Greece

Love in the Snow', written in 1896, is one of Papadiamandis's most poignant tales. Zissimos Lorenzatos writes in his introductory note to this monograph: 'The snow which covers the hero in 'Love in the Snow', set on the island of Skiathos, birthplace of Alexandros Papadiamandis (1851–1911), runs parallel, one could say, with the snow falling 'all over Ireland' in Joyce's 'The Dead', or indeed the snow which in distant Russia whitens Chekhov's coachman of the short story 'Heartache', who, inconsolable over the recent loss of his son, was unable, among so many people that day, to unburden his grief to anyone but his own horse while unharnessing it the same evening in the stable after the day's work. All three short stories — tragedies of man's loneliness — constitute, each in its own way, three characteristic landmarks in world literature.'

"Loxandra" is the story of a Greek family living in Constantinople (Istanbul) from the mid-18th century up to the beginning of the First World War. It is not biographical as such, and many of the characters are fictional. Others, including the main character of Loxandra, are real. Constantinople was the author's home during the first years of her life and in her book she conveys the historical events, the customs, the spirit of those times when life for the Greeks of Constantinople was relatively untroubled. The real Loxandra was brought up in the Anatolian tradition of love of good food; culinary delights flowed from her hands and her kitchen as from the horn of plenty, and her generosity and enthusiasm for life and food was not confined to her family but spilled over to whomsoever she had contact with. The Greek edition of Loxandra , first published in 1963, has been perhaps the most acclaimed and best-selling popular publication in Greece of the 20th century and remains continuously in print.

Two and a half thousand years ago, the Greeks and the Persians fought an epic battle to decide the future of the world... Arimnestos of Plataea grew up wanting to be a bronzesmith, like his father. Then, in the chaos of war, he was taken to a city in the Persian empire and sold as a slave. To win his freedom he had to show that he could fight and kill. Now, to preserve that freedom, he must kill again. For the Persians are coming. A vast army sent by King Darius to put down the rebellious Greeks and burn the city of Athens to the ground. Standing against them on the plain of Marathon is a much smaller force of Athenians, alongside their Plataean allies. To defeat such overwhelming force seems impossible. And yet to yield would mean the destruction of everything the Greeks have dreamed of. In the dust and heat of Marathon, in the clash of shields and the rush of spears, amid the thunder of hooves and the screams of the dying, those dreams will undergo their fiercest test - and Arimnestos and his Greek comrades will discover the true price of freedom.

Beginning with the liberation of Mauthausen concentration camp by the Americans and continuing through the months that followed before the prisoners were repatriated, lakovos Kambanellis' Mauthausen tells the story of a remarkable love affair between two former prisoners. The events of the story are all true, but they read like a strange fairy-tale. The euphoria of the first days of the Liberation, the slow awakening of the inmates to the possibilities of love and normalcy, the beauty of the spring landscape in which the lovers walk hand-in-hand make the atrocities that preceded them seem inconceivable. And like the lovers who walk through the camp exorcizing its demons, we are spared no detail of the savagery perpetuated in the years of its operation. Kambanellis' account is based on the notes he made just after he was liberated. In the twenty years that passed between his experiences and the publishing of his memoir in Greek, he became a mature writer and Greece's best known playwright. Like Primo Levi's writing about his experience in Auschwitz, Kambanellis' Mauthausen is both a literary masterpiece and a testament to the extraordinary resilience of the human spirit.

One of the most powerful and enduring of Greek tragedies, Euripides' masterwork centers on the myth of Jason, leader of the Argonauts, who has won the dragon-guarded treasure of the Golden Fleece with the help of the sorceress Medea ― whom he marries and eventually abandons. Authoritative Rex Warner translation.

`the most tragic of the poets' Aristotle Euripides was one of the most popular and controversial of all Greek tragedians, and his plays are marked by an independence of thought, ingenious dramatic devices, and a subtle variety of register and mood. He is also remarkable for the prominence he gave to female characters, whether heroines of virtue or vice. In the ethically shocking Medea, the first known child-killing mother in Greek myth to perform the deed in cold blood manipulates her world in order to wreak vengeance onher treacherous husband. Hippolytus sees Phaedra's confession of her passion for her stepson herald disaster, while Electra's heroine helps her brother murder their mother in an act that mingles justice and sin. Lastly, lighter in tone, the satyr drama, Helen, is an exploration of the impossibility ofcertitude as brilliantly paradoxical as the three famous tragedies. This new translation does full justice to Euripides's range of tone and gift for narrative. A lucid introduction provides substantial analysis of each play, complete with vital explanations of the traditions and background to Euripides's world. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Symbolically powerful, incisively poetic, Mission Box is a Kafkaesque Odyssey of yearning and disillusionment, aspiration and despair, which placed Aris Alexandrou at the forefront of Greek fiction in our time.

Alexandrou’ s presence in contemporary Greek letters was strongly felt in his distinguished translations of poetry and fiction from Russian, French, and English, in his powerful verse, and finally- in the capstone of his career- the remarkable novel, Mission Box ( To kivotio, 1974 ). Amidst the turmoil at the end of the Greek Civil War of 1946-1949, the anonymous narrator of the novel, writing his «deposition» in solitary confinement, attempts to discover the truth regarding the abortive mission of which he is the sole survivor. As he strives to exonerate himself and incriminate his political adversaries, the narrator presents a vivid account of the mission involving the transport of a box whose contents are secret but are alleged to be of crucial strategic significance.

The narrator strikingly juxtaposes ordinary incidents of barracks life to machinations of Party intrigue, as well as scenes of joy and heartbreak in his relationship with his wife, Rena.In turn, there are moving memories of school days with his pals Christophoros and Alekos (who are also companions in the resistance), inspiring experiences of youthful idealism, and moments of anguish and insight in his lonely cell. Brimming with existential and ideological implications, Mission Box is a memorable literary experience, a telling allegory of issues which have a continuing impact on our lives.

Georgios Vizyenos (1849-1896) is one of Greece’s best-loved writers. “Moskov Selim” is set in Thrace, a corner of Europe where Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria meet. Selim is a Muslim name, yet “Moskov” implies that he is a Russian. Vizyenos’ fascinating and moving story is set during a time of constant wars between Russians and Turks whose outcome would decide the future of south-east Europe: Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria were becoming independent of the Ottoman empire, while Greece was to gain huge territories at the empire’s expense. Although Istanbul would remain in Turkey, it would no longer be the seat of the Ottoman Sultan, who, as caliph, was the leader of the world’s Muslims. Vizyenos’ story evokes a time when Greeks and Turks could share each other’s joys and pains despite the hostile relations between their governments. Listening to the protagonist’s life story, the narrator of “Moskov Selim” discovers that this Turk is a kindred spirit, despite the gulf of nationality and religion that separates them.

A nice book this about the mother city. It consists of pieces written by Nikos Gabriel Pentzikis. Most modern Greek writer, most distinctly Greek, Pentzikis assembles his pieces so that, beginning in alienation, with the recalcitrance and transience of things, the casual cruelties of space and time, they reach out, through the luminous orthodox immanences of the past, the reverberations of hisotrical memory, towards an inclusive desity of present experience. And the wonder lies, the beauty, in the way that the sense, looming in the endlessly modulatig density of style, the orthodox presence of the city.