Έναν Αύγουστο στις Σπέτσες

Greek Easy Readers (Deltos)

by Κλεάνθης Αρβανιτάκης

John Pappas, a Greek American millionaire, together with his wife and daughter come to Spetses, a cosmopolitan Greek island, for their summer holidays. Expensive hotels, night life, impostors, and blackmailers, are all interwoven around the love of two young people. Greek Easy Readers Series Greek Easy Readers are targeted toward people learning Greek and looking for literature that doesn't require them to constantly pick up a dictionary. The book series are original works of adventure and mystery and include definitions for difficult words along with the English, French and German equivalents. They also contain reading comprehension exercises and ideas for classroom activities. The books range from Stages 1-5, Stage 1 being the easiest, and Stage 5 being the most difficult. In Greek Softcover, 71 pages

71 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1999

Reviews

[Bigminipig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Одного серпня на Спеце.
Читали у класі під час уроків грецької. Приємно усвідомлювати, що вже виходить читати, а не продиратися зі словником.
Помітно, що це старі добрі історії з минулого століття, пропаганда ЗОЖ маячить ще десь попереду, всі герої п'ють постійно драй мартіні і узо, курять, назвати охоронця просто так горилою взагалі не зашквар, шарман, коротше 😄

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is insipid, but my rating is based on usefulness for someone learning Greek. This was just the right level for my current Greek skill, so I could read it without stopping to look up every other word in the dictionary. I still had to look up a few words per page, but it was the first time I felt like I was reading a book in Greek rather than slogging my way through it. Progress!

[Drianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually really, really enjoyed this one!

Eva Papas, the child of a hyper-wealthy Greek-American businessman (who seems to speak Greek with his family and employees, even though they all are American, but whatevs) has gone with her family to the island of Spetses for their summer vacation. Eva feels that her father doesn't really care about her, that he's only interested in his wealth and his son, so while on Spetses, she spends a lot of time sneaking out to meet her boyfriend and female friends that her parents don't know about. But then... a ransom call comes and Eva is missing!

The actual mystery was guessable, but they made an attempt! So many points for that! Also, this book, unlike the ones by Νένη Κολέθρα, features actual narration, so it was a million times easier to follow along with.

Here at level two, you should be able to read: present (1st and 2nd [contract] conjugations), future perfective and imperfective, aorist, subjunctive [perfective], imperatives (perfective and imperfective); nouns in all forms. I didn't see any imperfects minus 'to be'; the use of aorist (past perfective) was the big addition.

[Caroline Thorley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a fantastic story but useful to read for the Greek.

[Bouno · Rating 3 out of 5]

70. Έναν Αύγουστο στις Σπέτσες 『ある8月、スペツェスにて』

著者： Κλεάνθης Αρβανιτάκης
出版社： Δέλτος
総語数：5,800語
頁数：本文40ページ
読了日：2005年12月02日

３年前に一度読み終えた本ですが、久しぶりに読み返してみました（過去のレビュー）。よしよし、今回はあまり苦労しないで読めましたぞ。
しかし、忘れているというか読み落としていたというか、「え？ そんな設定あったっけ？」という点が少し見つかりました。ちゃんと読み取れてなかった部分もあったんですね。しばらく時間を置いて読み返してみると、新たな発見をすることがあるかも。

[Dorothy Himberc]

The story is accessible even for people like me who studied Greek for a year and a half, five years ago. It is a pedagogical text and not meant as literature.

Regarding the story itself, the personality and pastimes of the heroine filled me with hopping rage. I suppose I am too old and prosaic to find the wealthy vacationing lifestyle in the book very aspirational, so I kept wondering why she didn't do anything useful. I did not like the heroine's main action at all, either, because in reality it would have been very selfish and damaging.

That said, the book seems to have been conscientiously prepared. The aspiring writer in me wanted to gouge my eyes out with a fork at several points. But I just wasn't reading the book in the spirit in which it was written; it was a bit of professional pedantry on my part; and, as mentioned, I am the wrong audience for it.