Alexandros Papadiamantis

Alexandros Pepekas Papadiamantis (Greek: Ἀλέξανδρος Παπαδιαμάντης; 4

March 1851 – 3 January 1911), also spelled Alexandros Papadiamandis, was an
influential Greek novelist, short-story writer and poet.

Contents
Biography
Works
Translated Works
See also
Further reading Papadiamantis photographed by
External links fellow Greek writer Pavlos Nirvanas,
1906

Biography
Papadiamantis was born in Greece, 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 at the School of Philosophy of the University of Athens, but never completed his studies.This happened because he had
economic difficulties, and had to find a job to make a living.

He returned to his native island in later life, and died there. He supported himself by writing throughout his adult life, anything from
journalism and short stories to several serialized novels. From a certain point onwards he had become very popular, and newspapers
and magazines vied for his writings, offering him substantial fees. Papadiamantis did not care for money, and would often ask for
lower fees if he thought they were unfairly high; furthermore he spent his money carelessly and took no care of his clothing and
appearance. He never married, and was known to be a recluse, whose only true cares were observing and writing about the life of the
poor, and chanting at church: he was referred to as "kosmokalogeros" (κοσμοκαλόγερος, "a monk in the world"). He died of
pneumonia.

Works
Papadiamantis' longest works were the serialized novels The Gypsy Girl, The Emigrant, and The 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 the Orthodox
Christian 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. It is the story of an old woman in Skiathos, who pities families with many daughters: given their low socioeconomic
status, girls could not work before marriage and they could not marry unless they provide a dowry; therefore, they were a burden and
a plight to their families. After killing her own newborn granddaughter, gravelly ill with pertussis, she crosses the line from pity to
what she believes is useful and appropriate action, the "mercy killing" of young girls. She kills three young girls in succession by
throwing them into wells and then pretending to be trying to save them in order to justify her presence there. As coincidences keep
piling up, she is confronted with a stark fact: her assumption that she was helping was monstrously wrong, and she gradually slips
into mad torment. She flees arrest and tries to hide in the wilderness, but drowns in the sea while trying to escape two policemen on
her trail; as Papadiamantis puts it, she meets "death half-way between divine and human justice". The character of the murderess is
depicted with deep empathy and without condemnation. "As a child, she served her parents. Once married, she was her husband's
slave... when she had children, she served them, and when they had children, she became their slave". Even her name tells the story
of women in 19th century rural Greece: her birth name, Hadoula, "tenderling", is all but forgotten; she now is the "Fragkoyannoú",
i.e. the widow of Yannis Fragkos, her whole existence referenced only to the name of her late, good-for
-nothing husband.

His work is seminal in Modern Greek literature: he is for Greek prose what Dionysios Solomos is for poetry. As Odysseas Elytis
wrote: "commemorate Dionysios Solomos, commemorate Alexander Papadiamantis". It is a body of work, however, that is virtually
impossible to translate, as the magic of his language is founded on the Greek diglossia: elaborately crafted, high Katharevousa for the
narrative, interspersed with authentic local dialect for the dialogue, and with all dialectical elements used in the narrative formulated
in strict Katharevousa, and therefore in forms that had never actually existed.

Translated Works
The Boundless Garden: Selected Short Stories, V ol.I, Translated by various hands (Denise Harvey: Limni 2007),
ISBN 978-960-7120-21-2 (cloth bound), ISBN 978-960-7120-23-6 (paper bound)
The Murderess: A Social Tale, Translated by Liadain Sherrard (Denise Harvey: Limni 2011), ISBN 978-960-7120-28-
1
Around the Lagoon: Reminiscenses to a Friend, Bilingual edition translated by Peter Mackridge,(Denise Harvey:
Limni 2014) ISBN 978-960-7120-33-5
The Merchants of Nations, tr. M. Tzoufras (2016)
Tales from a Greek Island, tr. E. Constantinides (1987)
The Murderess, tr. P. Levi (1983)
"Fey Folks, tr. David Connolly, Aiora Press, Athens 2013,ISBN 978-618-5048-06-8

See also
Greek literature

Further reading
A. Keselopoulos, Greece's Dostoevsky: The Theological Vision of Alexandros Papadiamandis(2011)
L. Coutelle et al., A Greek Diptych: Dionysios Solomos and Alexandros Papadiamantis(1986)

External links
Works by or about Alexandros Papadiamantis at Internet Archive
The House of Papadiamantis
Biography at Denise Harvey & Co.
"The Gleaner" a short story translated into English
Papadiamantis Museum
Works by Alexandros Papadiamantisat Project Gutenberg (in Greek)
Mapping the Short Stories of Alexandros Papadiamantis(in Greek)
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This page was last edited on 26 April 2018, at 08:54.

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