Revolution Songs
£14.99
Junkermann
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£11.24
Regular price
£14.99
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.
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.
- ISBN-13
- 9786182410035
- Publisher
- Aiora Press
- Imprint
- Aiora Press
- Publication date
- 15 March 2025
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 472
- Dimensions
- 205 x 138 mm
- Language
- English
