Thanos Vlekas

By Pavlos Kalligas

Book Overview

Published in 1855 and considered Greece's first realistic social novel, Thanos Vlekas is a witty and ambitious portrayal of the problems facing the newly established Greek state after its War of Independence. The story of two opposing brothers, it addresses the brigandage, corruption, and bureaucratic bumbling that plagued the newly established Greek state.

Thanos is a young farmer struggling to improve himself despite the derision of his mother, who considers him incapable of bearing arms for his country. She prefers instead her more "heroic" son, the brave and ambitious brigand Tassos, whose courage and resistance to authority embodying the virtues that helped Greece drive out the Turks. While Thanos works his land, his ruthless brother uses the political machinery and wealth gained from robbery and murder to replace the old Ottoman landowners and subjugate the villagers.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0810118173
• ISBN13: 9780810118171
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Length: 211 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

History and melodrama in post-independence Greece

This novel, written by one of Greece's greatest statesmen, is really about Greece itself in the decades after independence was achieved. Brigands were common, and they moved back and forth between being thieves one season and sheriffs the next. Rule of law was very weak. The courts were a joke, and the gendarmes ineffective. Peasants thought independence would mean the end of exploitation, but it meant new masters. Ethnic Greeks who lived in Ottoman lands were seen ambivalently at best, and often as foreigners. The Orthodox church fought to keep other Christian groups out and to keep scientific Enlightenment down. The story is told through the life of an honest farmer named Thanos Vlekas, whose brigand/man-on-the-make brother keeps sucking him into trouble. I won't go into the details of the story here, but it is highly melodramatic. There is a sappy love story, complete with lots of heart-wrenching farewells and terrible misunderstandings. 3/4 of the way through the book, the ending becomes predictable. It's probably a good thing that Pavlos Kalligas stuck to politics and didn't write any more novels. So why four stars? Well, "Thanos Vlekas" should be read as a work of historical fiction or even history, rather a simple novel. The story leaves much to be desired, but the novel is an effective vehicle to illustrate social and economic conditions in mid-19th-century Greece, and the introduction/preface help with that illustration.

Stunningly accurate, biting criticism, still entertaining

To truly understand and appreciate this work, you have have to know something about the history of Greece. Under Islamic law which was applied under Ottoman rule, Christians are not really suppossed to bear arms. There are exceptions like how the Ottoman military employed as vassal soldiers, Serbian Christians, after Serbia was reduced to vassalage. The Greek klepths existed outside of the law, committing acts of armed banditry, caring little of the law. Another exception to the rule is how to combat Christian klephts the Ottoman state employed armed Christian armatoli. This book metes out scathing criticism to the early Greek state's acceptance of banditry: "I think I follow you. The Ministry ... torments the innocent ... so that no one will think that Justice sleeps."(73) The main protagonist is a farmer named Thanos Vlekas and whose brother Tassos, is a klepht who fought in the Greek Revolution. Thanos and other innocents suffer throughout this work so that men above the law like his brother can prosper. The comments of the Socialite Iapetos in one area had me in laughter: "Ethiopians and Eskimos love their own," ... "but only because they don't know the Iapetoses of this world."(80) This boasting comment describes the character of Iapetos well. On page 127 there should be a "the" inserted before the word "magistrate's", but other than that this work is error free. This book was entertaining while still showing an accurate portrayal of life in Greece after Greek independence. The author Pavlos Kalligas when asked for permission to reprint this novel denied ever writing a novel.(xviii) From reading this work, this is doubtfully out of embarrasment. In the "Translator's Introduction", it is mentioned that this book's scathing criticism of the Greek government's hypocrisy on the issue of brigandage, which it purported to combat while condoning as a necessary evil necessary to pursue foreign policy goals, was nothing other than a form of betrayl.(xv) Herein probably lies the explanation for his repudiating ever writing one of Greece's best novels written during the 1800s. It is hard to disagree about banditry being a necessary evil, without it where would the Greeks ever have obtained a military class like the klepths and armatoli under muslim rule, with which to fight for Independence? Another quote from the work supports this thesis: "Do you deny that our Revolution and independence are owed to these so-called klephts?"(188) The translator, Thomas Doulis has provided alot of extras with this work: "Translator's Preface", "Translator's Introduction", "Historical Background", and in the back of the book, "Translator's Notes", that assist the reader in understanding the context of this work. The Translator's Notes are a big help in explaining the frequent allusions to ancient Greek authors and mythology that contemporary learned Greeks like Kalligas who wrote the novel in Katharevousa(a form of archaic and literary Greek that has been lar