Zorba the Greek
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LC Class | PA5610.K39 V5613 1996 |
Zorba the Greek (Greek: Βίος και Πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά, Víos kai Politeía tou Aléxē Zorbá, Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas) is a novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1946. It is the tale of a young Greek intellectual who ventures to escape his bookish life with the aid of the boisterous and mysterious Alexis Zorba. The novel was adapted into the successful 1964 film of the same name directed by Michael Cacoyannis, as well as a stage musical and a BBC radio play.
Plot
The book opens in a café in Piraeus, just before dawn on a gusty autumn morning sometime after the end of World War I. The narrator, a young Greek intellectual, resolves to set aside his books for a few months after being stung by the parting words of a friend, Stavridakis, who has left for the Russian Caucasus and Ukraine to help the Caucasus Greeks and Ukrainian Greeks who were facing persecution from the Bolsheviks. He sets off for Crete to re-open a disused lignite mine, and immerse himself in the world of peasants and the proletariat.
He is about to begin reading his copy of Dante's
On arrival, they reject the hospitality of Anagnostis and Kondomanolious the café-owner, and on Zorba's suggestion make their way to Madame Hortense's hotel, which is nothing more than a row of old bathing-huts. They are forced by circumstances to share a bathing-hut. The narrator spends Sunday roaming the island, the landscape of which reminds him of "good prose, carefully ordered, sober… powerful and restrained" and reads Dante. On returning to the hotel for dinner, the pair invite Madame Hortense to their table and get her to talk about her past as a courtesan. Zorba gives her the pet-name "Bouboulina" (likely inspired by the Greek heroine) while he takes the pet-name "Canavaro" (after real-life Admiral Canevaro, a past lover claimed by Hortense).
The next day, the mine opens and work begins. The narrator, who has
The narrator absorbs a new zest for life from his experiences with Zorba and the other people around him, but reversal and tragedy mark his stay on Crete. His one-night stand with a beautiful passionate widow is followed by her public decapitation. Alienated by the villagers' harshness and amorality, and having spent all of his remaining funds on a mining-related construction project that ends in a spectacular collapse, the narrator finds himself beset by doubts and uncertainty. Having overcome one of his own demons (such as his internal "no," which the narrator equates with the
The narrator and Zorba never see each other again, although Zorba sends the narrator letters over the years, informing him of his travels and work, and his marriage to a 25-year-old woman. Despite Zorba's many invitations to visit, the narrator does not accept. Eventually the narrator receives a letter from Zorba's wife, informing him of Zorba's death (which the narrator had a premonition of). Zorba's widow tells the narrator that Zorba's last words were of him, and in accordance with her dead husband's wishes, she wants the narrator to visit her home and take Zorba's santouri.
Historical basis
Alexis Zorba (Αλέξης Ζορμπάς) is a fictionalized version of the mine worker George Zorbas (Γιώργης Ζορμπάς, 1867–1941).[1]
Adaptations
The novel was adapted into the Academy Award–winning 1964 film Zorba the Greek directed by Michael Cacoyannis starring Anthony Quinn as Zorba and Alan Bates: the film won three Academy Awards. It was also adapted into a musical in 1968, Zorba[2] as well as a 1993 two-part radio play, Zorba the Greek,[3] part of the BBC's Classic Serial radio series, starring Robert Stephens as Zorba and Michael Maloney. In addition to the film winning the three Academy Awards, as mentioned, "Zorba" also became a household name.[4]
The book has been adapted many more times in languages other than English, including a 1972 German-language
References
- ISBN 978-0813173160
- ^ "Zorba – Broadway Show – Musical". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
- ^ "Classic Serial: Zorba the Greek - BBC Radio 4 FM - 17 December 1993". BBC Genome. Retrieved 21 July 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-19-513004-1.
Further reading
- Hnaraki, Maria (2009). "Speaking without words: Zorba's dance" (PDF). Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU. 57 (2): 25–35. .
External links
- The Nikos Kazantzakis Files (Greek)
- Book review, Time magazine, April 20, 1953