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 the Cretan author 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.
The only universal experiences are pain and death. Those of<br/>us who are lucky experience a minimum of the former and put off the<br/>latter as long as possible. Sadly, our chances of escaping pain and<br/>evading death are not solely determined by the caprices of an<br/>indifferent nature but are also subject to the folly and more<br/>significantly the cruelty of our own verminous little species. At the<br/>outside, the Marquis de Sade was so convinced of the universality of<br/>cruelty that he made it a principle that cruelty was not only the<br/>shortest route to pleasure, power, fortune, and fame, but itself and<br/>inherently sensual and gratifying exercise. Though in our sunnier<br/>moments we may doubt the wisdom of the Good Marquis' observations, the<br/>dismal history of the past century alone — an unparalleled<br/>century of mass murder, global conflict, and exquisite torture that<br/>would make a medieval inquisitor blush — is enough to bolster<br/>the arguments of even the most faint-hearted …
The only universal experiences are pain and death. Those of<br/>us who are lucky experience a minimum of the former and put off the<br/>latter as long as possible. Sadly, our chances of escaping pain and<br/>evading death are not solely determined by the caprices of an<br/>indifferent nature but are also subject to the folly and more<br/>significantly the cruelty of our own verminous little species. At the<br/>outside, the Marquis de Sade was so convinced of the universality of<br/>cruelty that he made it a principle that cruelty was not only the<br/>shortest route to pleasure, power, fortune, and fame, but itself and<br/>inherently sensual and gratifying exercise. Though in our sunnier<br/>moments we may doubt the wisdom of the Good Marquis' observations, the<br/>dismal history of the past century alone — an unparalleled<br/>century of mass murder, global conflict, and exquisite torture that<br/>would make a medieval inquisitor blush — is enough to bolster<br/>the arguments of even the most faint-hearted pessimist. The recent<br/>folly in Iraq, followed by the embrace of torture, secret prisons, and<br/>extraordinary rendition, while it may be a peccadillo compared to the<br/>monstrous crimes of the mid-century past, nevertheless should quiet<br/>any Pollyanna who would exempt us from the general disease of human<br/>cruelty. So is there a reason, as Monte Python so memorably put it,<br/>to "always look on the bright side of life."<br/><br/> Zorba the Greek is an extraordinarily life-affirming story. It<br/>also has an rich appreciation for human folly, cruelty, and<br/>narrow-mindedness. Amidst frigid aristocrats, mad monks, brutish<br/>villagers, and vain adventurers, Zorba stands like a rock of conjoined<br/>masculine power and compassion. A former soldier, he has had his<br/>fill of killing. (An inveterate serial romantic, he has certainly<br/>not lost his interest in women.) As a mine boss, he is first to<br/>share the danger of the miners; as a man, he is the first to stand<br/>against the village on behalf of a persecuted woman. Along with his<br/>backer, a mine owner tormented by a bookish vision of Eastern<br/>mysticism, Zorba cheerfully runs one enterprise after another into the<br/>ground with great gusto and joie de vivre, literally extracting every<br/>ounce of pleasure from wine, women and song, for he is a master of the<br/>Greek instrument the Santuri and is enthralled by dance. Even as the<br/>shadow of the First World War looms, Zorba is undaunted. Better than<br/>his bookish companion or the cloddish villagers, Zorba understands not<br/>only pain and death but life, pleasure, and love. For this, he towers<br/>above the Lilliputians who surround him. <br/>
