Nikos Engonopoulos (1907-1985) was one of the most prominent representatives of Greek Surrealist poetry and painting. Closely associated with Andreas Embeirikos, the "patriarch" of Surrealism in Greece, and with Nicolas Calas, an influential figure of the European and American avant-garde, Engonopoulos developed highly experimental pictorial and poetic aesthetics. In both his paintings and poems, he engaged in a critical, often ironic dialogue with Greek history and cultural traditions and their ideological appropriations in established cultural and political discourses. Engonopoulos was arguably the keenest advocate of Surrealist black humor and irony in Greece. His overall approach to the Greek past, informed as it was by the socio-aesthetic principles of French Surrealism, constitutes one of the most ingenious and provocative cases of artistic mythogenesis in the European avant-garde. This volume offers a collection of his most representative poems, including his long poem Bolivar, which was written in the winter of 1942-1943 and soon acquired the status of an emblematic act of resistance against the Nazis and their allies (Italians and Bulgarians), who had occupied Greece in 1941.

It has been said that Odysseys Elytis' national and international reputation as a poet has obscured the fact that he was an accomplished prose writer and a sensitive critic as well. Born in Crete in 1911 he published his first poems in 1935 and established himself as one of the leading figures in the "Generation of the Thirties" which also included Greece's other Nobel Laureate, George Seferis. In 1979, Elytis was awared the Nobel Prize for literature. His first volume of poetry "Open Book" was characterized by a polemical and often apologetic tone, the texts in "Carte Blanche" are more confessional and reflective, sometimes prophetic, yet always poetic and with the same boldness of expression.

When an Albanian husband and wife are found dead in their home, Inspector Costas Haritos, a veteran junta-trained homicide detective on the Athens police force, is called to what seems at first to be an open-and-shut case. For the Greek police, two dead Albanians are hardly a matter of concern. But when Albania's celebrity television news reporter Janna Karayoryi insists that thecase was closed too early, Haritos becomes unnerved. He doesn't exactly like the ambitious young journalist, but could she be right in thinking the murder has something to do with babies? Before Haritos can find out, Janna is murdered suddenly and chillingly, moments before she is to go on the air with a startling newsbreak. Did her mysterious report have something to do with the murdered Albanians? Who wanted her silenced, and why? Caught between a bumbling junior officer and higher-ups all too easily influenced by news executives determined to protect their own. Costas Haritos sets out to get to the bottom of the matter--and ends up neck deep in a dark form of capitalism that has emerged in Albania after the dictatorship.

Roides irreverent, witty and delightful novel tells the story of Joan who, according to a popular medieval legend, ascended to the Papal Throne as Pope John VIII. The truth of the legend is of little importance as the book is far more than a historical novel and, in fact, parodies the popular historical romances of the time. In Joan, Roides has created one of the most remarkable characters in modern Greek literature and in so doing has assured his place as one of its classic authors.

Derided and maligned more than any other Greek artist for his innovative and, at the time, often incomprehensible modernist experiments, Engonopoulos is today justifiably regarded as one of the most original artists of his generation and as a unique figure in Greek letters. Though he considered himself first a painter and only afterwards a poet, his poetry is widely read and admired, with many critical studies of his work appearing in recent years and with a growing recognition of its value and of its creative use of the Greek tradition and language. He enriched post-war Greek poetry with a host of poetic expressions, figures and images that have come to constitute part of the Greek poetic consciousness. In both his painting and poetry, he created a peculiarly Greek surrealism, a blending of the Dionysian and Apollonian, though always in keeping with basic surrealist tenets and, as such, his work is an important and original contribution not only to Modern Greek art and poetry but also to modern art and poetry worldwide.

The latest addition to the Dedalus Series on European Fantasy Literature, this anthology of short stories presents the richness and diversity of Greek fantasy literature, steeped in Homeric tradition. This first such collection spans the 20th century and contains mostly work in first English translations, including- classic Greek authors: Papadiamantis, Karkavitsas, Theotokas, Karagatsis- leading contemporary writers: Ambatzoglou, Valtinos, Yatromanolakis, Skakianakis, Tatsopoulos- prose of major Greek poets: Cavafy, Karyotakis- Greek Surrealists: Embeirikos, Engonopoulos, Valaoritis

Clutching his vodka and his memories, he seeks refuge on an island in the Cyclades. There by chance he meets a young woman who reactivates love's vocabulary. His survival instinct faintly reappears through the distorting mirror of alcohol. Yet the craving is an irresistible, clever adversary that shows no mercy. He is drawn by his love to places that affect his emotional world ever more forcefully. Moving from Paris and Munich to London and a mountain village in central Greece, he meets a young woman and it becomes clear that the greatest magic is to be found in reality, not the bottle.

Yorgi Yatromanolakis is a professor of ancie nt Greek, and is regarded as one of Greece''s most important 20th century novelists. His third novel, The History of a Ve ndetta, was awarded the First Greek National Prize for Liter ature '

A stunning collection that draws from four decades of verse by one of modern Greece's most lauded poets This is the first English-language collection of work by the renowned Greek poet Michalis Ganas. Originally from a remote village on the northwest border of Greece, Ganas witnessed the Greek Civil War as a young child, and was taken into enforced exile in Eastern Europe with his family. Weaving together subtle references to the events and places that have defined his life's story, Ganas's terse and technically accomplished poems are a combination of folklore, autobiography, and recent history. Whether describing the mountains of his youth or the difficulties of acclimation in Athens of the 1960s and 1970s, Ganas's writing is infused with striking and original imagery inspired by love, memory, and loss. Featuring expert translations-made in collaboration with Ganas himself-by David Connolly and Joshua Barley, this volume also includes a scholarly introduction to the poet's life and work.

Vrettakoss poems are firmly rooted in the Greek landscape and coloured by the Greek light, yet their themes and sentiment are ecumenical. His garden, his own heart, are but a microcosm of the entire world, of the whole of humanity, and both contain divine messages that the lens of poetry can help us to perceive.

Fey Folk is characteristic of Papadiamandiss work. Its characters are quaint, simple-hearted folk living their humble lives in accordance with centuries-old traditions and customs, delightfully described by Papadiamandis with both reverence and humour. The setting is the hinterland of his native island of Skiathos with its intoxicating vegetation, its hillsides, springs and ravines, where the belief in spirits and the supernatural is deeply rooted in the consciousness of the otherwise God-fearing and devout inhabitants. Generally recognized as one of the foremost Greek prose writers of the modern period, Alexandros Papadiamandis holds a special place in the history of modern Greek letters, but also in the heart of the ordinary Greek reader.

The Falstaff Principle is a fast moving trans-national thriller which asks "When is discretion the better part of valour?" It questions many of the values we take for granted and gives a glimpse into the workings of the establishment in modern Britain.

A journey full of love, denial and danger, where fiction is not that distant from reality. The answers will be found at Bar Flaubert. One man's quest to discover and understand the driving force behind an aspiring novelist who's written words seem to echo his innermost thoughts. Both a search for identity and an intriguing family saga, this tale follows the journey-filled with love, denial, and danger-undertaken by a young man who tries to discover why a novel by an aspiring writer seems to echo his own innermost thoughts. In Barcelona, Berlin, and Florence, he traces his Greek family's many connections and at last uncovers a mysterious ancestor who links together the strands of his investigation. Readers are taken on a journey where fiction is not that distant from reality.

Cavafy is by far the most translated and most well-known Greek poet internationally. His work exists in multiple translations in a wide range of languages and major 20th-century poets as diverse as Auden, Brecht, Brodsky, Durrell, Milosz and Montale have all paid tribute to Cavafy, either by writing poems in the style of Cavafy, or by openly admitting their debt to his poetry in their own work. Whether his subject matter is historical, philosophical or sensual, Cavafys unique poetic voice is always recognizable by its ironical, suave, witty, world-weary and aesthetic tones. It is a voice which lends itself to translation. Indeed, translations of Cavafys poetry are the best possible counter to the often quoted platitude that poetry is what is lost in translation. Cavafys is a poetry that not only survives but actually thrives in translation.

This volume contains translations of two late collections by Odysseas Elytis (Nobel Prize for literature, 1979). According to the official announcement of the Swedish Academy, the Nobel Prize was awarded to Elytis "for his poetry, which, against the background of Greek tradition, depicts with sensuous strength and intellectual clear-sightedness modern man's struggle for freedom and creativeness." The Oxopetra Elegies, which he published in November 1991 at the age of eighty, was immediately hailed as one of his finest works. Far from being a dialogue with death, as many critics hastily concluded, these elegies are laments for what is seen and perceived in certain "timeless moments" that, like the Oxopetra headland, project into the beyond, into another reality, revealing truths that, to the poet's constant dismay, remain "unverifiable" and "unutterable." The poems here function as a "contemporary form of magic," a key opening the portals to this other reality, at least for those who speak Elytis' language: the language of the Secret Sun. In West of Sorrow, published in November 1995, only months before his death, it becomes even clearer that his poetry remains, as it always was, a paean to life and love and beauty.

This volume brings together critical editions, translations into English, and textual studies of two seminal early printed books in the history of German mining. Johan Haselberg's "Der Ursprung gemeynner Berckrecht," dating from the 1530s, is the earliest printed compendium of legal and scientific texts on metal mining, some dating back to the 12th century. The "Bergkordnung Norwegen," printed in 1540, stands out as the first mining code composed in Germany for use in another country (Norway). The lengthy introduction surveys early German mining and mining literature in general, then examines the two books in their cultural, historical, and linguistic contexts. On the one hand, early practices and developments in the evolution of compiling technical information are demonstrated in the texts; however, the books also reveal some of the problems adherent to textual transmission in the early period of book printing.

This study describes and illustrates, with plans, drawings and photographs, 75 of the defensive towers in the Emirate of Ras al-Khaimah, which occupies the western side of the Musandam peninsula at the entrance to the Arabian Gulf. The material comes from a survey undertaken between December 1991 and January 1992, and includes an introduction discussing geography, history, typology and distribution, and construction techniques and features.