novel because his struggle to reconcile the duality of his ancestors/nature within himself transfers an ease to my own struggling mind. Not a sedentary ease, but one that motivates me to figure out how to communicate/connect in better ways with what I desire, my Golgotha. People call for an end to their struggles; I hope to love mine. Because I can see that struggle will not cease in my world; it’s too rambunctious, too willful, too imaginary.

****

I got extremely caught up in this epic struggle, a look at the author’s life with all the embellishes and harsh critiques one has of one’s self. At first, I was a bit surprised at my unflagging interest because of the book’s heavy religious discussions, but it was more of a metaphysical questioning than an attempt to settle into any one religion. Kazantzakis journeys through Christianity, Nietzsche, Buddha, Lenin, Zorba, and many others, never reaching a summit (it’s okay to not reach the summit we find out), only stopped by death.

Some excerpts that I had to write down, for its’ look or for its’ meat. Here are a few; I’ll spare you the lengthy ones.

“And first of all I’m going to have it out with Michelangelo. The other day I saw a small copy of the Last Judgment he painted at Rome. I don’t like it.”

“The Church of Christ in the state to which the clergy had brought it suddenly seemed to me an enclosure where thousands of panic-stricken sheep bleat away night and day, leaning one against the other and stretching out their necks to lick the hand and knife that are slaughtering them.”

“Whoever says salvation exists is a slave, because he keeps weighing each of his words and deeds at every moment. ‘Will I go to heaven or to hell?’…How can a soul that hopes be free? Whoever hopes is afraid both of his life and the life to come; he hangs indecisively in the air and waits for luck or God’s mercy.”

“We ascended because the very act of ascending, for us, was happiness, salvation, and paradise.”

Okay, I’ll stop there, but I feel so good at having been inspired to think so much about the beliefs that I hold as an individual that it is hard to stop mulling it over. I don’t necessarily agree with the above or other statements although I feel I have been shown so many strong truths. Much better than a typically plot driven story, more interactive. More pertinent. Where he goes does not matter so much as what he synthesizes in his head. The struggle.(less)
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Aug 16, 2011Hadrian rated it it was amazing
Shelves: biography-memoir, fiction
A raw (slightly unfinished), profound, autobiographical novel. Beautiful genuine searching about how to live. I know I am a mere adolescent philosophical dabbler, but Kazantzakis really speaks to me. Even his moments of profound religiosity are beautiful, in a way.
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Jul 23, 2008Zack Shaeffer rated it really liked it
Recommended to Zack by: Bob McKlennan
It is billed as a "spiritual autobiography" which may appeal to those who took Prof. Pierce's PTS class with me in the Spring. The book recounts Kazantzakis' (author of Zorba the Greek, and The Last Temptation of Christ) life story from childhood on Crete to travels all over the Mediterranean and Europe, in the form of a deathbed report to one of his heroes, the Spanish Renaissance Cretan-expat painter known as "El Greco". Follow the development of Kazantzakis' life philosophy from ardent Orthodox Christianity, to Neitzsche, to Buddha, to Lenin, to his final stop at "the Cretan Glance". I have a friend who has changed his life philosophy and belief system pretty dramatically more than once, and throws himself headlong, passionately and absolutely, into every change, rejecting the old with vehemence and embracing the new with uncompromising alacrity. Kazantzakis is like that, but able to look back with the better clarity of age to see these changes as important stages along the way. I am told the Greeks are passionate people, and he clearly displays this. I haven't seen so many exclamation points since reading eighth grade essays, which is not a comment against Kazantzakis' writing style, but a sign of his enthusiasm. If travelogue as introspective quest for maturity and self-knowledge appeals to you, this is worth checking out. Psychologically, it can be fascinating. You might find it a bit lugubrious if you like action more than self-exploration, however. Kazantzakis died at 74 in 1957, the year he lost the Nobel Prize by one vote, and his opinions about Europe and "the race" are dated accordingly, and certainly not P.C. by today's standards. While that element isn't constant, it comes up often enough. And how did he fail to mention his wife until the epilogue? Read only if you can get past his occasional ethno- and male-centrism to enjoy the quest of a robust soul. (less)
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May 05, 2012Antonia rated it it was amazing
Shelves: very-special
I am entirely in love with Nikos Kazantzakis and this book was a great journey full of passion and strong feelings. Re-discovering Greece through his words, fears, longings and the sinuous paths of his soul is a marvelous experience. This is a book of splendors and profound thought, book of incomparable delicacy and form. "Report to El Greco" is of those books that cannot be recommended. One has to dive deep into himself to seek desire to read it. Only then the book can be truly appreciated.
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Jun 17, 2017Alex rated it really liked it · review of another edition
Shelves: european-literature

Finally ! This was a hard one. i found myself to have similar ideas with Kazantzakis about life, death, God, Devil and so on. this is a book of ideas, with a bit of something happening in between. his real novels are a better option to dive into Nazantzakis head.
The ideas, the constant fight between "God exists? What is God? Where is God?" and "God exists. God is. god is here/there/everywhere" is remainded on every page / every 3-4 pages. 

As said, this is supposed to be an autobiographic novel. kazantzakis did great things in his life, but I read them all on wikipedia. in this book you are at ons moment - OMG, just do something with your life, stop melodramating, stop dreaming. do something. this is what actually one of his female encounters in Berlin told him. and I thought she couldn't be more right. 

Kazantzakis is obsessed with life, death, the big questions. If you want an answer, of course you won't be provided with any. his inner fights are so common, we all experience them, his questions, his Yes-s and No-s. kazantzakis didn't try to teach us a lesson, there is so condescension in his writing. he is a man looking for some answers.
Maybe the answer is in the simple things of life. the life on Crete is so idyllic in its simplicity. the life in the desert as well. But Crete is described with so much love, i wanted to be there, to sit on the beach, watch the sun and the sea, eat some grapes and just be. i think this is what this book is all about. Especially in the complicated and highly technological nowadays, it gives simplicity and returning to the really great things, to nature, a new meaning.
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