The garden of the Princes

Prologue to the third edition

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Nikos Bakolas' novel "The Garden of the Princes", first printed in 1966, is based on the story of the House of Atreus, as it has been handed down to us through the ancient tragedies, mainly, but also through the epics of Homer. In his novel the story has been transplanted into the twentieth century, to the years immediately preceding and immediately following the Catastrophe in Asia Minor. Exploiting the perennity of the conflict between Agamemnon and Clytemnestra (male/female) both within the family and outside it, the author explores and presents the dense web of relationships and oppositions within the family, as well as that of the bonds of passion extending beyond the family and leading finally to bloodshed.

In "The Garden of the Princes", Bakolas writing is both very personal and very modern in its vision and expression. His extensive use of the devices of stream of consciousness and interior monologue are both a continuation and a development of the tradition of prose writing in Thessalonih. The poetry and the passion with which he regards both the inner and the outer world, combined with the fecundity of his rhythmic prose, make "The Garden of the Princes" not only one of Nikos Bakolas' most important books but, as the critics have said, "an inspired piece of writing, perhaps the most personal of all his works".

Published by Paratiritis, 1997