Home life in Hellas, Greece and the Greeks - eBooks4Greeks.gr

284 HOME LIFE IN HELLASThere is a healthy tone about popular literature inGreece which might be emulated by countriesnearer home. The series issued by the Societyfor the Diffusion of Useful Books consists ofvolumes costing fourpence each, some of themadmirably written, and all of them educative inthe best sense of the term.There is an excellentChildren's Library, which includes translations ofchildren's classics, such as Hans Andersen. TheMarasle Library, which derives its name from awealthy Greek who originated and endowed it,has for its object the publication of works oforiginal merit and the translation of standardauthors. Macaulay is included in the series.Among books in foreign languages those inFrench predominate. One sees in the bookshopsfrequented by University men a sprinkling ofscientific works in German. English books arenot so plentiful. Illustrated art books and specialnumbers of illustrated journals constitute the bulkof them. Hall Caine and Marie Corelli are knownto the Athenians in translations, and standardnovels like David Coppetfield appear as feuilletonsin the newspapers. Dumas, Victor Hugo, andJules Verne seem to be the most popular Frenchwriters in translations. New French novels haveclients who read them in the original.There arefar more booksellers in Athens than in any Englishtown of the same size and their shops are well frequented.Indeed, the book is an important itemin the Athenian scheme of life, and this differ-