From Baroque to Classicism

The transition from romance to realism is shown in Joseph Ignatius Kraszewski (1812-1887), whose untiring pen produced over 500 volumes of fiction, history, criticism and other literary matter. His historical novels have made him the Scott of Poland: but he deals with Polish contemporary life as well. The picture of the decay of the land-owning aristocracy in Morituri shows deep insight. Of his historical novels, those relating to the "Saxon period" of the early i8th century—such as Briihl or Countess Kosel—are the best. His influence on readers and other novelists has been enormous.

In the field of the historical novel, Kraszewski is almost equalled in popularity by Zygmunt Kaczkowski (1826-96), who excels in stories of the troublous partitions of Poland. Another popular novelist is Theodor Tomasz Jez (whose real name was Zygmunt Makowski, 1824-1915), an insurrectionary soldier and an exile, who has described the history and folk-lore of the Balkans.

Of historians and essayists, Joachim Lelewel (1786-1861), laid the foundation of modern Polish historical research. Among his followers Karol Szajnocha (1818-68), is conspicuous for the literary qualities of his work, as shown chiefly in his monographs of Jadwiga and Jagiello and of Two Years of Polish History (viz., 1647-48). History and literary criticism are combined in the brilliant writings of Maurycy Mochnacki, who became the his torian of the insurrection of 1830. In Juljan Klaczko, Poland produced a distinguished student of Dante and of renaissance art : but his writings were mainly in French.

The Period of Realism.

The disaster of the second Polish insurrection, in 1863, produced violent reaction against all Roman tic dreams both in politics and in literature. The mood of realism was fostered from abroad by the progress of natural science, of economic development, and of political liberalism in Western Europe. The few eminent poets of this age of prose make them selves the heralds of its ideals. The representative lyrist of the positivist generation, Adam Asnyk (1830-97) passed in his own career from the romantic exaltation of national martyrdom to the advocacy of positive social work for popular education : he even became the founder of the "People's School Society" (1891). His mature lyrics are lyrics of thought rather than feeling, and even in his nature poetry reflection predominates over enthusiasm. Feeling abounds in the verses of his most distinguished contem porary in Polish poetry, the poetess Marie Konopnicka (1840 1916) : both in her lyrics and her short stories, the dominant note is one of profound pity for the poor. In her long epic, Mr. Balcer in Brazil (Pan Balcer w Brazylji), she tells the story of the sufferings of Polish peasant emigrants in the Brazilian forest.

The outstanding journalist of this era, Aleksander Swictochow ski (born in 1849) wages fearless war, both in his articles and his dramas, for the liberal ideals. His younger contemporary,

Andrew Niemojewski (1864-1921) was chiefly preoccupied, in his journalism and his poetry, with the new industrial problem.

In the sphere of the novel, Madame Eliza Orzeszko (1842 1910), represents peasants, Jews, great industrialists, but she always returns to the life of the Polish country gentry in her native Lithuania. Boleslaw Prus (real name: Aleksander Glowacki, 1847-1912) is, like Dickens, whom he resembles by his humour, a child of the city : the scene of his best social novels, like The Puppet (Lalka) and The Emancipated Woman (Eman cypantki), is laid in his beloved Warsaw. But he also gave a touching account of the peasant's attachment to the soil in The Outpost (Placowka). In his largest work, The Pharaoh, he per formed a tour de force by expressing modern ideas in a story of ancient Egypt. Poland's greatest modern writer is Henryk Sien kiewicz (q.v.) (1846-1916), whose Quo Vadis became known to all the civilised world, while his epic novels from Polish history— The Trilogy and The Knights of the Cross—together with the great historical paintings of Jan Matejko revived the romantic sense.

Younger novelists have imitated the extremes of the roman naturalists in the fashion of Zola. Adolf Dygasiriski (d. 1903) tells depressing stories of peasant poverty in Russian Poland: but he achieved his highest successes in his accounts of animal life in the Polish country-side, chiefly in The Feast of Life (Gody Zycia). The high-water mark of naturalisme in Poland is reached in the numerous plays and novels of Mme. Gabrielle Zapolska (d. 1923), an actress.

The historical verse play was cultivated with some effect by the illustrious Cracow scholar J. Szujski (1835-83), who, how ever, is notable chiefly as the author of a monumental History of Poland. He became one of the founders of the so-called "Cracow School" of moralising historians, represented beside him with distinction by Walerjan Kalinka (1826-86). Among later members of this group, the historian and jurist Michael Bobrzynski must be mentioned. While the Cracow school chiefly stressed the faults which contributed to Poland's ruin, Warsaw historians like Tadeusz Korzon (d. 1917) and Wiadyslaw Smoleriski (d. 1925) consciously emphasized the posi tive achievements of the nation. The stormy history of Poland in the 18th century found an able exponent in Ludwik Kubala (d. 1918), whose vivid pages inspired Sienkiewicz. More recently, the history of Poland's struggles for independence during the i9th century has been treated with brilliant talent in the writings of Professor Simon Askenazy. In recent decades, Count Stanislas Tarnowski, president of the Polish Academy (d. 1917), Professor Peter Chmielowski in Warsaw (d. 1905) and Professor Aleksander Bruckner in Berlin (1856– ) won distinction.