Home | Books By Year | Books from 1953
Captain Michalis
Buy Captain Michalis now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the book. And once you've experienced the book, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Captain Michalis' is a 1953 novel by the Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis. In the English, German, and French translations (as well as many others) it is known as 'Freedom or Death'. The writer was influenced by his early years on the island of Crete and uses explicit Cretan Greek words and the Cretan idiom in a way that preserves it untouched. It is one of the most widely read books of modern Greek literature which has been translated and published in several languages.
Plot
The book deals with the rebellion of the Cretans against the Ottoman Empire in 1889.
Explanation of the novel's title
It is thought that the book's title honours Kazantzakis' father 'Michalis' Kazantzakis, by whom the writer was inspired. The word 'Captain' is not used in its naval rank sense, but as the title of leader of a guerilla warfare group (the writer's father Michalis Kazantzakis was a leader of such a group, hence the title. Kazantzakis says this in his book "Report to Greco").
'Freedom or Death' was added as a subtitle to the second edition in Greek released by Difros publishers in Athens in 1955 and was the preferred English (US) title. In the UK the book was published as 'Freedom and Death', which were the last words in the book. The expression comes from the Greek national motto "Freedom or Death" , derived from the Greek War of Independence and used by Cretan rebels such as the book's protagonist. The "or" was knowingly replaced with "and" in the ending text by Kazantzakis.
Publication
Captain Michalis has been translated into many languages, including Turkish.
* 1954, Germany, (titled '"Freiheit oder Tod"', translated by 'Helmut von den Steinen'), Herbig, Berlin.
* 1955, Sweden, (titled '"Frihet eller dd"', translated into Swedish by 'Brje Kns'), Ljus, Stockholm.
* 1955, Norway, (titled '"Frihet eller dd"', translated into Norwegian by 'Leif Kristiansen'), Tanum, Oslo.
* 1955, Denmark, (titled '"Frihed eller dd"', translated into Danish by 'Karl Hornelund'), Jespersen og Pio, Copenhagen.
* 1955, Netherlands, (titled '"Kapitein Michalis"', translated into Dutch by 'H.C.M. Edelman'), De Fontein, Utrecht.
* 1955, Finland (titled '"Vapaus tai Kuolema"' translated into Finnish by 'Elvi Sinervo'), Kustannusosakeyhti Tammi, Helsinki.
* 1955, United States, (titled '"Freedom or Death, a novel"', translated by 'Jonathan Griffin'), Simon and Schuster, New York.
* 1956, Great Britain (titled '"Freedom and Death, a novel", translated by 'Jonathan Griffin'), Bruno Cassirer, Oxford .
* 1956, France (titled '"La Libert ou La Mort"', translated by 'Gisle Prassinos and Pierre Fridas'), Plon, Paris.
* 1956, Yugoslavia (titled '"Kapitan Mihalis"', translated into Slovenian by 'Jose Udovi'), : Cankarjevna, Ljubljana.
* 1957, Iceland (titled '"Frelsi ea dauann"', translated into Icelandic by 'Skli Bjarkan'), Almenna bkaflagi, Reykjavk.
* 1957, Argentina (titled '"Libertad o muerte"', translated into Spanish by 'Rosa Chacel'), Carlos Lohl, Buenos Aires.
* 1958, Portugal (titled '"Liberdade ou morte"', translated into Portuguese by 'Maria Franco'), Cor, Lisbon.
* 1958, Hungary (titled '"Mihlisz kapitny"', translated into Hungarian by 'Abody Bla'), Eurpa, Budapest.
* 1959, Italy (titled '"Capitan Michele"', translated by 'Edvige Levi Gunalachi'), Martello, Milan.
* 1960, Poland (titled '"Kapitan Micha"', translated into Polish by 'Katarzyna Witwicka'), Czytelnik, Warsaw.
* 1960, Czechoslovakia (titled '"Kapitn Michalis"' translated into Czech by 'Frantiek tuk and Mariana Stbrn'), eskoslovensk spisovatel, Prague.
* 1961, Bulgaria (titled '"Kapitan Mikhalis"', translated into Bulgarian by 'Georgi Kufov'), Narodna Kultura, Sofia.
* 1963, Israel (titled '"Herut O Mavet"' - " "), Am Oved, Tel Aviv [http://simania.co.il/bookdetails.php?item_id=21088].
* 1965, USSR (titled '"Kapitan Mihalis: Svoboda abo smert"', translated into Ukrainian by 'Ivan Hrechanivs'ky, Viktoriia and Iannis Mochos'), Vydavnytstvo Khudozhn'oi Literatury "Dnipro", Kiev.
* 1967, Turkey, (titled '"Ya hrriyet ya lm (Kapetan Mihalis)"', translated by 'Nevzat Hatko'), Ararat, Istanbul.
* 1973, Iran, (titled '"Azadi ya marg"', translated into Persian by 'Muhammad Qazi'), Khvarazmi, Tehran.
* 1973, Albania (titled, '"Ja vdekje, ja liri"', translated into Albanian by 'Enver Fico'), Shtepia Botuese "Naim Frasheri" Tirana.
* 1976, Egypt, (titled '"al-Hurriya wa-l-maut"'), al-Hay'a, Cairo.
* 1982, China, (titled '"Zi you huo si wang"', translated into Chinese by 'Wang Zhenji yi'), Wai guo wen xue chu ban she, Peking.
* 2002, Lithuania (titled '"Kapitonas Michalis"', translated into Lithuanian by 'Diana Buit'), Vaga, Vilnius.
* 2013, Brazil (titled '"O Capito Michlis (Liberdade ou Morte)"', translated into Portuguese by 'Silvia Ricardino'), Grua, So Paulo.
* 2014, Croatia (titled '"Sloboda ili smrt"', translated into Croatian by 'Irena Gavranovi Luki'), Sandorf, Zagreb.
* 2021, Russia (titled '" "', translated into Russian by 'Victor Grigorievich Sokoluk'), Wyrgorod, Moscow.
Buy Captain Michalis now from Amazon
<-- Return to books from 1953