Report to Greco: An Autobiographical Novel.

KAZANTZAKIS, Nikos; Translated by Peter A. Bien.

$1,250.00

Item Number: 136597

Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1965.

First edition of Kazantzakis’ deeply personal semi-autobiographical classic testament. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, lengthily inscribed and dated by the translator on the half-title page with a quote from this title, “For ______ ______ ‘The sole way to save oneself is to save others. Or the struggle to save others.’ Peter Bien.” Translated by Peter A. Bien. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket illustration: detail from El Greco’s St. Bartholomew, Museo de El Greco, Toledo. Photograph by Mas, Barcelona.

Kazantzakis wrote the words 'A Novel' on the title page of Report to Greco. But in the truest sense it is his own autobiography - a recreation of his inner life, which, rather than external incident, he felt to be the significant part of his life. It is told in the form of a final communique by a 'soldier' who has completed his mission and is about to die - a report to his commander in the struggle to transform flesh into spirit. This soul-searching relation to his great hero and spiritual ancestor modulates through every possible emotional key and is by turns lyrical, bawdy, ecstatic, contemplative, racy. For imaginative and expressive range it can only be compared to a narrative poem. With all their realism of description and characterization, their violent action and earthly humor, Kazantzakis' novels are all concerned with aspects of the struggle of the human spirit to free itself. Report to Greco is a more deeply personal testament of the significance which this inner struggle had for him throughout his life.