Ηρώων τέκνα
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας (1865–1922), 1911
A comic, merciless anatomy of election fever in post-revolutionary Mesolongi, where the sons of heroes trade glory for votes and turn a portrait into a god. The stories move with the heat of a local election, sharp and witty, mixing satire with sudden passages of quiet and passion.
Feels like passion and serenity. About power.
Who it’s for
You may enjoy this if you like satirical fiction about small-town politics and honor, told with a doctor’s clear eye. The Greek is from 1911 and carries period election vocabulary, so some pages ask for slow reading.
Why read it
It shows how public glory can curdle into campaign theater, and does so with humor and a steady, unsentimental gaze.
Pages from the book
One god is trampled in the dust, the other still shines. The last word belongs to the older one.
Η κατασπαραγμένη ζωγραφιά σερνότανε στη γη τώρα, μπαίγνιο του ανέμου και της σκόνης. Η άλλη χρυσολαμπύριζε ψηλά, υγρή ακόμη από τα φιλήματα των πιστών της. Και κει που το κεφάλι του αρματολού με την πολεμική του έξαψη φαινότανε πως θέλει να κατασφάξει τον υβριστή, ο διπλωμάτης με ήρεμη μελαγχολία έγνεφε στο συναγωνιστή του, να ησυχάσει. Έτσι είν’ ο κόσμος. Πάντα τέτοιος θα είναι ο κόσμος. A man looks at a portrait and starts a war inside himself.
Και κοίταζε με γλαρωμένα μάτια τη ζωγραφιά, σαν προσκυνητής θαυματουργό εικόνισμα. Ήταν εκεί ο πατέρας του κομματάρχη τους. Ο λεβέντης αρματολός με τη φέσα ορθή απάνω στα κυματιστά μαλλιά του, με τα χρυσά μεϊτανογέλεκα και τα φλωροκαπνισμένα τ’ άρματα, πρόβαινε ανάμεσ’ από τις χρυσορόδινες λάμψες του γυαλιού, ιχνογράφημα γενεάς ολάκερης, μέσα στο μαρτυρικό στεφάνι της δόξης της. Το δεξί χέρι ακουμπισμένο στο κοντάκι τουρκοφάγας πιστόλας· το αριστερό απολυμένο στην κοκαλένια χούφτα πάλας αιματοβρεμένης· τα δασά στήθη έξω από την τραχηλιά, χορταριασμένα μετερίζα ψυχής ατρόμητης και το κεφάλι ξαφνισμένο πίσω, το βλέμμα φαρμακερό, λες κι άκουε ποδοβολή μάχης και φυγή εχτρών, έδιναν στον παρατηρητή παλικαριά και πάθος. Ο Ταράνανας σύψυχος ενθουσιάστηκε. Την πολεμική ορμή του αγωνιστή, που έπεσε σαν πύρινη κατάρα τ’ ουρανού στους εχτρούς της πατρίδας, την έριχνε εκείνος τώρα στους εχτρούς του κόμματος. A man is handed a new flag and discovers he loves the noise.
Και του έδωκε στο χέρι την εικόνα του διπλωμάτη. Ο σκάπουλος αναγκάστηκε ν’ ακολουθήσει. Και λίγο λίγο, όσο άκουε γύρω του τις κραυγές των συντρόφων, έδιωχνε το δισταγμό και τη ντροπή του. Το εκλογικό τραγούδι, που δεν μπορούσε άλλοτε ν ακούσει χωρίς φρίκη, τώρα τον ενθουσίαζε και τον έσερνε στον ανεμοστρόβιλο της τρελής χαράς και του κομματικού μίσους. Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας.Karkavitsas trained as a doctor and spent years as a ship's surgeon, gathering the sailors' and fishermen's tales that fill his fiction. He died of leukemia at fifty-six.
Books that feel like this
Vanity Fair
William Makepeace Thackeray, 1848
A penniless governess with endless nerve climbs through Regency society, and the narrator cheerfully informs you that everyone is a fool — including you.
More by Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας
Ο ζητιάνος
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας, 1896
A begging mastermind and a priestess of superstition in a Thessalian village that will pay for a baby to stay away. Appalling, funny, exact.
Λόγια της Πλώρης
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας, 1899
Sailors, sponge-divers and captains tell of the sea's justice, its monsters and its dead, in stories that turn folk belief into salt-stung literature.
Εὐέλπιδες
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας, 1899
Twelve stories of young men on the edge of everything — battle, the sea, first love — written by a doctor who watched war at first hand and turned it into taut lyric prose.
Where to get it
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Questions readers ask
- Is Ηρώων τέκνα for me?
- You may enjoy this if you like satirical fiction about small-town politics and honor, told with a doctor’s clear eye. The Greek is from 1911 and carries period election vocabulary, so some pages ask for slow reading.
- What is Ηρώων τέκνα like?
- The stories move with the heat of a local election, sharp and witty, mixing satire with sudden passages of quiet and passion. Feels like passion and serenity. About power.
- What should I read after Ηρώων τέκνα?
- If you liked Ηρώων τέκνα, try Gulliver's Travels (Jonathan Swift), The Three Musketeers (Alexandre Dumas) and The Taming of the Shrew (William Shakespeare).
A taste of the feed
The particular agony of walking into a room where everyone already knows each other.
It was, then, into the midst of this tumult and disorder that our young man advanced with a beating heart, ranging his long rapier up his lanky leg, and keeping one hand on the edge of his cap, with that half-smile of the embarrassed provincial who wishes to put on a good face. When he had passed one group he began to breathe more freely; but he could not help observing that they turned round to look at him, and for the first time in his life d’Artagnan, who had till that day entertained a very good opinion of himself, felt ridiculous.
The Three Musketeers · Alexandre Dumas
Being starved by someone who calls it love.
The more my wrong, the more his spite appears: What, did he marry me to famish me? Beggars, that come unto my father’s door, Upon entreaty have a present aims; If not, elsewhere they meet with charity: But I, who never knew how to entreat, Nor never needed that I should entreat, Am starved for meat, giddy for lack of sleep, With oaths kept waking and with brawling fed: And that which spites me more than all these wants, He does it under name of perfect love; As who should say, if I should sleep or eat, ’Twere deadly sickness or else present death.
The Taming of the Shrew · William Shakespeare
The bravest lives are often the ones nobody applauds.
For many great deeds are performed in petty combats. There are instances of bravery ignored and obstinate, which defend themselves step by step in that fatal onslaught of necessities and turpitudes. Noble and mysterious triumphs which no eye beholds, which are requited with no renown, which are saluted with no trumpet blast. Life, misfortune, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are the fields of battle which have their heroes; obscure heroes, who are, sometimes, grander than the heroes who win renown.
Les Misérables · Victor Hugo
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