During his stays in Paris, Vikelas embarked on translating Shakespeare plays into Greek: "King Lear", "Romeo and Juliet" and "Othello" during his wife's first stay (1878), and "Macbeth" and "Hamlet" during the second (1881). The public readings of his translations received an enthusiastic welcome in the literary community in Athens. He then also wrote his main literary work: "Loukis Laras". The book first appeared in Athens as a series starting in 1879. The same year, it was translated into French and German. The French translation (which had its first republication in 1880) was included by the Education Minister Jules Ferry in the list of works which could be given as prizes to good students.