Life in the Tomb: WWI Literature
Stratis Myrivilis' Classic Novel of the Greek Trenches
The story that horrified readers with its frank portrayal of World War I military life is now one of the bestselling books of modern Greek literature.
Censored by the Metaxas and German governments, read more widely than any other work of Modern Greek literature, and having survived nearly a century as a Greek classic, Myrivilis’ Life in the Tomb is essential for anyone interested in Modern Greek literature or in literature from the First World War.
The Book: Life in the Tomb
Before his narrative even begins, readers know that the life of protagonist Anthony Kostoulas will be cut short by an ugly death in the trenches. The “character” Stratis Myrivilis details Kostoulas’s death in a Greek offensive against the Bulgarians. Kostoulas was killed by a flame-thrower who, while fighting for the Greeks, was wounded and inadvertently sprayed his flame at his comrades. Kostoulas jumped into the flame-thrower’s trench and grotesquely had his face burned off.
Thus, Myrivilis introduces the hero of Life in the Tomb. The three-hundred-plus pages that follow are Kostoulas’s long letter to his fiancé on his native Lesvos, never sent because of army mail censorship.
What compels the reader to keep going, knowing the horrible fate of their hero? There is no uncertainty about the protagonist’s end, and there is also no major plot structure to drive the reader; instead, each chapter is a little vignette. Kostoulas’s document, though addressed to his fiancé, is more of a journal filled with his musings on life, death, and war.
The Book: Frank Portrayal of Trench Warfare Undermines "The Great Idea"
Despite all this, Life in the Tomb is an incredibly compelling book. The obvious vitality, the depth, intelligence and naiveté of twenty-two year-old Kostoulas contrasts everywhere with his brutal and senseless death. It is the personality and sharp perception of this character that propel readers through the book.
This frank portrayal of trench warfare often shocked readers. Many Greeks supported the war in the name of the “Great Idea,” the nationalistic concept that Greece would recapture Constantinople (now Istanbul) and dominate the Mediterranean. Myrivilis shows readers troops from the Greek islands who, swept up by this spirit of Greek nationalism, volunteered to serve.
Myrivilis leaves no uncertainty that they made the wrong decision. Abused by their simpleminded superiors, starved, dirty, bored, and lustful, the soldiers of Life in the Tomb topple the ideal of bravery in battle. To stay spiritually alive, each soldier desperately clings to whatever he can of his past life. They remember their wives, mothers, children, brothers, and their prayers. In one especially touching story, the only thing that keeps a soldier going is the hope that his love, to whom he never dared to speak, will send him a letter. He writes to her every day of the war. A letter finally comes after months of waiting but, in his careless excitement to open it, it is torn from his hands by the wind and blown far away.
Kostoulas lives for his memories of the unnamed fiancé and his home island, Lesvos. Though the world around him is full of decay, his memories of home are pure joy; the reminiscences of Lesvos are the most beautiful and vibrant passages in the book. Even until the end, he cannot believe he will never see his home again. He ends the book, “until tomorrow then, my dearest. Until tomorrow, goodbye.”
The Author: Stratis Myrivilis
Aspects of Life in the Tomb are autobiographical. Like Anthony Kostoulas, Stratis Myrivilis served in the Archipelago Division, and many of the book’s pieces began in Myrivilis’ own journal. Like his fictional hero, Myrivilis was a university student from Lesvos when he was swept up by the fervor of war propagandizing.
Myrivilis had many more war experiences to draw on in his writing after a decade in the military. Upon returning to civilian life, Myrivilis wrote fiction, journalism, and anti-war material. Life in the Tomb was one of the first pieces of true literary prose in Modern Greek and had tremendous cultural influence, despite being less known in other countries. It was first published serially in the newspaper Kambana and was followed up with The Schoolmistress with the Golden Eyes and The Mermaid Madonna. Myrivilis was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1960.
Myrivilis, Stratis, Translation by Peter Bien. Life in the Tomb. London: Quartet Encounters, 1987. ISBN 0-7043-0039-7.
