Zorba the Greek reminded me of nothing as much as Huysman's À rebours, the 1884 homage to the pursuit of pleasure and aesthetic sublimity, and which, if I recall a long-ago undergraduate seminar correctly, served as the inspiration for the misdeeds of Dorian Gray. I couldn't resist spending a while in thought on the similarities - and differences - between the two novels. À rebours tells the story of a French aristocrat who retreats to the country to experience art and pleasure; Zorba the Greek is narrated by a young intellectual who sets books aside and immerses himself in the culture of a Cretan mining village, with the eponymous Zorba as his guide.
Pleasure is a sublime experience in both and Des Esseintes and Zorba are devoted to the enjoyable, passionate encounters and moments of life. Both respect pleasure; both novels are devoted to its discovery. In common they have good, simple food, which is cherished in each - although Des Esseintes spends much of the novel with a delicate appetite. Compare:
The only ones eating were unescorted women in pairs, robust English women with boyish faces, large teeth, ruddy apple cheeks, long hands and legs. They attacked, with genuine ardor, a rumpsteak pie, a warm meat dish cooked in mushroom sauce and covered with a crust, like a pie.After having lacked appetite for such a long time, he remained amazed in the presence of these hearty eaters whose voracity whetted his hunger. He ordered oxtail soup and enjoyed it heartily. Then he glanced at the menu for the fish, ordered a haddock and, seized with a sudden pang of hunger at the sight of so many people relishing their food, he ate some roast beef and drank two pints of ale, stimulated by the flavor of a cow-shed which this fine, pale beer exhaled.
His hunger persisted. He lingered over a piece of blue Stilton cheese, made quick work of a rhubarb tart, and to vary his drinking, quenched his thirst with porter, that dark beer which smells of Spanish licorice but which does not have its sugary taste.
He breathed deeply. Not for years had he eaten and drunk so much. This change of habit, this choice of unexpected and solid food had awakened his stomach from its long sleep. He leaned back in his chair, lit a cigarette and prepared to sip his coffee into which gin had been poured. (AR 75)
and:
I looked at him and was very happy. I felt these minutes on that deserted shore to be simple but rich in deep human value. And our meal every evening was like the stews that sailors make when they land on some deserted beach - with fish, oysters, onions and plenty of pepper; they are more tasty than any other dish and have no equal for nourishing a man's spirit. (ZtG 277)
The latter is but one of many descriptions of a meal in Zorba the Greek; in each description (but perhaps this one especially), Kazantzakis emphasises the simplicity of such rustic meals. Zorba's educated narrator and the aristocratic Des Esseintes both experience a similar rediscovery of food among the people - the Eat, Pray, Love of the 1880s and 1940s, perhaps.
Yet unlike À rebours, which makes the pleasurable experience tedious and hallowed, Kazantzakis realises its underlying human purpose. It seems appropriate here to misquote a scriptural phrase; that Kazantzakis paints pleasure as made for man, not man for pleasure. It is perhaps no coincidence that Des Esseintes' aesthetic ideals are books, art, and perfume while Zorba's are sex, music, and dancing - the active rather than reflective pleasures.
Crucially, Zorba is not an intellectual; he is not bent to consider why some experiences are superior to others; he knows only that they are. Moreover, he realises, as does the narrator of Zorba the Greek, that the best pleasures are frequently the simplest and heartiest. Dame Hortense's world populated with past lovers and champagne is one of dreams; the book's narrator is so caught up with books and Buddhism that he has to relearn the appreciation of simplicity. He initially marks Zorba as "a sensualist...a connoisseur," (12) but this is wrong; sensualism is far too deliberate a philosophy for Zorba.
"Man is a brute!" (57) And indeed, Zorba's words aren't empty: rape and violent death are both hard truths of his world, the price that must be paid for living in it. Des Esseintes suffers for his lifestyle, too, discovering that it is detrimental to his health and that he must return to Parisian society. But his suffering is of a fading variety. If the world of Zorba the Greek is a game of chance, the world of À rebours provides nothing but a fixed, prolonged decay.
Which is the more successful novel? It has been some years since I read À rebours, which I disliked, so perhaps my judgment is at fault, but I feel that Zorba the Greek projects a burning transience, a humanist lust for life that makes the other book seem weaker by comparison. Des Esseintes' journey through the senses seems too artificial, too fractured to be real. Zorba's narrator, by contrast, is thrust into a world of combined physical pleasures, of which even after some resistance, he can't help but take full advantage - and which, unlike, those of Des Esseintes, are common, thriving activities. Is the world of Zorba the Greek à rebours? No - thank God!
