Prominent Poles
Boleslaw Prus (born Aleksander Glowacki) novelist, short story writer, journalist
Born: August 20, 1847, Hrubieszow, Russian partition of Poland (presently Poland)
Died: May 19, 1912, Warsaw, Russian partition of Poland (presently Poland)
Summary. It has been observed that, while Prus espoused a Positivist outlook, much in his fiction writing shows qualities compatible with pre-1863-Uprising Polish Romantic literature (although he himself wrote little verse). Indeed, he held some of the Polish Romantic poets, such as Adam Mickiewicz, in high regard. Prus' novels in turn, especially The Doll and Pharaoh, with their innovative composition techniques, blazed the way for the 20th-century Polish novel. The Doll was considered by Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz to be the best Polish novel. The New Woman was deemed by Joseph Conrad to be "better than Dickens" (a favorite author of Conrad's). Pharaoh, a brilliant evocation of "the oldest civilization in the world," became Joseph Stalin's favorite novel, prefigured the fate of President John F. Kennedy, and continues to point analogies to our own times. Whole his life he was engaged in sharp political, social and ethical polemics. He wrote (N. Davies, History of Poland, V.II, p.257): “If I could believe, as some of my colleagues do, that the Jews constitute a power, I would be willing to think of this Jewish question as a real problem… There are some who think that the Jews are the sole capitalists among us,,,I , on the contrary, regard the vast majority as the poorest of the poor. There are those who accuse them of unusual solidarity, which again I find amusing because, as far as I know their faith is not only divided into classes filled with mutual hatred and scorn…… So let me draw attention to the fact that ignorance and caste feeling are not unique to Jewish separatism. We must sorrowfully admit that in our beautiful country ignorance reigns supreme from the basements to the rooftops…As fo the Jewish caste spirit- dear Lord! Where is there no caste spiit?...”
Early days. He was born to an impoverished noble family (coat of arms Prus). His father worked as a steward at various estates. His mother was Apolonia nee Trembinska. She died in 1850 and Prus’s father died in in 1854. The orphaned boy was raised first by his maternal grandmother and then by his aunt Domicela Olszewska. He went to an elementary school in Siedlce, then in Kielce where his older brother Leon was a teacher. In 1863 he fled the school to participate in the January Uprising in which he suffered severe battle contusions and later imprisonment by Tsarist Russian authorities. His family was able to get him out of prison and he attended and finished in 1866 with distinction the Lublin High school (gimnazjum). He started studying at the Mathematics-Physics department of Warsaw University which he abandoned after two years. In 1869 he enrolled at the newly opened Agricultural and Forestry Institute in Puławy, where he had spent part of his childhood; he was, however, soon expelled after a classroom confrontation with a Russian professor. Henceforth he studied on his own while supporting himself as a tutor, factory worker, and from 1872 a journalist. Journalism would become his school of writing. His first articles appeared in Opiekun domowy , Niwa and in satiric periodicals Mucha and Kolce.
Marriage. In 1876 he married Oktawia Trembinska, his mother’s distant cousin. The couple never had children of their own. A foster son — the model for Rascal in chapter 48 of Pharaoh — would in 1904, at age eighteen, shoot himself dead on the doorstep of an unrequited love. Prus may in 1906, at fifty-nine, have had a son who would die in a German camp after the suppression of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
Literary career. During the period 1876-1884 he adopted the French critic Hippolyte Taine's concept of the arts, including literature, as a second means, alongside the sciences, of studying reality; and as a sideline he turned his hand to penning short stories. He wrote then among others "Szkice i obrazki", "Przygoda Stasia", "Powracająca fala", "Kamizelka", "Antek", "Pałac i rudera.” In 1882 Prus assumed the editorship of a Warsaw daily Nowiny, resolving to make it "an observatory of societal facts" — an instrument for fostering the development of his country. After less than a year, however, Nowiny (News) folded, and Prus resumed writing columns. Between 1886 and 1895 he completed four major novels. The Outpost (Placowka,1886) on the Polish peasant, The Doll ,(Lalka, 1889) describing the romantic infatuation of a man of action who is frustrated by the backwardness of his society, The New Woman (Emancypantki,1893) on feminist concerns and Pharaoh (Faraon, 1895) Prus' only historical novel, while reflecting the Polish national experience, also offering a unique vision of ancient Egypt at the fall of its 20th Dynasty and the New Kingdom. In 1897-1899 Prus serialized in the Warsaw Daily Courier (Kurier Codzienny) a monograph on The Most General Life Ideals (Najogólniejsze ideały życiowe), which systematized ideas that he had developed over his career regarding happiness, utility and perfection in the lives of individuals and societies. A book edition appeared in 1901. This work retains interest especially for philosophers and social scientists. He also published the novel Children (Dzieci) analyzing the 1905 revolution.
On May 19, 1912, at his Warsaw apartment, Prus' forty-year journalistic and literary career ended with his death. His grave is at the Powazki Cemetery in Warsaw and has the inscription “Serce – serc” (The heart of hearts). The beloved agoraphobic author was mourned by the nation that he had striven, as soldier, thinker and writer, to rescue from oblivion. The Doll and Pharaoh, two of the preeminent achievements in Polish literature, are available in good English translations. In addition, The Doll has been filmed several times and been produced as a TV series, and Pharaoh in 1966 appeared as a blockbuster feature film. In 1961 a museum devoted to Prus was opened in the Małachowski Palace at Nałęczów.
This article uses, among others, material from the Wikipedia article "Boleslaw Prus" licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. :
Wikipedia
With additional information from other sources:
Stefan Butryn (in Polish)
Norman Davies: Playground of God, V.II
English translations of some of his works see:
Constance J. Ostrowski
See also some of his works online in Polish:
Roman Antoszewski
Return to home page:
Prominent Poles
