Nikos Kazantzakis was born on Feb. His father was a primitive peasant, unsociable and uncommunicative, and his mother a sweet, submissive, and saintly woman. Nikos studied law in Athens and graduated with honors. Before he left for Paris, where he studied philosophy , he had already made an appearance in Greek letters. His first work, an essay entitled "The Disease of the Century," was published by Picture Gallery Magazine and was followed by his first novel, The Serpent and the Lily both Both works were under the pseudonym Carma Nirvani, one of the many he used the first years of his writing.
His first play, Daybreak, was staged several months later at the Athenian Theater in Athens. While in Paris, Kazantzakis served as journalist for various Greek magazines. The last two were published under the pseudonym Petros Psiloritis. In , after a stormy relationship, he married Galatea Alexiou, a writer, and together they continued their writing in a small apartment in Athens.
During the Balkan Wars Kazantzakis volunteered but served noncombatively with Special Services in the Premier's office. By he had written two more plays, Hercules and Theofano he later developed the latter into Nikiforos Phocas , and mapped out three more. By now his interest in Friedrich Nietzsche was at its peak, and he set off on a pilgrimage to Switzerland, visiting and studying the places associated with this philosopher.
By Kazantzakis, now 37 years of age, was still undecided about his destiny. He felt he was an Odysseus who would never reach his Ithaca. The years were critical for Kazantzakis. He carried his inner struggles to Vienna and later Berlin. In Vienna he began to write the theatrical work Buddha which after many revisions and additions was published in Athens in and completed the final draft of his romantic novel A Year of Loneliness unpublished.
Between and , Kazantzakis attended the French School of Commerce in Naxos housed in what is now the Archaeological Museum , where his family sought refuge after the outbreak of one of the many revolts against the Ottoman rulers of Crete. I would gaze at the people, never did these folks get a fright from a quake or a Turk, their eyes had nothing fiery about them. Freedom here had quenched the thirst for freedom, and the happiness of life spread wide like sleeping water.
If it ever was disturbed, it never became turbulent. Security was the first gift I sensed while wandering about Naxos —security and, after a few days, boredom. We made an acquaintance with a wealthy Naxiot, Lazaros, who kept a wonderful grove in Eggares, an hour from Chora, he invited us, we stayed two weeks. Jesus is portrayed as a man who has to decide between a mortal yet joyful life and an eternal life close to his father, God.
According to it, people need God, but God also needs the people as a basis for his establishment. The establishment of God within our lives, ideas and bodies in interaction with nature leads to the development of the world and human societies.
Stefan Zweig Schachnovelle wrote a letter to Kazantzakis, to tell him that this book does not belong to him, but to the whole of mankind. This magnificent supernatural trip has been translated in countless languages and belongs to the masterpieces of the international modern literature. It is a hymn to the fragile glory of humans and a recognition of the fact that human happiness always contains sadness and loss.
Even though he did not accept his whole theoretical system of ideas that overcame logic, he was heavily influenced — and this is not solely seen in this book, but also in various other literary works of Kazantzakis, through his characters and their expressed beliefs. We and our partners use cookies to better understand your needs, improve performance and provide you with personalised content and advertisements.
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