Sights and Scenes

Michael Mitsakis (1868–1916) was one of the most original and unconventional figures of modern Greek literature. He grew up in the southern Peloponnese, and after enrolling at law school in Athens soon abandoned his studies to devote himself to journalism and literature. Closely associated with the literary circles of the 1890s, he wrote fiction, essays and sketches for the periodical press distinguished by their powers of observation, psychological insight and obsessively distinctive style. His restless temperament, financial difficulties and worsening mental illness marked his life as early as his twenties, and he died in the Dromokaïteion psychiatric hospital in Athens, long after his best work had appeared. Though he published only a modest body of work, a selection from which appears here, his influence has steadily grown.