Novel
Φθινόπωρο
Not translated into English
Konstantinos Chatzopoulos · 1917
Opening lines
Η γιαγιά ήταν ορθή στη σκάλα όταν χτύπησε το κουδούνι της αυλόπορτας.
Grandmother was standing on the stairs when the bell at the courtyard gate rang.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Two neighbouring houses in a small provincial town: on one side kyría Katíngo and her son Stéfanos, on the other the grandparents, kyría Aglaḯa, her daughter Maríka and her cousin Evanthía. Between the two mothers, a muted hostility; between Stéfanos and Maríka, something that goes unsaid. The days pass in visits, silences and remarks about the rain.
Context
Written in 1915 and 1916, it is its author's last work of prose, and it appears the year he heads a censorship office in Athens. It owes to symbolism, encountered during his stays in Germany, a new manner for Greek prose: atmosphere, nuance and silence count for more than action, and the characters' gestures resemble immobility. About ten years later, Karyotákis would take up the same material, the rain, the talk about the weather, the arrival of the boat, to express the boredom of the provinces. Nicole Le Bris translated it for L'Harmattan in 2001.
Who it is for
One hundred and seventy-five pages, available in French and freely accessible in Greek. A novel in which almost nothing happens: it is best read slowly and for its atmosphere rather than its plot.
Prizes and reception
The first symbolist novel of Greek prose, and an attempt bold enough that it has since been ranked among the forerunners of the modernist novel.