ALEXANDROS  PAPADIAMANΤIS              

          a famous novelist whose writings influenced literature  all over the world

 Biography

    Alexandros Papadiamantis was born in Greece, on the island of Skiathos, in the western part of the Aegean Sea. He was born on 4 March of 1851 and died on 3 January of 1911.His father was a priest and he had three sisters.Alexandros moved to Athens for studies in Philosophy in the University of Athens,but he didn’t manage to complete them, because he had to support his  sisters financially.He worked as a translator and published his novels in newspapers and magazines of Athens.

      As a person he didn’t appreciate money they paid him and he didn’t pay any attention to his appearance and that’s the reason why people treated him as homeless.He never married and was a very lonely person who liked to interact with humble people.

 Work & Inspiration

      The life of poor people in Skiathos in his era was one of his biggest

inspirations.Also his deep love and faith to God gave to his novels a different point

of view. He always felt nostalgia about his island.He was untouched by the ideas

coming from Europe.

     His famous novel  is his acknowledged masterpiece The Murderess. It is the story of an old woman in Skiathos, who pities families with many daughters .Girls could not work before marriage and they could not marry unless they had fortune. They were a burden to their families. After killing her own newborn granddaughter, because she was ill, she crosses the line from pity to the «mercy killing» of young girls. She kills three young girls by throwing them into wells and then pretending to be trying to save them in order to justify her presence there.Her assumption that she was helping was  so wrong that she gradually slips into mad torment. She flees arrest and tries to hide  but drowns in the sea while trying to escape.As Papadiamantis puts it, she meets «death half-way between divine and human justice». The character of the murderess is described without  being accused :»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».She is known as  “Fragoyiannou”.

   Other important novels  are The Gypsy Girl, The Emigrant, and The Merchants of Nations. These were adventures set around the Mediterranean and refer to captivity, war, pirates, the plague, etc. However, the author is best remembered for his scores of short stories.

Language

  He wrote in the official language of Greece, «katharevousa«.His stories picture the country life in Skiathos, or  life in the poorer neighborhoods of Athens, with frequent flashes of deep psychological insight. Characters  speak in the authentic «demotic» spoken language of the people; In his dialogues he uses the local dialect.

Μuseum

   Ηis house is a museum which attracts many visitors

to the island. It’s a small traditional house hidden in a picturesque square

close to the port. There someone can see his manuscripts,learn about  his

life and buy his books.

                                                             Konstantina T.

                               2nd Primary School of Skiathos, Greece, 6th grade