Product Description

This is Kazantzakis's modern "Iliad". Set in late-19th-century Crete, when a new uprising takes place to rival those of 1854, 1866 and 1878. In the village of Megalokastro, a Cretan resistance fighter named Captain Michales, is matched by the Turkish bey, his blood-brother.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #77106 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 472 pages

Customer Reviews

An awesome description of national identiy
This is the third of Nikos Kazantzakes' novels I have read and it is quite simply brilliant. The power of his writing is captured sympathetically in this english translation. The novel describes the lives of the inhabitants of Megalokastro - a town in Crete and their struggle to live under Turkish occupation. The characters are larger than life and through their choices and mistakes we discover the living spirit of Crete. The struggle for national and religious identity as described by Nikos Kazantzakes is as valid in today's society as it was in 19th Century Crete. The religious parallels and symbolism are woven through poetic prose to provide a narrative which is enchanting. It is a book to be savoured and enjoyed many times over.

War & Peace in Crete?
It would be far to much like stating the obvious to highlight this translation's literal interpretation of Kazantzakis' Greek. Likewise to complain about the slipshop copy editing which runs throughout this edition. Afterall, what other novel can you think of that begins with the unequivocal, simple statement, "Captain Michaeles gnashed his teeth".

It is often this simplicity which shines through in this literal translation, and this is to be apprieciated rather than berated in what is an often challenging interpretation of Christian Orthodox, Greek, Crete's independence movement of the 19c. Especially given more recent "independence movements" further north in the Balkans, and again nominally "historic struggles" between Orthodoxy and Islam.

Despite certain dark shadows concerning ethnic cleansing on both sides, this is nevertheless a highly evocotive account of the lives of the Greek community in Crete and their struggle with their neighbouring Turkish overlords.

It is an epic story and comparable to those epic texts of Tolstoy. Likewise, "Freedom and Death" is grounded by strong characters on both sides of the struggle, and with many details which combine to portray a Crete now lost in the age of tourism.

Read this next time you visit Hania, or Rethemnon, and reflect on the heroic and very often violently tragic history of the island of Crete.

very Cretan, very 19th-century, but also very universal
this fictionalised history telling the story of a rising in Crete against its Turkish rulers in the late 19th century is fascinating for its unconscious revelation of another kind of society, in fact two: there is the world of the Greeks (or Cretans) and the world of the Turks and peopling both are heroes, eccentrics, men and women, young and old, warriors and priests. The centre of the story moes between the mountains and Megalokastro (present-day Heraklion, Crete's capital) focusing on the cantankerous but fearless Captain Michales, the Achilles figure in this so-called Iliad epic (although the parallels are not very important),who is reportedly based on Kazantzakis' own father. it probably doesn't make it as one of the group world's great pieces of literature, but it has much to admire and appreciate. Women beware: this is a very masculine society. Michales bans his daughter from coming into his presence and death in battle is a virtue.

the story circulates around two blood Brothers - Michales and the Turkish ruler --and their families, friends, lovers, enemies and mututal conflict/admiration. the bitter fight for freedom has been repeated across Africa and the world, and of course Crete is not yet free from its shadow. The book was first published by Faber and Faber in 1956 with the translation by Jonathan Griffin. This is a new edition