Alexandros Papadiamantis was a Greek poet and author. He was one of the most prominent Greek fiction writers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Background
Alexandros Papadiamantis was born on March 4, 1851, in Skiathos, Greece. He was a son of Adamandios Emmanuel, a Greek Orthodox priest. His mother was the daughter of a prominent family of landowners and sailors. His parents had nine children, two of whom died at birth. Alexandros was their fourth child and eldest living son.
Education
After undertaking his early education at schools in Skiathos, Skopelos, and Athens, Alexandros Papadiamantis enrolled at the University of Athens to study philology, but was forced by financial necessity to leave the university without completing a degree.
Career
Alexandros Papadiamantis’s first works of fiction were historical and adventure novels set in various eras of Greek history. While popular with readers, these novels have generally been dismissed by critics as immature and artistically weak, and his reputation rests almost entirely on his novels and short stories set in Skiathos. In these works Papadiamantis combined elements of the Greek oral and literary traditions, faithful portrayals of the lives and customs of the island’s inhabitants, and explorations of current social issues, focusing on such subjects as emigration, poverty, and familial relations.
His best-known work, the novel He phonissa (The Murderess), which was published in 1912, examines the problem of the subservient position of women in Greece, depicting a woman who murders young girls in an attempt to save them from the harsh future awaiting them as wives and mothers.
Other works depicting life on Skiathos demonstrate Papadiamantis’s deep religious convictions and contain frequent biblical allusions; many of them, such as "Christmas Bread," are based on church holidays. Although Papadiamantis has frequently been criticized for artistic failings, including sloppy prose, the random mixture of colloquial and literary language, and poor narrative construction, many critics maintain that these flaws are more than offset by the evocative charm and poignancy of his works, which made him one of the most popular authors in his homeland at the turn of the century.
Alexandros Papadiamantis was an author of Ho penlarphanos (1912), Epiloge (1981), Hapanta (1981 - 1985), Hoi chalasochoredes, kai alia diegemata (1982), Remvasmos tou dekapentaugoustou kai alia diegemata (1989), He nostalgos kai alia diegemata (1989), Ta poiemata (1989), To lavaron: anekdotes Papadiamantikes setides apo to Archeio Apostolou G. Papadiamante (1989), Nauagion nauagia: kai alia diegemata (1990), etc. He died of pneumonia on January 3, 1911.