To karagatsis biography

– 14 September 1960) was the pen name of the important modern Greek novelist, journalist, critic and playwright Dimitrios Rodopoulos.
M.
One of the most gifted novelists of his generation, a continuator of the tradition left by the naturalistic short stories by Karkavitsas and Theotokis.

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M. Karagatsis (Μ. Καραγάτσης)

M. Karagatsis (Greek: Μ. Καραγάτσης; 23 June 1908 – 14 September 1960) was the pen name of the important modern Greek novelist, journalist, critic and playwright Dimitris Rodopoulos (Δημήτριος Ροδόπουλος). The pen name M. Karagatsis is the name the novelist is known with. The letter "M." comes from Mitya, which is the Russian diminutive of Dimitris (his real name). The word "Karagatsis" comes from the tree karagatsi under the shadow of which he used to write as a young writer.

Karagatsis was born in Athens, grew up in Larissa and Thessaloniki, and studied law in France. He died in Athens.

He is associated with the "Generation of the '30s"

Karagatsis has been characterized as primarily a prose writer of the illusory reality of persons and situations. His writing is bold, sensual, with great imagination and a unique narrative style, and is often studied by Greek students. His first three novels (Colonel Liapkin, Chimaera and Junkermann) compose a trilogy named Acclimazation under Apollo, about foreigners who live and work in Greece. Karagatsis sets

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The Great Chimera – A Classic Greek Novel

The Great Chimera is a Greek Novel, which is worth it to discover, by reading it in Greek, or otherwise the translation in another language.
This Greek novel is written by M. Karagatsis and is considered a modern Greek classic. It tells the story of a young French woman, Marian, who falls in love with a Greek sea-captain, marries him, and moves with him to the Aegean island of Syros (where the Omilo summer courses take place!)
Even though it was first published in 1936, it remains an extremely timely piece of work – read below to discover more about it.

What means “Chimera”

In ancient Greek mythology, the chimera (Greek: χίμαιρα) was a mythical monster. According to the Greek poet Homer, the front of her body looked like a lion and the back like a dragon. She had three heads – a snake, a lion and a goat. Chimera would breath fire out of each of her three mouths, causing irrevocable damages to people’s crops. Chimera would eat animals as well as humans.

As a symbol in literature, the chimera stands for

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M. Karagatsis: A legend of stories

One of the most gifted novelists of his generation, a continuator of the tradition left by the naturalistic short stories by Karkavitsas and Theotokis, M. Karagatsis wrote novels which we read as if we were watching a movie.

By Mia Kollia

Translated by Alexandros Theodoropoulos

A great name, a great myth…

His real name was Dimitrios Rodopoulos. The nickname Karagatsis came from the elm or karagatsi tree in Rapsani, Thessaly, where he spent most of his teenage summers at the family cottage and used to study sitting under a karagatsi in the courtyard of the village church. His nickname, M., probably came from the Russian name "Mitia" (Russian version of Dimitris), by which his friends and classmates called him, because of his great love for Fyodor Dostoevsky and especially for the work "The Brothers Karamazov".

Childhood and teenage years

M. Karagatsis was born in the centre of Athens, in a house at the junction of Akadimias and Themistokleous streets. He was one of the five children of Georgios Rodopoulos and Anthi Moulouli. His fath