NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS.

By Peter Bieti(Professor of English). New York: Columbia University Press, 1972. 48 pp. $l.

Everyone talks about Zorba the Greek, but Peter Bien's essay goes beyond Nikos Kazantzakis' most famous character to the author himself. Mr. Bien begins his essay by quoting several contradictory opinions of Kazantzakis' literary importance. Unwilling to enter the lists on either side, Mr. Bien points out the fact of Kazantzakis' popularity; while admitting that "No one really knows what gives certain writers a wide appeal," he bravely attempts to define the sources of this popularity. The succeeding argument is so well sustained and organized that it is easy to follow, in spite of the necessarily ambivalent or inconclusive nature of some of the material.

Kazantzakis' world-view implies a delicate mental balance of forces: a life must be a search to understand the realities of its environment. But since this understanding can only he in human terms, it is not finally applicable to the unknowable universe. The "joyous acceptance of the meaninglessness of our existence" is the goal, similar to the transcendent serenity of Buddhism. Nevertheless, the earlier search is not to be rejected, since it is a prerequisite to the goal. The artist's problem is to balance his characters on this path of development, but then to let them progress naturally; if he interferes, their arrival at the goal will not have the necessary spontaneity. Kazantzakis' eventual acceptance of his aesthetic impulse allowed him to smooth with artistry the apparent contradictions of his world-view. His final novels—Zorba, The Greek Passion,The Last Temptation—show the happy results of this acceptance of his nature as artist.

For his clear analysis of Kazantzakis' philosophy and its role in his art, we should be thankful to Mr. Bien. His wide experience with Kazantzakis' works enables him to speak helpfully to those less widely read, and to remind us of the importance of seeing this prolific man and his works as a totality.

Granddaughter of L. H. Bankart '10 and ajunior at Bryn Mawr, Miss Sylvester hasstudied Greek under Professor RichmondLattimore '26.