Boleslaw Prus

Boleslaw Prus is often compared to Chekhov, and Prus’s masterpiece might be described as an intimate epic, a beautifully detailed, utterly absorbing exploration of life in late-nineteenth-century Warsaw, which is also a prophetic reckoning with some of the social forces—imperialism, nationalism, anti-Semitism among them—that would soon convulse Europe as never before. But The Doll is above all a brilliant novel of character, dramatizing conflicting ideas through the various convictions, ambitions, confusions, and frustrations of an extensive and varied cast. At the center of the book are three men from three different generations. Prus’s fatally flawed hero is Wokulski, a successful businessman who yearns for recognition from Poland’s decadent aristocracy and falls desperately in love with the highborn, glacially beautiful Izabela. Wokulski’s story is intertwined with those of the incorrigibly romantic old clerk Rzecki, nostalgic for the revolutions of 1848, and of the bright young scientist Ochocki, who dreams of a future full of flying machines and other marvels, making for a book of great scope and richness that is, as Stanisław Barańczak writes in his introduction, at once “an old-fashioned yet still fascinating love story . . . , a still topical diagnosis of society’s ills, and a forceful yet subtle portrayal of a tragically doomed man.

The Doll

Faraon

De pop / druk 1

Street Organ (Hurdy-Gurdy). a Story. Translated from the Polish

Emancypantki (Emancipated Women), by the acclaimed Polish author Boleslaw Prus, was first published as a serial in the Daily Courier (Kurier Codzienny), 1890-1893, and as a book in 1894. Leading his readers, in a manner reminiscent of Dickens, from an elegant girls’ school in Warsaw to a provincial town—from a magnate’s palace to a boarding house for working women and a secret lying-in hospital for unmarried mothers—Prus explored the choices available to women in his time, and the forces that influenced those choices. An intriguing love story with an ambiguous ending adds spice.

Emancypantki (Emancipated Women)

Nowele i opowiadania

Na wakacjach ; Katarynka

The Pharaoh and the Priest: An Historical Novel of Ancient Egypt

Nukk

Faraon tom I

Lalka tom I

Lalka tom II

Christopher Kasparek

First published in 1895-96 as a serial in the Warsaw Illustrated Weekly, Pharaoh is one of the classic novels of Polish literature. It sets a timeless political drama in ancient Egypt during the fictional reign of Ramses XIII. Representing extensive historical research, this engrossing novel presents a panoramic and unforgettable view of Egyptian statecraft, industry, and social life. This new translation by Christopher Kasparek supersedes an earlier incomplete English version published in 1912.

Pharaoh

Boleslaw Prus

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