Chapter 1 Summary

The unnamed narrator of the story, a scholar, sits in a bar full of sea-ragged sailors and thinks of his friend. In the narrator's memories, this friend chides him for spending his life chewing over books instead of exploring the seas and having adventures. The speaker laments that the two men could never properly express their feelings, but rather they sparred verbally to show affection. Before parting, the friends make a pact for each to telepathically warn the other if he senses danger... despite the fact that neither man believes in superstition.

On this day, though, at the start of the novel, the narrator has made a new friend - Alexis Zorba. Before setting off for Crete and a halfhearted endeavor to lead the life his soldier-friend would have him live, the speaker employs a roguish mineworker to aid him in prospecting lignite...