The Colossus of Maroussi (New Directions Paperbook)

I took this on a three week car and ferry tour of Greece and certain of the Greek Islands in 2018. I had last been to Greece in 1963. Miller was there in 1941. At first I thought that he was a bit of a blowhard as an artist but d...m me if he did bring it all around. He did see into the heart of the Greeks. I heard from by balcony of my hotel room in Platka a cock crow as dawn approached. I wanted to crow back. Epidaurus, Mycenae, Delphi, Crete are here too. I liked it as much as the Tropic of Cancer. Maybe more.

I first saw mention of The Colossus of Maroussi in a New York Times Sunday travel piece on Crete. I had read Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer a number of years ago and enjoyed it, As my husband and I were flying to Paris I thought it would make a great travel read and was not disappointed. Set in Greece where Miller takes a vacation in 1939/40 it is a travel book and much more. Miller develops a theory about the history of humans and his own unique philosophy about where industrial civilization led humanity astray. It is set against the background of ancient Greece. He includes a section of Surrealist writing "riffing" on America jazz greats of the period. Some may find it off putting but I found it interesting in terms of style. His description of the Greeks he meets are wonderfully vivid and the views he expressed are uniquely Miller's own. Miller called it his best book and I can see why.

Re-reading this, I concluded that Henry Miller is an author you outrgow. When you’re in your 20s, his irreverent, virulent anti-establishment rants are fun and inviting. He hates anyone who gets in his way and chances are, you do, too. But if, in aging, you make some peace with the world and yourself, MIller’s rants just seem adolescent. Here he alternates between idolatrous praise for everything Greek and bitter tirades against everything else. He even hates the planet Saturn. Unlike his tropics books, there is little fun, no memorable characters, and just rambing prose, sometimes elegiac but more often tedious.

I have read this book before, and I consider it as one of the best travel books ever written. The part describing Crete is unique, and may only to some extent be matched by Adam Hopkins. Of course Niko Kazantsakis and W. Stanley Moss need to be mentioned and last but not least, Patrick Leigh Fermor, whose adventures are dealt with by Moss in "Ill met by Moonlight". Lawrence Durrel har also written about Crete and other Greek Islands in "Spirit of Place" and a few other books. In "Bitter Lemons" which is about Cyprus he tells about a reunion with Leigh Fermor who after a splendid dinner and some ouzo starts singing songs of Crete, Athens and Macedonia at the roof of a little tavern and finds the street below completely filled with people listening in utter silence and darkness. Everyone seems struck dumb. Asking what it is all about one of his friends says: "Never have I heard of Englishmen singing Greek songs like this".

Henry Miller has long been considered one of the important early voices in the Beat movement, and among free thinkers who evolved into the 1960s reappraisal of social values worldwide. But this interesting tour of Greece in 1941, at the beginning of WWII, has rarely been read as a take on the landscape of 20th-century politics and Miller's own reaction to violence and a deterioration of human values as the world moved toward its encounter with fascism. The islands are marvelous; his friendships unique and open; and his sense of the world, his anti-Christian critiques, and his call for a new kind of spiritualism among humans, are refreshing reminders of what the world was about to discover for itself. But the War plays a role here too, and his almost desperate desire for a new freedom in the face of possible total destruction rings with authenticity and passion. You don't have to be traveling the islands or touring the Mediterranean to appreciate this book, although it remains true in its scope today if you are there experiencing the changes of the last sixty years.

Apart from the hideous forward by Mr. Self, Henry Miller's book is a giant among travel classics. I'm an American living in Greece for 20 years, and can attest to the book's deep understanding and love of Greece and its history between the two world wars. We can hardly fault Mr. Miller for Self's insufferable forward that reaches realms never achieved in the annals of publishing. The irony of a Brit--Miller skewers the British relentlessly throughout the book--commenting with such bravado and (no pun intended here) self aggrandizement, is an insult to the monument Mr. Miller carved from the rock of contemporary history. I'm shell-shocked from the tone deafness of the publisher for allowing Mr. Self to deface this masterpiece. Mr. Miller would have run in the other direction.....Still, Colossus should be required reading for all travelers to Greece.

Exhilarating. Miller's optimism and energy, his celebration of life in all it's messy and fascinating forms, his soaring yet earthy style is the perfect remedy for anyone drifting towards depression in these grim times. Greece on the eve of the second world war is an island of sanity on a planet going mad. The gods hover over these ruins still. Many travel books, I think of Paul Theroux particularly, leave me thankful for him making the trip so I won't need to. Miller inspires me to want to go to Greece.

Personally I really like this short novel cum travelogue. It is written in Miller's own unique style and there are times when he is about to go into full on 'Tropics' mode but seems to rein himself in somewhat. Set on a visit to Greece, Miller rediscovers the true meaning of his existence. Having visited Greece on a number of occasions I concur with his descriptions of the laid back Greek character, dreamy blue skied vistas and a truly relaxed atmosphere. They know how to really live. His thoughts on the Greeks relationship with wealth and their dream of realising the Western dream is eerily prescient given the their recent financial troubles. Money and prosperity dose not always equate to happiness. Enough said. As a race we humans need to get back to basics. Our only "real" needs are air to breathe, food to eat and water to drink. Yet another Miller tour de force surrounded by a cast of Greek gods. Definitely worth a real whether you area fan or not.

I enjoyed the descriptions of landscape and ancient ruins, Greece before mass tourism when, however, only the privileged could travel easily. The friends made on his travels and the memories are very evocative of lost times when life was in general simpler. I was less keen on the regular exhortations to follow in his footsteps to 'find yourself' and become more enlightened and aware - I would have preferred a narrative of his travels without being frequently 'told' that you haven't lived until you have done this sort of travelling in Greece. Nevertheless a very enjoyable read overall, I would recommend to anyone who has only previously read Miller's better known works such as 'The Tropics' for a more balanced view of his work.

The bright, emancipating diamond light of Greece is a reflection of paradise from a world and times long gone by. In Greece Henry Miller saw the light. Spiritually and physically. It is this transformation of his being, that he experienced on his meeting with Greece, he wants to contribute to all men. With the enlightenment he found the true core of his body and soul, as of all humans, and the real meaning of revolution.The revolutionary quality of ancient Minoan and Hellas culture, still reflected in Greece of today, is the harmony between body and soul, nature and man, gods and humans, material things and human beings. It is the living harmony that permeates Greek culture which gives the beautiful, serene, divine dimension to life. Of this Miller gives an abundance of examples and along the way ceaselessly contrasts them to modern western civilization, which he very colourfully and ardently despises as nothing but an air-conditioned nightmare, where the secret of how to live life has been lost in an insane worshipping of materialism. Whereas Greece is a realm of mind and the five senses.Miller expresses a load of scornful criticism upon his countrymen, but he has one quality that is perhaps in some aspects associated with Americans, namely, his outlook on life and people and monuments is big- and wide-eyed. He presents rapturous reflections on all kinds of precious matters: the velvet sky of the night, the profundity of the sea, the thundering silence, ”a field so fieldishly green”, the archetypal shepherd – and the solemn smile of a young girl.The book evokes vividly your personal memories from Greece: the divine harmony; the embrace of the balmy air that welcomes you going ashore from the boat at Hydra; the pristine, rural silence of Symi.Miller's language is mind-blowing, innovative, vigorous, sensitive but with muscular force. The language of ”The Colossus of Maroussi” is shining from starlight, but the impressionistic, spontaneous, impulsive philosophizing of the book does not always reach that outermost star.The great benefit of this book is how it throws light on the bleak fact that Eros is homeless in modern civilization.

This is one of his best books I think. Realy sublime!

I am Greek and I really liked the way he described his trip in the country. For fans of Greece, but for those who appreciate a good travel memoir, too.