(Greek: 螜蠅维谓谓畏蟼 螝慰谓未蠀位维魏畏蟼) Ioannis Kondylakis (1861-1920) was born in Ano Viannos, Crete, scion of the family known fighters of the island. When he was in childhood he fled as a refugee with his family in Piraeus and he returned to his hometown in 1869. There he learned how to read and write and then he began his high school studies at Heraklion and in 1884 he graduated from high school Varvakeios in Athens.
His works are considered to be with remarkable psychological and psychographic data and special sense of humor. Also, it is a special case how he uses his language, which is a mixture literary expression and Cretan dialect. His best-known works are Patouchas, The First Love and When I was a Teacher.
I picked this book up as part of an off-the-charts, self-indulgent literature haul at the university's book shop in Heraklion last year, without any previous knowledge of its topic or author, because a friendly employee recommended it so warmly to me. And it's a Cretan classic that I had never heard of before in my life? Which goes to prove again how much Greek literary education I still have to catch up on. The plot itself - an adolescent in love with a substantially older woman - is nothing new or shocking nowadays, but while I enjoyed Kondylakis' writing and the symbolism, I couldn't connect emotionally with the unlikeable protagonist. This edition includes a review by Keli Daskala, which lists other thematically related works of literature, but otherwise only touches briefly on the (psycho)analytical part of her research. From a publishing point of view, this is definitely a beautiful little book with both visual and haptic appeal!