Download PDF Zorba the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis Books
Download PDF Zorba the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis Books
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Download PDF Zorba the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis Books
"Perhaps it is just me but I found the new translation difficult to relate and follow. Apparently the previous translation 'adapted' the Kazantzakis' text from French to English (not the original Greek), with omissions of some of the non-reader friendly parts. I ended up comparing the first few pages of both of the translations and I decided to stick with that of Carl Wildman. There are indeed some omissions in the latter, though. For instance, Wildman text does not have a prologue, while the new version does; so on and so forth."
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Zorba the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis Books Reviews :
Zorba the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis Books Reviews
- Zorba is “The Most Interesting Man in the World†advertising campaign for Dos Equis beer reached back to Zorba for casting. He is a man’s man - muscular, musical, musing (but not too much) and a Lothario curls into a ball and snoozes at a moment’s notice. Rudyard Kipling’s “If†must have been echoing in Kazantzakis’ when creating his title character. Zorba certainly kept his head about him when others were losing theirs.
I approached this book from two wildly uninformed angles. The first was from either having seen, or believed I had seen, the Anthony Quinn version of Zorba the Greek in the 1960s movie. A swarthy, swashbuckling Mediterranean was what I remembered. In high school I struggled through another Nikos Kazantzakis novel but remembered it as “great literatureâ€.
No matter how I came to it, Zorba is a wonderful, wonderful read with a story and characters which etch themselves into your soul. The narrator sets out on a journey to resurrect a mine on the island of Crete. Early on he picks up a companion- the older and far more experienced Zorba - to help run the mine. Sancho Panza step aside (check the reference).
Zorba invades the narrator’s physical and psychological space. In their first meeting Zorba suggests he can work at anything - after all he has arms, legs and a head. Oh, and he can also smell minerals in the earth. And, a good thing since the narrator is headed to Crete to hire a crew to mine lignite.
Zorba disrupts the narrator’s obsession with books. The spoken word, not just the written word, allow the writer/narrator to develop. Zorba’s lusts - food, work, sex - are as contagious as they can possibly be. The narrator doesn’t transform to become Zorba, he adapts to become a better, fuller version of himself.
Kazantzakis provides plot, characters, and Buddhist ruminations. Indeed, Zorba the Greek was written when existentialism was in full bloom. (The author came in second by one vote in Nobel Prize voting to Albert Camus in 1957). Most existential writing is anxious, verging on desperation and ennui. Zorba the Greek is life - some triumphs, more tragedies with a constant movement forward. Change happens. - Peter Bien's translation is excellent. The task of the translator is no small task, and he nailed it. Such a poetic translation. Highly recommend. Really enjoyed reading this book. I spend about 2 weeks in Greece each year and studied on Crete, so this book was easier for me to understand than probably the average reader.
- The Greek version of siddhartha or zen and the art of motorocycle maintenance. A more modern spiritual journey. As good if not better than the movie.
- Perhaps it is just me but I found the new translation difficult to relate and follow. Apparently the previous translation 'adapted' the Kazantzakis' text from French to English (not the original Greek), with omissions of some of the non-reader friendly parts. I ended up comparing the first few pages of both of the translations and I decided to stick with that of Carl Wildman. There are indeed some omissions in the latter, though. For instance, Wildman text does not have a prologue, while the new version does; so on and so forth.
- One wants to put Zorba in the pantheon of great literary characters, but it's not needed, Zorba has already strode there by himself with giant steps that no one book can contain, joining Huck Finn, Captain Ahab, Don Quixote, Scrooge, Sherlock Holmes and all characters that live beyond the writing. In a wharfside cafe Zorba on first sight asks the bookish narrator, who's trying to crawl out beyond the written page and open a lignite mine, where he's going. The narrator answers "Crete". Zorba asks "taking me with you". "Why what can I do with you", says the narrator. Zorba replies "Why!Why! Can't a man do anything without a why? Just like that because he wants to?"
That's the narrator and reader's introduction to Zorba. Words of brash honesty that define Zorba. A sixty year old wiith the enthusiasm and eyes of a child. He is not full of life, he is life itself, a dynamo full of contradictions, gulping in every breath. In the narrator's words "A living heart, a large voracious mouth, a great brute soul, not yet severed from the earth."
Every experience and every day is lived as new by Zorba. Drinking wine, Zorba suddenly asks "--whatever is this red water--. You drink the red juice and lo and behold your soul grows too big for your carcass, it challanges god to a fight."
Zorba lives on after the book is finished, shaming hesitant half steps, as he strides through the mind. - Having been introduced to this wonderful book with the Wildman translation, I must say that I prefer it to Bien's effort. This new translation might be more accurate but it has a stop and start feel to it for me. I do like Bien's rendition of Madame Hortense though.
- Almost as riveting entertainment as the movie!
Suggest watching the movie first, then reading the book.
Enriches the experience by providing a background.
Poli Kala!
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