Plot

The narrator, a European soul living a life of egotism and hypocrisy, travels to China and Japan, where he comes into contact with Far Eastern civilisation and spirituality. While sailing to China he meets an emancipated Japanese woman named Joshiro, with whom he spends a night of passion.

She is the former love of Li-Te, a one-time fellow student of the narrator at Oxford, who abandoned her to return to China and join the social revolution. A similar trial awaits the narrator; having arrived in China, he stays at the home of Li-Te, where he falls in love with Siu-Lan, his host's sister.

Although his love does not go unrequited, their relationship is never consummated. The narrator rejects her so as to devote himself to spiritual exercise, Siu-Lan dedicates her life to the revolution and Joshiro is condemned to death by Li-Te on a charge of espionage. At the end, the narrator finds himself in the rock garden of an old monastery; a bare, treeless garden devoid of flowers and water, consisting solely of rocks, it symbolise a spirit free of hopes and illusions.

Writing history

Written in French on Aegina in 1936. It was originally ordered by Leipzig publisher Grethlein, but the Nazi regime prevented it from appearing in print. First published in Dutch translation. The French text appeared later, in 1959.

Greek editions

  • Nikos Kazantzakis, O Vrachokipos, introduced and translated from the French by P. Prevelakis, Athens: Estia 1960
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, O Vrachokipos, Athens: Eleni Kazantzakis 1971 (and subsequent editions)

Foreign editions & translations

  • Nikolai Kazantzakis, De Tuin der Rotsen, translated into Dutch by R. Blijstra, Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek 1939
  • Nikolai Kazan, El jardin de las Rocas, translated into Spanish by Hernán des Solar, Santiago (Chile): Ercilla 1941
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, LeJardindesRochers, prologue by Aziz Izzet, Paris: Plon 1959. Monaco: Du Rocher 1991 [original French edition]
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, El jardin de las rocas, translated into Spanish by Roberto E. Bixio, Buenos Aires: Sur 1962. Buenos Aires: Carlos Lohlé 1984
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, The Rock Garden, translated into English from the French original by Richard Howard. Excerpts from Kimon Friar's translation of The Saviors of God [=Salvatores Dei], New York: Simon and Schuster 1963, 1969
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, O jardim dos rochedos, translated into Portuguese by Maria Isaura Correia Telles Romão, Lisbon: Arcádia 1967
  • Nikos Kazancakis, Kayalι bahçe, translated into Turkish by Ahmet Angin, Istanbul: Kitaş 1971
  • Nikos Kazantzakis, Der Felsengarten, translated into German by Helmuth Wildhammer, Munich: Herbig 1990. Frankfurt/Berlin: Ullstein 1993. Berlin: Ullstein 1997