Novel
Slaves in Their Chains
Οι σκλάβοι στα δεσμά τους
Konstantinos Theotokis · 1922
Synopsis
In Corfu, at the turn of the century, an old noble house has consumed its lands and lives on credit. The father, cornered, begs his daughter Evlalía to save the family by marrying the doctor Aristídis Steriótis, who keeps most of his promissory notes in his drawer. Around them, peasants bound by debt and women whom nothing protects are caught in the same machinery.
Context
It is the only true novel by its author, who had already cast an unsparing eye on his caste and on the peasants of his island in shorter narratives: l'Honneur et l'argent in 1914, Condamné in 1919, and the following year the account of the life and end of Karavélas. It was written under the direct impact of the October Revolution and condenses half a century of social change opened by the union of the Ionian Islands with Greece. When it appeared, Corfiot high society recognised itself in it, details included, and made this known. J. M. Q. Davies translated it into English; in French, three other titles by the same author have appeared, in 1929, 1993 and 1996.
Who it is for
A novel in demotic Greek, to be read in Greek or in English: the French translation is lacking, whereas three other books by the same author are accessible.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first Greek socialist novel, it fixed the figure of the ruined Corfiot patrician that the country's prose would take up throughout the century.