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The 'saint' of modern Greek letters,... Papadiamantis wrote with graphic realism and unequalled passion about the extreme hardships of the day, the ravages of tuberculosis and alcoholism, the plight of women abandoned by their husbands and sons. Other stories, more personal in tone, have a quality of reverie.
(Times Literary Supplement )Steeped in Greek history, quick with Biblical allusions, poised with a commendable knowledge of local superstition, Papadiamantis transports us to the ambience of the golden moment, a lyrical fairyland, the mythos of Greece past. Or so it seems at the outset, and how deceiving are appearances, because what is really happening beneath the illusion of pastoral dalliance belies the relaxed, nostalgic mood.
(Studies in Short Fiction )Papadiamantis shines in this slim important new collection.
(Athenian )Papadiamantis has created a mythical world where everyone has a natural place and where it is that place, and not individual choice, that creates the shape each life eventually takes. What is amazing is that this world proves convincing... Elizabeth Constantinides deserves both admiration and praise.
(Philadelphia Inquirer )Product Description
Set on the author's native Aegean island of Skiathos, these twelve stories capture the folkways of Greece. With acute observation of daily activities and loving descriptions of land and sea, Papadiamantis portrays the beauty and harshness of traditional island life. His prose captivates a reader with its rich combination of realism and symbolism, sensuality and mysticism, insularity and universality. Written near the turn of the century, these works speak today in ways both remarkable and familiar.
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ASIMINA WAS A POOR woman, the wife of the town cooper. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
ASIMINA WAS A POOR woman, the wife of the town cooper. Read the first page
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A master of the short story, 21 July 2005
By Yorgos "the cultural omnivore" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Tales from a Greek Island (Paperback)
Note: This is the entry I wrote for Wikipedia on Alexandros Papadiamantis. It is about the man and his work, and not specifically about this particular selection of stories in English translation.
Papadiamantis was born on the island of Skiathos, in the western part of the Aegean Sea. The island would figure prominently in his work. His father was a priest. He moved to Athens as a young man to complete his high school studies, and enrolled in the philosophy faculty of Athens University, but never completed his studies. He returned to his native island in later life, and died there. He supported himself (very meagerly) by writing throughout his adult life, anything from journalism and short stories to several serialized novels. He never married, and was known as a recluse: he was referred to as "kosmokalogeros" (worldly monk).
Papadiamantis' longest works were the serialized novels "The Gypsy Girl," "The Emigrant," and "Merchants of Nations." These were adventures set around the Mediterranean, with rich plots involving captivity, war, pirates, the plague, etc. However, the author is best remembered for his scores of short stories. Written in his own version of the then official language of Greece, "katharevousa" (a "purist" written language heavily influenced by ancient Greek), Papadiamantis' stories are little gems. They provide lucid and lyrical portraits of country life in Skiathos, or urban life in the poorer neighborhoods of Athens, with frequent flashes of deep psychological insight. The nostalgia for a lost island childhood is palpable in most of them; the stories with an urban setting often deal with alienation. Characters are sketched with a deft hand, and they speak in the authentic "demotic" spoken language of the people; island characters lapse into dialect. Papadiamantis' deep Christian faith, complete with the mystical feeling associated with Byzantine liturgy, suffuses many stories. Most of his work is tinged with melancholy, and resonates with empathy with people's suffering, regardless of whether they are saints or sinners, innocent or conflicted. His only saint, in fact, is a poor shepherd who, having warned the islanders, is slaughtered by Saracen pirates after he refuses to abandon his flock for the safety of the fortified town. This particular story, "The Poor Saint," is the closest he comes to a truly religious theme.
An example of Papadiamantis' deep and even-handed feeling for humanity is his acknowledged masterpiece, the novella "The Murderess" (not part of this book). It is the story of a Skiathos country midwife, who pities families with many daughters: given their low socioeconomic status, girls can only marry if they provide a dowry, and are therefore a burden to poor families. The midwife crosses the line from pity to what she believes is useful and appropriate action, the "mercy killing" of female newborn babies. When she is discovered she is confronted with a stark fact: her assumption that she was helping was monstrously wrong, and she has betrayed her calling of bringing life, not death, into the world. Pursued, she drowns herself in the sea. The character of the murderess is depicted with deep empathy and without condemnation. There are few literary indictments of the unequal status of women as powerful as this work. Many decades after it was written, it was made into a film by Kostas Ferris.
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