KAZANTZAKIS

KAZANTZAKIS, Nikos (1883-1957). The Last Temptation [L’ultima tentazione di Cristo]. 4to (215 x 140mm) Athens: Difros, 1955. Rarest original Greek edition of "The Last Temptation of Christ" with AUTOGRAPH SIGNATURE of the publisher and printer's mark of the author. A first form of the work was written on Aegina in 1942 under the title "Le memorie di Cristo" (The memories of Christ), while the final edition took shape in Antibes between 1950 and 1951. The novel is dedicated to Maria Bonaparte, Princess of Greece and Denmark, a writer and figure linked also to psychoanalytic circles. The Greek edition of 1955, published in Athens by the Difros publisher, predates the English translation, which appeared only in 1960. The copies of the first Greek edition are extremely rare, even more so with the author's signature, as in this case. Currently the only copy on the market is for sale at $9,800. The novel is not a traditional “life of Jesus,” but a literary and dramatic reinterpretation of the Passion. Kazantzakis presents Christ as a figure who is both divine and profoundly human, swept by fear, doubt, a desire for normality, solitude, and temptation. The most controversial point is indeed the “last temptation”: on the cross, Jesus imagines an ordinary life, far from sacrifice, with love, family, and old age; but he ultimately understands that vision is the final test to overcome. The book provoked strong reactions. It was condemned by Catholic and Orthodox circles; the Catholic Church placed it on the Index of Forbidden Books, while the Greek Orthodox Church also harshly contested its content. The controversy helped make the novel one of the most discussed religious literary cases of the twentieth century. The work’s fortune continued even after the author’s death, especially thanks to Martin Scorsese’s film, "The Last Temptation of Christ," released in 1988, which also faced polemics and protests. Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Heraklion, Crete, in 1883, when the island was still under Ottoman rule. He studied law in Athens and then philosophy in Paris, where he attended Henri Bergson’s lectures; during those years he developed a strong interest in Nietzsche, which would deeply mark his idea of man as a creature in continual struggle with his own limits. He was one of Greece’s most important writers of the twentieth century, but also one of the most restless: he traveled extensively throughout Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Asia, worked as a journalist, translator, cultural official and author of novels, plays, philosophical essays, travel diaries and poetry. His monumental work is the Odyssey, a poem of 33,333 verses, conceived as a modern continuation of the Homeric epic. His international fame is mainly linked to novels such as Zorba the Greek, The Christ Recrucified, Captain Michalis / Freedom or Death, Saint Francis, and The Last Temptation of Christ. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times; in 1957 he lost to Albert Camus, who, according to a later testimony, would have acknowledged that Kazantzakis deserved it much more than him. His tomb in Heraklion bears the famous epitaph: “I have no hope. I fear nothing. I am free.” 1 blank page, escutcheon, 496 pages, [4]. Autograph of the author on the verso of the penultimate page. Internally in perfect condition. Contemporary half-leather binding, with spine detached but preserved inside for possible restoration. Provenance: twentieth-century stamp on the escutcheon of a Greek commercial agent, namely Nicolas Valoglou, based in the Egyptian city of Port Said. For any information or additional photos do not hesitate to contact me. Tracked worldwide shipping.

Estimación:€800

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