Nikos Kazantzakis

Nikos Kazantzakis is no stranger to the heroes of Greek antiquity. In this historical novel based on the life of Alexander the Great, Kazantzakis has drawn on both the rich tradition of Greek legend and the documented manuscripts from the archives of history to recreate an Alexander in all his many-faceted images—Alexander the god; Alexander the descendant of Heracles performing the twelve labors; Alexander the mystic, the daring visionary destined to carry out a divine mission; Alexander the flesh-and-blood mortal who, on occasion, is not above the common soldier’s brawling and drinking.

Blending historical fact and classical myth, the author of Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ transports the reader 3,000 years into the past, to a pivotal point in history: the final days before the ancient kingdom of Minoan Crete is to be conquered and supplanted by the emerging city-state of Athens. Translated by Theodora Vasils and Themi Vasils. The familiar figures who peopled that ancient world -- King Minos, Theseus and Ariadne, the Minotaur, Diadalos and Ikaros -- fill the pages of this novel with lifelike immediacy. Written originally for an Athenian youth periodical, At the Palaces of Knossos functions on several levels. Fundamentally, it is a gripping and vivid adventure story, recounted by one of this century's greatest storytellers, and peopled with freshly interpreted figures of classical Greek mythology. We see a new vision of the Minotaur, portrayed here as a bloated and sickly green monster, as much to be pitied as dreaded. And we see a grief-stricken and embittered Diadalos stomping on the homemade wax wings that have caused the drowning of his son, Ikaros. On another level, At the Palaces of Knossos is an allegory of history, showing the supplanting of a primitive culture by a more modern civilization. Shifting the setting back and forth from Crete to Athens, Kazantzakis contrasts the languid, decaying life of the court of King Minos with the youth and vigor of the newly emerging Athens. Protected by bronze swords, by ancient magic and ritual, and by ferocious-but-no-longer-invincible monsters, the kingdom of Crete represents the world that must perish if classical Greek civilization is to emerge into its golden age of reason and science. In the cataclysmic final scene in which the Minotaur is killed and King Minos's sumptuous palace burned, Kazantzakis dramatizes the death of the Bronze Age, with its monsters and totems, and the birth of the Age of Iron.

God's Pauper is an imaginative retelling of the life of St. Francis. Kazantzakis' writings are an anguished expression of the eternal struggle between the spirit and flesh, and he uses the story of St. Francis to draw us into the Maelstrom. The story is dramatically unfolded to us by the Saint's constant companion, Frate Leone, who takes us through agonies of physical and spiritual humiliation. We accompany the Saint before the Pope to establish his Brotherhood; to Damietta and the Saracen armies; and in solitary vigils on Mount Alvernia. The minutest and the mightiest elements of nature form the backcloth to the drama of events. Hate, compassion, jealousy and fear are among the principal ingredients in the drama, fused together with infinite subtlety.

« Ce livre n'est pas une biographie, c'est une confession de l'homme qui lutte. En le publiant, j'ai accompli mon devoir. Le devoir d'un homme qui s'est beaucoup battu, qui a été beaucoup tourmenté dans sa vie et qui a beaucoup espéré. »
Nikos Kazantzaki
La dernière tentation
Paru en 1954, La Dernière Tentation a immédiatement suscité la controverse. Au fil de trente-trois chapitres, Nikos Kazantzaki revisite en effet les derniers moments de la vie du Christ, ses rencontres marquantes - notamment avec Jean-Baptiste et Marie-Madeleine - le cheminement chaotique qui l'a conduit jusqu'à l'accomplissement de son destin historique. Il imagine les questionnements, les hésitations de celui qui croyait n'être qu'un homme ordinaire. Comme dans Le Christ recrucifié, il interroge ainsi le tiraillement éprouvé par Jésus entre sa part humaine et sa part divine.
En résulte un texte plein d'humanité, pourtant rejeté par l'Église orthodoxe grecque qui l'a jugé blasphématoire et a menacé l'auteur d'excommunication - tandis que le Vatican le mettait à l'index.
« Il faut particulièrement admirer l'art avec lequel Kazantzaki évoque par allusions l'histoire de la Passion. Elles donnent à tout ce qu'il écrit l'arrière-fond mythique qui est l'élément essentiel d'une forme épique. »
Thomas Mann

A Candie, ville crétoise sous domination ottomane, la cohabitation entre Crétois et Turcs - chrétiens et musulmans - est lourde d'une violence toujours latente. En 1889, une sombre affaire de vengeance et d'honneur entre deux frères ennemis va réveiller le conflit séculaire entre les deux camps et précipiter les événements de ce roman qui sent la poudre, la sueur et le sang. Du farouche capétan Michel au fier Nouri Bey, en passant par Ventousos, le joueur de lyra, Nikos Kazantzaki brosse le portrait de personnages forts, gouvernés par leurs passions.
A travers eux, il poursuit les réflexions sur la liberté entamées dans son célèbre Alexis Zorba, avec le même souffle et la même profondeur.

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Nikos Kazantzakis inició su carrera literaria con la publicación—bajo el seudónimo de Karma Nirvami—de un desesperado conjuro de amor: Lirio y serpiente, publicado por primera vez en Atenas en 1906. Escrito a los veintidós años, fue inspirado por Kathleen Forde, una joven irlandesa de quien Kazantzakis se enamoró perdidamente mientras recibía de ella clases de inglés y le leía al oído poemas de Byron y de Keats. Con ella consumó su amor a los diecinueve años, cuando se fugaron juntos a las cumbres del monte Psiloritis (Ida), tumbados los dos—como los pastores de un idilio antiguo—sobre el suelo de tierra de la ermita de la Santa Cruz, bajo la mirada hierática y atónita de los iconos de Cristo y de la Virgen. Impetuosa, obsesiva, recalcitrante a veces, de juvenil premura y agitada parataxis, la obra le atormentó toda su vida. A sus setenta años fue entregando todos los ejemplares que le quedaban al fuego. Pero no dejó de contarla entre sus obras, incluyéndola en las anejas a su candidatura a la Academia de Atenas (1945) y al Premio Nobel de Literatura (1946). [Traddución: Pedro Olalla]

Internecine strife in a village in the Epirus during the Greek civil war of the late 1940s. Many of the villagers, including Captain Drakos, the son of the local priest, Father Yanaros, have taken to the mountains and joined the rebels. It is Holy Week and, with murder, death and destruction every day, Father Yanaros feels that he himself is bearing the sins of the world.

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This moving fable sees a young Greek writer set out to Crete to claim a small inheritance. But when he arrives, he meets Alexis Zorba, a middle-aged Greek man with a zest for life. Zorba has had a family and many lovers, has fought in the Balkan wars, has lived and loved - he is a simple but deep man who lives every moment fully and without shame.

As their friendship develops, he is gradually won over, transformed and inspired along with the reader. Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis' most popular and enduring novel, has its origins in the author's own experiences in the Peleponnesus in the 1920s. His swashbuckling hero has legions of fans across the world and his adventures are as exhilarating now as they were on first publication in the 1950s.

'There can never be any doubt that Kazantzakis was the possessor of genius.' Sunday Telegraph