ABSTRACT
With exception of Nikos Kazantzakis (1885-1957), Greek fiction writers, classic and contemporary, are rarely and never extensively translated into English. This neglect, which contrasts with the worldwide popularity of several out-standing Greek poets, is reason enough to applaud a translation of twelve short stories by Alexandras Papadiamantis (1851-1911). Elizabeth Constantinides’s translation, entitled Tales from a Greek Island, has been impatiently awaited: only a few of Papadiamantis’s 170 stories have previously appeared in English, though three different versions of his powerful novella about a poverty-stricken child-killing mother, The Murderess (1903), have existed in the past.
