M. Karagatsis (1908 - 14 September 1960) was the pen name of the important modern Greek novelist, journalist, critic and playwright Dimitris Rodopoulos. He was born in Athens, lived in Larissa and studied law in France. The pen name M. Karagatsis is the name the novelist is known with. The letter "M." comes from Mitja which is the diminutive of Dimitrios (his real name). The word "Karagatsis" comes from the tree "Karagatsi" under the shadow of which he used to write as a young writer.

Evaluation

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 Junkerman) compose a trilogy named Acclimazation under Apollo, about foreigners who live and work in Greece. Karagatsis sets these books in modern, cosmopolitan Greece, in contrast with the stereotype that Greek life is conservative and countrified.

Books

Karagatsis is one of the few modern Greek writers to be translated, (mainly in German, but also in English, Italian, French) and his most important works are:

• Miss Nitsa ( 1929, short novel awarded by literature magazine Nea Estia)
• Colonel Liapkin (1933) (Ο Συνταγματάρχης Λιάπκιν)
• Junkerman (1939) (Γιούγκερμαν)
• The last days of Junkerman (1940) (Τα στερνά του Γιούγκερμαν)
• Lost island (1941) (Χαμένο Νησί)
• The ruler of Kastropyrgos (1944) (Ο Κοτζάμπασης του Καστρόπυργου)
• Great Sleep (1946) (Ο Μεγάλος Ύπνος)
• Bar Eldorado (Stage play, 1946)
• Blood lost and gained (1947) (Αίμα χαμένο και κερδισμένο)
• Carmen (Stage play, 1948)
• History of Greeks (nonfiction, 1952) (Η ιστορία των Ελλήνων)
• At God's Hands (1954)
• Death and Thodoros (1956) (Ο Θάνατος κι ο Θόδωρος)
• Yellow envelope (1957) (Ο Κίτρινος Φάκελος)
• Sergios and Vacchos (1959) (Σέργιος και Βάκχος)
• 10 (1960) (unfinished)