
Junkermann
M. Karagatsis(Author)
Aiora Press
Published on 15. March 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
472 pages
978-618-241-003-5 (ISBN)
Description
A modernist, picaresque epic, Junkermann recounts the life and times of its titular character, a hedonistic Finnish nobleman with a chequered past who serves as a Cossack guard in the Czar's army, flees the Bolshevik revolution, and seeks his fortune as he travels through Constantinople and finally settles in Greece. Set in the social and political turbulence of the interwar period, Vasily Karlovich Junkermann's fortunes reflect both the opportunities and dilemmas of the time. An unscrupulous character, he climbs with singular determination to the top of Athens' social ladder while vacillating between an impossible love for Voula, a young woman engaged to someone else, and his overwhelming attraction to the dangerous Dina. Compared to Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby, the novel explores similar themes of society and class; love, marriage, and concepts of value; changing notions of masculinity and honour; and the role of memory and the past. Written with Karagatsis' characteristic irreverence, humour, and eye for the beauties of the Greek landscape, the novel provides a nuanced portrait of the myth of the self-made man -- from a Greek perspective.
Reviews / Votes
"Like The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night, Junkermann should be read as one of the emblematic novels of the interbellum period, not just on a Greek, but on a global scale." -- Gunnar De Boel, Journal of Modern Greek Studies, May 2009 // 2 "?Junkermann is a thoroughly engrossing read... As a Greek offshoot of the western tradition of the novel, it deserves closer examination, celebration and, quite possibly a Hollywood movie, all of its own." -- Dean Kalimniou, NEOS KOSMOSMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Greece
Product notice
Paperback (UK-A)
Dimensions
Height: 205 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 38 mm
Weight
500 gr
ISBN-13
978-618-241-003-5 (9786182410035)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
M. Karagatsis (the pen name of Dimitris Rodopoulos) was born in Athens in 1908 and studied law in Grenoble and Athens. He is considered one of the finest Greek prose writers of the twentieth century and a central figure in the Generation of the 30s, a group of writers, poets, artists, and scholars that introduced fresh modernist currents to Greek literature and art. He was a prolific writer, with over ten published novels, as well as many novellas and plays. Besides the bold sensuality of his writing, he is known for his focus on the complexities and dark, instinctive underside of human psychology. He died in Athens in 1960. Patricia Felisa Barbeito is Professor of American Literatures at the Rhode Island School of Design. She is a translator of Greek fiction and poetry, and has published and lectured extensively on Modern Greek literature. Her translation of Elias Magliniss The Interrogation (Birmingham Modern Greek Translations, 2013) was awarded the 2013 Modern Greek Studies Associations Constantinides Memorial Translation Prize. Panagiotis Stavropoulos (b. 1962) is a painter and iconographer. He studied painting and engraving at the Gerrit Rietvelt Academy in Amsterdam, and has painted icons and frescoes in churches around Greece. From 1996 to 2014 he lived on the island of Tinos, where he focused mainly on sculpture. His work has been presented in solo exhibitions in Athens and Tinos. Panagiotis has also participated in several group exhibitions, and his artwork features on numerous covers of the Modern Greek Classics series of Aiora Press.