Short Stories

Papadiamantis's most famous novel: an old woman on the island of Skiathos decides to spare poor girls a life of misery. A classic of modern Greek prose, written in his distinctive katharevousa.

Alexandros Papadiamantis

Rhoides's satirical novel about the legend of a woman who became pope, which got him excommunicated by the Orthodox Church. This is the 1866 edition, with the irony and erudition that made it a scandal.

Emmanuel Rhoides

Karkavitsas's short novel about a cunning beggar who arrives in a Thessalian village and exploits it until it is ruined. A harsh portrait of rural Greece in the late 19th century, with a biography of the author up front.

Andreas Karkavitsas

A broad selection of Cavafy's poetry in Greek, with Ithaka, Waiting for the Barbarians and The Horses of Achilles. The most widely read poet of 20th-century Alexandria, in the language he wrote in.

Constantine P. Cavafy

Kalvos's twenty odes to the Greek War of Independence of 1821, gathered from The Lyre and Lyrics. Patriotic poetry in a language all his own, halfway between Ancient and Modern Greek.

Andreas Kalvos