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{{Short description|Polish novelist (1847–1912)}}
[[Image:Boleslaw Prus.jpg|thumb|right|Bolesław Prus.]]
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[[Image:Herb Prus.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Prus Coat of Arms|''Prus I'']], Aleksander Głowacki's hereditary [[coat-of-arms]], from which he borrowed the [[pen-name]] "Bolesław ''Prus''."]]
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name = Bolesław Prus
| image = File:Bolesław Prus (ca. 1905).jpg
| caption = 1887 photograph
| pseudonym = Bolesław Prus
| birth_name = Aleksander Głowacki
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1847|8|20}}
| birth_place = [[Hrubieszów]], [[Congress Poland]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1912|5|19|1847|8|20}}
| death_place = [[Warsaw]], Congress Poland
| occupation = Novelist, journalist, short-story writer
| nationality = Polish
| period = 1872–1912
| genre = {{Plainlist|
* [[Literary realism#Zenith|Realist novel]]
* [[Historical novel]]
* [[Short story]]
* [[Flash fiction#History|Micro-story]]
* [[Prose poetry#History|Prose poetry]]
}}
| subject =
| movement = [[Positivism in Poland|Positivism]]
| spouse = Oktawia Głowacka, {{Née|Trembińska}}
| partner =
| children = Emil Trembiński (adopted)
| relatives =
| signature = Autograph-AlGlowacki-B Prus.svg
| website =
}}


'''Bolesław Prus''' (pronounced: [[Image:Ltspkr.png]][[Media:Prus.ogg|<nowiki>[b&#596;'lεswaf 'prus]</nowiki>]]; [[August 20]], [[1847]] &ndash; [[May 19]], [[1912]]), born '''Aleksander Głowacki''', was a [[Poland|Polish]] [[journalist]], [[short-story]] [[writer]], and [[novelist]] of the [[Positivism in Poland|Polish Positivist period]]. He is one of the most important figures in [[Polish literature|Polish letters]], and one of the most distinctive voices in [[world]] [[literature]].
'''Aleksander Głowacki''' (20 August 1847&nbsp;– 19 May 1912), better known by his pen name '''Bolesław Prus''' ({{IPA|pl|bɔˈlεswaf ˈprus|lang|Pl-Bolesław_Prus.ogg}}), was a Polish novelist, a leading figure in the history of [[Polish literature]] and [[History of philosophy in Poland#Positivism|philosophy]], as well as a distinctive voice in [[world literature]].<ref name="literature"/><ref name="undoubtedly"/>


As a 15-year-old, Aleksander Głowacki joined the Polish [[January Uprising|1863 Uprising]] against [[Imperial Russia]]. Shortly after his 16th birthday, he suffered severe battle injuries. Five months later, he was imprisoned for his part in the Uprising. These early experiences may have precipitated the [[panic disorder]] and [[agoraphobia]] that dogged him through life, and shaped his opposition to attempting to regain Poland's independence by force of arms.
An indelible mark was left on Prus by his experiences as a 15-year-old soldier in [[Poland]]'s [[January Uprising|1863 Uprising]], in which he suffered severe battle contusions and [[imprison]]ment by [[Tsarist Russia]]n [[authority|authorities]]. At age 25 he settled into a distinguished 40-year career in [[journalism]]. As a sideline, he began writing [[short story|short stories]].


In 1872, at the age of 25, in [[Warsaw]], he settled into a 40-year journalistic career that highlighted science, technology, education, and economic and cultural development. These societal enterprises were essential to the endurance of a people who had in the 18th century been [[Partitions of Poland|partitioned out of political existence]] by Russia, Prussia and Austria. Głowacki took his pen name "''Prus''" from the appellation of his family's [[Prus coat of arms|coat-of-arms]].
Between [[1886]] and [[1895]] Prus completed four major [[novel]]s. Perennial favorites with his countrymen are ''[[The Doll (novel)|The Doll]]'' (Lalka) and ''[[Pharaoh (novel)|Pharaoh]]'' (Faraon). ''[[The Doll (novel)|The Doll]]'' describes the romantic infatuation of a man of action who is frustrated by the backwardness of his society. ''[[Faraon|Pharaoh]]'', Prus' only [[historical novel]], while reflecting the [[Poland|Polish]] national experience, also offers a unique vision of [[ancient Egypt]] at the fall of its [[20th Dynasty]] and [[New Kingdom]].


As a sideline, he wrote short stories. Succeeding with these, he went on to employ a larger canvas; over the decade between 1884 and 1895, he completed four major novels: ''[[The Outpost (Prus novel)|The Outpost]]'', ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'', ''[[The New Woman]]'' and ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]''. ''The Doll'' depicts the romantic infatuation of a man of action who is frustrated by his country's backwardness. ''Pharaoh'', Prus's only historical novel, is a study of political power and of the fates of nations, set in [[ancient Egypt]] at the fall of the [[20th Dynasty]] and [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]].
===Biography===


== Life ==
Born ''Aleksander Głowacki'', Bolesław Prus fought in Poland's [[January Uprising|1863 Uprising]], the orphaned younger brother of an insurgent leader, Leon Glowacki. (Leon during the Uprising developed a mental illness that would end only with his death in [[1907]].) On [[september 1]], [[1863]], twelve days after his sixteenth birthday, Prus suffered severe battle [[contusion]]s and was captured by [[Tsarist Russia]]n forces. Eventually released on account of his youth, in [[1866]] he completed high school and enrolled in science at [[Warsaw University]].


=== Early years ===
His studies were cut short by financial straits and dissatisfaction with the educational experience. In [[1869]] he enrolled at the newly opened Agricultural and Forestry Institute in [[Pulawy|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.
[[File:Hrubieszów, plebania, XVIII, XIX.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Prus' [[Hrubieszów]] birthplace]]
[[File:Lublin Castle 5 Lublin 28.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|[[Lublin Castle]], Prus' prison during [[January Uprising|1863–65 Uprising]]]]
Aleksander Głowacki was born 20 August 1847 in [[Hrubieszów]], now in southeastern Poland, very near the present-day border with [[Ukraine]]. The town was then in the Russian-controlled sector of partitioned Poland, known as the "[[Congress Poland|Congress Kingdom]]". Aleksander was the younger son of Antoni Głowacki, an estate steward at the village of [[Żabcze]], in [[Hrubieszów County]], and Apolonia Głowacka ([[Given name#Name at birth|née]] Trembińska).<ref>Krystyna Tokarzówna, Stanisław Fita, ''Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości'' (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: a Calendar of His Life and Work), ed. Zygmunt Szweykowski, Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1969, p. 12.</ref>


In 1850, when the future ''Bolesław Prus'' was three years old, his mother died; the child was placed in the care of his maternal grandmother, Marcjanna Trembińska of [[Puławy]], and, four years later, in the care of his aunt, Domicela Olszewska of [[Lublin]]. In 1856 Prus was [[orphan]]ed by his father's death and, aged 9, began attending a Lublin primary school whose principal, Józef Skłodowski, grandfather of the future double [[Nobel laureate]] [[Maria Skłodowska-Curie]],<ref name="robert"/> administered canings (a customary mode of disciplining) to wayward pupils, including the spirited Aleksander.<ref>[[:pl:Monika Piątkowska|Monika Piątkowska]], ''Prus: Śledztwo biograficzne'' (Prus: A Biographical Investigation), [[Kraków]], [[Wydawnictwo Znak]], 2017, {{ISBN|978-83-240-4543-3}}, pp. 49–50.</ref>
After he began regular weekly newspaper columns, his finances stabilized, permitting him to marry a cousin. The couple never had children of their own. A foster son &mdash; the model for Rascal in chapter 48 of ''Pharaoh'' &mdash; 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 [[Germany|German]] camp after the suppression of the [[1944]] [[Warsaw Uprising]].


In 1862, Prus's brother, Leon, a teacher thirteen years his senior, took him to [[Siedlce]], then to [[Kielce]].<ref name="Bolesław Prus"/>
Prus, as a disciple of [[August Comte]]'s [[Positivism|Positivist]] [[philosophy]] &mdash; although he was a talented writer, at first best known for his [[humorist]] writing &mdash; early on thought little of his journalistic and literary productions; hence he adopted a [[pen name]], "''[[Prus Coat of Arms|Prus I]]''" being his family [[coat-of-arms]]. In [[1882]] he assumed the editorship of a [[Warsaw]] daily, resolving to make it "an observatory of societal facts" &mdash; an instrument for fostering the development of his country, which between [[1772]] and [[1795]] had been partitioned out of political existence by three of its neighbors. After less than a year, however, ''Nowiny'' (News) folded, and Prus resumed writing columns. In time he adopted the [[France|French]] [[critic]] [[Hippolyte Taine]]'s concept of the [[art]]s, including [[literature]], as a second means, alongside the [[science]]s, of studying reality; and as a sideline he turned his hand to penning [[short story|short stories]].


Soon after the outbreak of the Polish [[January Uprising|January 1863 Uprising]] against [[Imperial Russia]], 15-year-old Prus ran away from school to join the insurgents.<ref name="Pieścikowski, Edward p. 147">Pieścikowski, Edward, ''Bolesław Prus'', p. 147.</ref> He may have been influenced by his brother Leon, one of the Uprising's leaders. Leon, during a June 1863 mission to Wilno (now [[Vilnius]]) in [[Lithuania]] for the Polish insurgent government, developed a debilitating mental illness that would end only with his death in 1907.<ref>Pieścikowski, Edward, ''Bolesław Prus'', p. 165.</ref>
Eventually he would compose four major [[novel]]s on great questions of the day: ''The Outpost'' ([[1886]]) on the Polish [[peasant]]; ''[[The Doll (novel)|The Doll]]'' ([[1889]]) on the [[aristocracy]] and [[townspeople]], and on idealists struggling to bring about [[social reform]]s; ''The New Woman'' ([[1893]]) on [[feminism|feminist]] concerns; and his only [[historical novel]], ''[[Pharaoh (novel)|Pharaoh]]'' ([[1895]]), on mechanisms of [[political power]].


On 1 September 1863, twelve days after his sixteenth birthday, Prus took part in a battle against Russian forces at a village called Białka, four kilometers south of [[Siedlce]]. He suffered [[contusion]]s to the neck and [[gunpowder]] injuries to his eyes, and was captured unconscious on the battlefield and taken to hospital in Siedlce.<ref name="tokarzówna"/> This experience may have caused his subsequent lifelong [[agoraphobia]].<ref name="Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie (Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus)"/>
''[[Pharaoh (novel)|Pharaoh]]'', depicting the demise of [[Egypt]]'s New Kingdom three thousand years earlier, also reflects [[Poland]]'s loss of independence a century before, in [[1795]]: an independence whose post-[[World War I]] restoration Prus would not live to see. On [[may 19]], [[1912]], at his [[Warsaw]] apartment, Prus' forty-year journalistic and literary career ended with his death. The beloved [[agoraphobia|agoraphobic]] author was mourned by the nation that he had striven, as soldier, thinker and writer, to rescue from oblivion.
[[File:Bolesław Prus fotografia Konrada Brandla 1871.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.5|Prus: [[Warsaw University]] student]]
Five months later, in early February 1864, Prus was arrested and imprisoned at [[Lublin Castle]] for his role in the Uprising. In early April a military court sentenced him to forfeiture of his nobleman's status and resettlement on imperial lands. On 30 April, however, the Lublin District military head credited Prus's time spent under arrest and, on account of the 16-year-old's youth, decided to place him in the custody of his uncle Klemens Olszewski. On 7 May, Prus was released and entered the household of Katarzyna Trembińska, a relative and the mother of his future wife, Oktawia Trembińska.<ref name="krystyna"/>


Prus enrolled at a [[Lublin]] ''[[gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]]'' ([[secondary school]]), the still functioning prestigious [[:pl:I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Stanisława Staszica w Lublinie|Stanisław Staszic School]], founded in 1586. Graduating on 30 June 1866, at nineteen he matriculated in the [[University of Warsaw|Warsaw University]] Department of Mathematics and Physics.<ref name="Prus, 147"/> In 1868, poverty forced him to break off his university studies.<ref name="Pieścikowski, Edward p. 147"/>
===Legacy===


In 1869, he enrolled in the Forestry Department at the newly opened Agriculture and Forestry Institute in [[Puławy]], a historic town where he had spent some of his childhood and which, 15 years later, was the setting for his striking 1884 [[flash fiction|micro-story]], "[[Mold of the Earth]]", comparing [[human history]] with the mutual aggressions of blind, mindless colonies of molds that cover a boulder adjacent to the [[Temple of the Sibyl]]. In January 1870, after only three months at the institute, Prus was expelled for his insufficient deference toward the martinet Russian-language instructor.<ref name="Prus, 147"/>
Half a century later, on [[December 3]], [[1961]], a museum devoted to Prus was opened in the Małachowski Palace at [[Naleczow|Nałęczów]], where Prus had vacationed for thirty years.


Henceforth he studied on his own while supporting himself mainly as a tutor. As part of his program of self-education, he translated and summarized [[John Stuart Mill]]'s ''[[A System of Logic]]''.
It has been observed that, while Prus espoused a [[Positivist]] outlook, much in his fiction writing shows qualities compatible with pre-[[January Uprising|1863-Uprising]] [[Poland|Polish]] [[Romantic literature]] (although he himself wrote little verse). Indeed, he held some of the Polish [[Romanticism| Romantic]] [[poet]]s, such as [[Adam Mickiewicz]], in high regard. Prus' novels in turn, especially ''[[The Doll (novel)|The Doll]]'' and ''[[Pharaoh (novel)|Pharaoh]]'', with their innovative [[writing|composition]] techniques, blazed the way for the [[20th-century]] [[Poland|Polish]] [[novel]].


In 1872, he embarked on a career as a newspaper [[columnist]], while working several months at the [[Evans, Lilpop and Rau]] Machine and Agricultural Implement Works in Warsaw.<ref name="cikowski"/> In 1873, Prus delivered two public lectures which illustrate the breadth of his scientific interests: "On the Structure of the Universe", and "[[Logology (science)#Discoveries and inventions|On Discoveries and Inventions]]."<ref name="cikowski1"/>
''[[The Doll (novel)|The Doll]]'' was considered by [[Nobel]] laureate [[Czeslaw Milosz|Czesław Miłosz]] to be the best Polish [[novel]]. ''The New Woman'' was deemed by [[Joseph Conrad]] to be "better than [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]]" (a favorite author of Conrad's). ''[[Pharaoh (novel)|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.


=== Columnist ===
''[[The Doll (novel)|The Doll]]'' and ''[[Pharaoh (novel)|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.
[[File:Boleslaw Prus.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Prus]]
As a newspaper [[columnist]], Prus commented on the achievements of scholars and scientists such as [[John Stuart Mill]], [[Charles Darwin]], [[Alexander Bain (philosopher)|Alexander Bain]], [[Herbert Spencer]] and [[Henry Thomas Buckle]];<ref name="szweykowski"/> urged Poles to study science and technology and to develop industry and commerce;<ref name="ReferenceA">Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, ''Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości'' (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: A Calendar of His Life and Work), ''passim''.</ref> encouraged the establishment of [[charitable organization|charitable institutions]] to benefit the underprivileged;<ref name="ReferenceA"/> described the fiction and nonfiction works of fellow writers such as [[H. G. Wells]];<ref name="A Futurological Note: Prus on H.G. Wells and the Year 2000"/> and extolled man-made and natural wonders such as the [[Wieliczka Salt Mine]],<ref name="Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and the Wieliczka Salt Mine"/> an 1887 [[solar eclipse]] that he witnessed at [[Mława]],<ref name="Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and the Solar Eclipse"/> planned building of the [[Eiffel Tower]] for the [[Exposition Universelle (1889)|1889 Paris Exposition]],<ref>Bolesław Prus, ''"Wieża paryska"'' ("The Paris Tower"), in ''Kurier Warszawski'' (Warsaw Courier), no. 59, 1887.</ref> and [[Nałęczów]], where he vacationed for 30 years.<ref>Bolesław Prus, ''"Z Nałęczowa"'' ("From Nałęczów"), in ''Kurier Codzienny'' (Daily Courier), no. 237, 1894.</ref>


His "Weekly Chronicles" spanned forty years (they have since been reprinted in twenty volumes) and helped prepare the ground for the 20th-century blossoming of Polish [[Timeline of Polish science and technology|science]] and especially [[Polish School of Mathematics|mathematics]].{{efn|Prus was not alone in advocating the development of science and technology. It was part of the spirit of the times. The great Polish mathematician [[Kazimierz Kuratowski]] writes that in the period when Poland was under complete foreign rule (1795–1918) "It was a common belief that the cultivation of science and the growth of its potential would somehow guarantee the [survival] of the [Polish] nation."<ref name="A Half Century of Polish Mathematics: Remembrances and Reflections"/>}} "Our national life," wrote Prus, "will take a normal course only when we have become a useful, indispensable element of civilization, when we have become able to give nothing for free and to demand nothing for free."<ref name="Bolesław Prus2"/> The social importance of science and technology recurred as a theme in his novels ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'' (1889)<ref>[[Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian)|Zygmunt Szweykowski]], ''Twórczość Bolesława Prusa'' (The Creative Writing of Bolesław Prus), pp. 170–71.</ref> and ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'' (1895).<ref>[[Christopher Kasparek]], "Prus' ''Pharaoh'': Primer on Power", ''[[The Polish Review]]'', vol. XL, no. 3, 1995, p. 332.</ref>
In [[1897]]-[[1899]] Prus [[serial]]ized 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. In it he returned to the [[society]]-[[organization|organizing]] (i.e. [[politics|political]]) interests that had been frustrated during his ''Nowiny'' editorship fifteen years earlier. A book edition appeared in [[1901]] (2nd, revised edition, [[1905]]). This work, rooted in [[Jeremy Bentham]]'s [[Utilitarianism|Utilitarian philosophy]] and [[Herbert Spencer]]'s view of [[society]]-as-[[organism]], retains interest especially for [[philosophy|philosophers]] and [[social science|social scientists]]. (A passage from the book is on Wikisource: see below.)


Of contemporary thinkers, the one who most influenced Prus and other writers of the Polish "[[Positivism in Poland|Positivist]]" period (roughly 1864–1900) was [[Herbert Spencer]], the English [[sociologist]] who coined the phrase, "[[survival of the fittest]]." Prus called Spencer "the [[Aristotle]] of the 19th century" and wrote: "I grew up under the influence of Spencerian [[evolution]]ary [[philosophy]] and heeded its counsels, not those of [[Idealist]] or [[Auguste Comte|Comtean]] [[philosophy]]."<ref>[[Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian)|Zygmunt Szweykowski]], ''Twórczość Bolesława Prusa'' (The Art of Bolesław Prus), p. 22.</ref> Prus interpreted "survival of the fittest," in the societal sphere, as involving not only competition but also cooperation; and he adopted Spencer's metaphor of [[Herbert Spencer#General influence|society as organism]].<ref>[[Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian)|Zygmunt Szweykowski]], ''Twórczość Bolesława Prusa'' (The Art of Bolesław Prus), pp. 32–33.</ref> He used this metaphor to striking effect in his 1884 [[flash fiction|micro-story]] "[[Mold of the Earth]]", and in the introduction to his 1895 [[historical novel]], ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)#Themes|Pharaoh]]''.<ref>[[Christopher Kasparek]], "Prus' ''Pharaoh'': the Creation of a Historical Novel", ''[[The Polish Review]]'', 1994, no. 1, p. 49.</ref>
Another of Prus' learned projects remained incomplete at his death. He had sought, over his writing career, to develop a coherent [[theory]] of [[literature|literary]] composition. Intriguing extant notes from [[1886]]-[[1912]] were never put together into a finished book as intended.


After Prus began writing regular weekly newspaper columns, his finances stabilized, permitting him on 14 January 1875 to marry a [[List of coupled cousins|distant cousin]] on his mother's side, Oktawia Trembińska. She was the daughter of Katarzyna Trembińska, in whose home he had lived, after release from prison, for two years from 1864 to 1866 while completing secondary school.<ref name="wspomnienia"/> The couple adopted a boy, Emil Trembiński (born 11 September 1886, the son of Prus's brother-in-law Michał Trembiński, who had died on 10 November 1888).<ref name="kalendarz"/> Emil was the model for Rascal in chapter 48 of Prus's 1895 novel, ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]''.<ref name="tokarzówna5"/> On 18 February 1904, aged seventeen, Emil fatally shot himself in the chest on the doorstep of an unrequited love.<ref name="tokarzówna6"/><ref name="stepdaughter"/>
===Chief novels===
* ''[[The Outpost (novel)|The Outpost]]'' (Placówka), [[1886]]
* ''[[The Doll (novel)|The Doll]]'' (Lalka), [[1889]]
* ''[[The New Woman (novel)|The New Woman]]'' (Emancypantki), [[1893]]
* ''[[Pharaoh (novel)|Pharaoh]]'' (Faraon), [[1895]]


It has been alleged that in 1906, aged 59, Prus had a son, Jan Bogusz Sacewicz. The boy's mother was Alina Sacewicz, widow of Dr. Kazimierz Sacewicz, a socially conscious physician whom Prus had known at Nałęczów. Dr. Sacewicz may have been the model for [[Stefan Żeromski]]'s Dr. Judym in the novel, ''Ludzie bezdomni'' (Homeless People)—a character resembling Dr. Stockman in [[Henrik Ibsen]]'s play, ''[[An Enemy of the People]]''.<ref name="futurological"/> Prus, known for his affection for children, took a lively interest in little Jan, as attested by a prolific correspondence with Jan's mother (whom Prus attempted to interest in writing). Jan Sacewicz became one of Prus's major [[legatee]]s and an engineer, and died in a German camp after the suppression of the [[Warsaw Uprising]] of August–October 1944.<ref name="pauszer"/>
===See also===
* "[[Mold of the Earth]]" (a [[microfiction|micro-story]] by Bolesław Prus).
[[File:POL COA Prus.svg|thumb|upright=1.0|[[Prus coat of arms|Coat-of-arms]] that inspired the [[pen-name]] "Bolesław ''Prus''"]]
Though Prus was a gifted writer, initially best known as a humorist, he early on thought little of his journalistic and literary work. Hence at the inception of his career in 1872, at the age of 25, he adopted for his newspaper columns and fiction the [[pen name]] "Prus" ("''[[Prus Coat of Arms|Prus I]]''" was his family [[coat-of-arms]]), reserving his actual name, Aleksander Głowacki, for "serious" writing.<ref name="Bolesław Prus7"/>
* "[[Shades (story)|Shades]]" (a [[microfiction|micro-story]] by Bolesław Prus).
* "[[A Legend of Old Egypt]]" (a [[short story]] by Bolesław Prus).
* [[Polish literature]].
* [[Young Poland]].
* [[List of novelists]].


An 1878 incident illustrates the strong feelings that can be aroused in susceptible readers of newspaper columns. Prus had criticized the rowdy behavior of some Warsaw university students at a lecture about the poet [[Wincenty Pol]]. The students demanded that Prus retract what he had written. He refused, and, on 26 March 1878, several of them surrounded him outside his home, where he had returned shortly before in the company (for his safety) of two fellow writers; one of the students, Jan Sawicki, slapped Prus's face.<ref name="tokarzówna8"/> Police were summoned, but Prus declined to press charges.<ref name="lorentowicz"/>
===References===


Seventeen years later, during his 1895 visit to [[Paris]], Prus's memory of the incident was still so painful that he may have refused (accounts vary) to meet with one of his assailants, [[Kazimierz Dłuski]], and his wife [[Bronisława Dłuska]] ([[Marie Skłodowska Curie]]'s sister who 19 years later, in 1914, scolded [[Joseph Conrad]] for writing his novels and stories in English, rather than in [[Polish language|Polish]] for the benefit of Polish culture<ref>[[Zdzisław Najder]], ''[[Joseph Conrad]]: A Life'', 2007, p. 463.</ref>).<ref name="tokarzówna9"/> These curiously interlinked incidents involving the Dłuskis and the two authors perhaps illustrate the contemporary intensity of aggrieved Polish national pride.
* [[Zygmunt Szweykowski]], ''Twórczość Bolesława Prusa'' (The Art of Bolesław Prus), 2nd edition, Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1972.


In 1882, on the recommendation of an earlier editor-in-chief, the prophet of [[Positivism in Poland|Polish Positivism]], [[Aleksander Świętochowski]], Prus succeeded to the editorship of the [[Warsaw]] daily ''Nowiny'' (News). The newspaper had been bought in June 1882 by financier [[Stanisław Kronenberg]]. Prus resolved, in the best [[Positivism in Poland|Positivist]] fashion, to make it "an observatory of societal facts"—an instrument for advancing the development of his country. After less than a year, however, ''Nowiny''—which had had a history of financial instability since changing in July 1878 from a Sunday paper to a daily—folded, and Prus resumed writing [[column (newspaper)|columns]].<ref name="kalendarz10"/><ref name="cikowski11">Pieścikowski, Edward, ''Bolesław Prus'', 152.</ref> He continued working as a journalist to the end of his life, well after he had achieved success as an author of short stories and novels.<ref>Pieścikowski, Edward, ''Bolesław Prus'', p. 166.</ref>
* Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, ''Bolesław Prus, 1847-1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości'' (Bolesław Prus, 1847-1912: Calendar of Life and Works), edited by Zygmunt Szweykowski, Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1969.


In an 1884 newspaper column, published two decades before the Wright brothers flew, Prus anticipated that powered flight would not bring humanity closer to universal comity: "Are there among flying creatures only doves, and no hawks? Will tomorrow's flying machine obey only the honest and the wise, and not fools and knaves?... The expected societal changes may come down to a new form of chase and combat in which the man who is vanquished on high will fall and smash the skull of the peaceable man down below."<ref>Cited in [[Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian)|Zygmunt Szweykowski]], ''Twórczość Bolesława Prusa'' (The Creative Writing of Bolesław Prus), 2nd ed., Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1972, p. 171.</ref>
* Gabriela Pauszer-Klonowska, ''Ostatnia miłość w życiu Bolesława Prusa'' (The Last Love in the Life of Bolesław Prus), Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1962.


In a January 1909 column, Prus discussed [[H. G. Wells]]'s 1901 book, ''[[Anticipations]]'', including Wells's prediction that by the year 2000, following the defeat of German [[imperialism]] "on land and at sea," there would be a [[European Union]] that would reach eastward to include the [[western Slavs]]—the [[Poland|Poles]], [[Czech Republic|Czechs]] and [[Slovakia|Slovaks]]. The latter peoples, along with the [[Hungary|Hungarians]] and six other countries, did in fact join the [[European Union]] in 2004.<ref name="A Futurological Note: Prus on H.G. Wells and the Year 2000"/>
* Stanisław Fita, ed., ''Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie'' (Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus), Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1962.


=== Fiction ===
* Stefan Melkowski, ''Poglądy estetyczne i działalność krytycznoliteracka Bolesława Prusa'' (Bolesław Prus' Esthetic Views and Literary-Critical Activity), Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1963.
[[File:Prus na frontopisie pierwszego wydania Lalki.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Prus, [[Book frontispiece|frontispiece]] to 1890 book edition of ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'']]


In time, Prus adopted the French Positivist critic [[Hippolyte Taine]]'s concept of the arts, including literature, as a second means, alongside the sciences, of studying reality,<ref name="szweykowski12"/><ref name="phenomenon"/> and he devoted more attention to his sideline of [[short story|short-story writer]]. Prus's stories, which met with great acclaim, owed much to the literary influence of Polish novelist [[Józef Ignacy Kraszewski]] and, among English-language writers, to [[Charles Dickens]] and [[Mark Twain]].<ref name="The History of Polish Literature"/> His fiction was also influenced by French writers [[Victor Hugo]], [[Gustave Flaubert]], [[Alphonse Daudet]] and [[Émile Zola]].<ref name="szweykowski13"/>
* [[Christopher Kasparek]], "A [[Futurology|Futurological]] Note: Prus on [[H.G. Wells]] and the Year [[2000]]," ''[[The Polish Review]]'', vol. XLVIII, no. 1, 2003, pp. 89-100.


Prus wrote several dozen stories, originally published in newspapers and ranging in length from [[flash fiction|micro-story]] to [[novella]]. Characteristic of them are Prus's keen observation of everyday life and sense of humor, which he had early honed as a contributor to humor magazines.<ref name="szweykowski14"/> The prevalence of themes from everyday life is consistent with the Polish Positivist artistic program, which sought to portray the circumstances of the [[populace]] rather than those of the [[Romantic hero]]es of an earlier generation. The literary period in which Prus wrote was ostensibly a [[prose|prosaic]] one, by contrast with the [[poetry]] of the Romantics; but Prus's prose is often a [[prose poetry|poetic prose]]. His stories also often contain elements of [[fantasy]] or whimsy. A fair number originally appeared in [[New Year]]'s issues of newspapers.<ref>Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita, ''Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości'', ''passim''.</ref>
===External links===
{{wikisource author}}
{{Wikiquote}}


Prus long eschewed writing [[historical fiction]], arguing that it must inevitably distort [[history]]. He criticized contemporary [[historical novel]]ists for their lapses in historical accuracy, including [[Henryk Sienkiewicz]]'s failure, in the military scenes in his ''[[The Trilogy|Trilogy]]'' portraying 17th-century Polish history, to describe the [[logistics]] of warfare. It was only in 1888, when Prus was forty, that he wrote his first historical fiction, the stunning short story, "[[A Legend of Old Egypt]]." This story, a few years later, served as a preliminary sketch for his only historical novel, ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'' (1895).<ref name="wspomnienia15"/><ref>Szweykowski, Zygmunt, ''"Geneza noweli 'Z legend dawnego Egiptu'"'' (The Genesis of the Short Story, "A Legend of Old Egypt"), in ''Nie tylko o Prusie: szkice'' (Not Only about Prus: Sketches), 1st ed., 1967, pp. 256–61.</ref>
[[Category:1847 births|Prus, Boleslaw]]
[[Category:1912 deaths|Prus, Boleslaw]]
[[Category:Polish novelists|Prus, Boleslaw]]
[[Category:Polish short story writers|Prus, Boleslaw]]
[[Category:Polish essayists|Prus, Boleslaw]]
[[Category:Historical novelists|Prus, Boleslaw]]


Eventually Prus composed four [[novel]]s on what he had referred to in an 1884 letter as "great questions of our age":<ref name="cikowski16"/> ''[[The Outpost (Prus novel)|The Outpost]]'' (''Placówka'', 1886) on the Polish peasant; ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'' (''Lalka'', 1889) on the [[aristocracy]] and [[townspeople]] and on [[Ideal (ethics)|idealists]] struggling to bring about [[social reform]]s; ''[[The New Woman (novel)|The New Woman]]'' (''Emancypantki'', 1893) on [[feminism|feminist]] concerns; and his only [[historical novel]], ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'' (''Faraon'', 1895), on mechanisms of [[political power]]. The work of greatest sweep and most universal appeal is ''Pharaoh''.<ref name="christopher"/> Prus's novels, like his stories, were originally published in newspaper [[serial (literature)|serialization]].<ref>Szweykowski, Zygmunt, ''Twórczość Bolesława Prusa'', ''passim''.</ref>
[[cs:Bolesław Prus]]

[[de:Bolesław Prus]]
After having sold ''Pharaoh'' to the publishing firm of Gebethner and Wolff, Prus embarked, on 16 May 1895, on a four-month journey abroad. He visited [[Berlin]], [[Dresden]], [[Karlovy Vary|Karlsbad]], [[Nuremberg]], [[Stuttgart]] and [[Rapperswil]]. At the latter Swiss town he stayed two months (July–August), nursing his [[agoraphobia]] and spending much time with his friends, the promising young writer [[Stefan Żeromski]] and his wife Oktawia. The couple sought Prus's help for the [[Polish Museum, Rapperswil#Żeromski and Prus|Polish National Museum]], housed in the Rapperswil Castle, where Żeromski was librarian.<ref name="Pieścikowski 157"/>
[[eo:Bolesław Prus]]

[[hr:Bolesław Prus]]
The final stage of Prus's journey took him to [[Paris]], where he was prevented by his agoraphobia from crossing the [[Seine River]] to visit the city's southern [[Rive Gauche|Left Bank]].<ref name="Pieścikowski 157"/> He was nevertheless pleased to find that his descriptions of Paris in ''The Doll'' had been on the mark (he had based them mainly on French-language publications).<ref name="wspomnienia17"/> From Paris, he hurried home to recuperate at [[Nałęczów]] from his journey, the last that he made abroad.<ref name="Bolesław Prus18"/>
[[pl:Bolesław Prus]]

[[ru:Прус, Болеслав]]
=== Later years ===
[[simple:Bolesław Prus]]
[[File:Bolesław Prus (1897).jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.3|Portrait, 1897, celebrating Prus' 25 years as journalist and fiction writer]]
[[File:Bolesław Prus by Jadwiga Golcz, 1897.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Prus, 1897]]
Over the years, Prus lent his support to many charitable and social causes, but there was one event he came to rue for the broad criticism it brought him: his participation in welcoming Russia's [[tsar]] during [[Nicholas II]]'s 1897 visit to Warsaw.<ref name="Bolesław Prus19"/> As a rule, Prus did not affiliate himself with [[political parties]], as this might compromise his journalistic objectivity. His associations, by design and temperament, were with individuals and select worthy causes rather than with large groups.<ref>Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita; Zygmunt Szweykowski, ed.; ''Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości'' (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: a Calendar of His Life and Work), 1969, ''passim''.</ref>

The disastrous [[January Uprising|January 1863 Uprising]] had persuaded Prus that society must advance through learning, work and commerce rather than through risky social upheavals. He departed from this stance, however, in 1905, when [[Imperial Russia]] experienced defeat in the [[Russo-Japanese War]] and Poles demanded autonomy and reforms. On 20 December 1905, in the first issue of a short-lived periodical, ''Młodość'' (Youth), he published an article, "''Oda do młodości''" ("Ode to Youth"), whose title harked back to an 1820 poem by [[Adam Mickiewicz]]. Prus wrote, in reference to his earlier position on revolution and strikes: "with the greatest pleasure, I admit it—I was wrong!"<ref name="tokarzówna20"/>
[[File:Bolesław Prus tomb.PNG|thumb|upright=1.3|Prus' tomb at Warsaw's [[Powązki Cemetery]]]]
In 1908, Prus serialized, in the Warsaw ''Tygodnik Ilustrowany'' (Illustrated Weekly), his novel ''Dzieci'' (Children), depicting the young revolutionaries, terrorists and anarchists of the day – an uncharacteristically humorless work. Three years later a final novel, ''Przemiany'' (Changes), was to have been, like ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'', a panorama of society and its vital concerns. However, in 1911 and 1912, the novel had barely begun serialization in the ''Illustrated Weekly'' when its composition was cut short by Prus's death.<ref name="Bolesław Prus21"/>

Neither of the two late novels, ''Children'' or ''Changes'', is generally regarded as part of the essential Prus canon, and [[Czesław Miłosz]] has called ''Children'' one of Prus's weakest works.<ref name="The History of Polish Literature22"/>

Prus's last novel to meet with popular acclaim was ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'', completed in 1895. Depicting the demise of [[ancient Egypt]]'s [[Twentieth Dynasty]] and [[New Kingdom of Egypt|New Kingdom]] three thousand years earlier, ''Pharaoh'' had also reflected Poland's loss of independence a century before in 1795<ref name="christopher23"/>—an independence whose post-[[World War I]] restoration Prus did not live to see.

On 19 May 1912, in his Warsaw apartment at 12 Wolf Street (''ulica Wilcza 12''), near [[Triple Cross Square]], his forty-year journalistic and literary career came to an end when the 64-year-old author died.<ref name="cikowski24"/>

The beloved [[agoraphobia|agoraphobic]] writer was mourned by the nation that he had striven, as soldier, thinker, and writer, to rescue from oblivion.<ref name="To samo ramię"/> Thousands attended his 22 May 1912 funeral service at [[St. Alexander's Church, Warsaw|St. Alexander's Church]] on nearby [[Triple Cross Square]] (''Plac Trzech Krzyży'') and his interment at [[Powązki Cemetery]].<ref name="reminiscences"/>

Prus's tomb was designed by his nephew, the noted sculptor [[Stanisław Jackowski]]. On three sides it bears, respectively, the novelist's name, ''Aleksander Głowacki'', his years of birth and death, and his [[pen name]], ''Bolesław Prus''. The [[epitaph]] on the fourth side, “''Serce Serc''” ("Heart of Hearts"), was deliberately borrowed from the Latin “''Cor Cordium''” on the grave of the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in [[Rome]]'s [[Protestant Cemetery, Rome|Protestant Cemetery]].<ref>Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, ''Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości'' (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: a Calendar of His Life and Work), edited by [[Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian)|Zygmunt Szweykowski]], Warsaw, [[Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy]], 1969, p. 708.</ref><ref name="reminiscences25"/> Below the epitaph stands the figure of a little girl embracing the tomb – a figure emblematic of Prus's well-known empathy and affection for children.<ref name="wspomnienia26"/><ref name="klonowska"/>

Prus's widow, Oktawia Głowacka, survived him by twenty-four years, dying on 25 October 1936.<ref>[[:pl:Monika Piątkowska|Monika Piątkowska]], ''Prus: Śledztwo biograficzne'' (Prus: A Biographical Investigation), [[Kraków]], [[Wydawnictwo Znak]], 2017, {{ISBN|978-83-240-4543-3}}, p. 456.</ref>

In 1902 the editor of the Warsaw ''Kurier Codzienny'' (Daily Courier) had opined that, if Prus's writings had been well known abroad, he should have received one of the recently created [[Nobel Prize]]s.<ref>Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, ''Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości'' (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: a Calendar of His Life and Work), edited by [[Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian)|Zygmunt Szweykowski]], Warsaw, [[Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy]], 1969, pp. 576–77.</ref>

== Legacy ==

[[File:Kazimierz Palace, Warsaw University 4.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|Plaque on [[Warsaw University]]'s [[Kazimierz Palace]], commemorating student Bolesław Prus]]
On 3 December 1961, nearly half a century after Prus's death, a museum devoted to him was opened in the 18th-century Małachowski Palace at [[Nałęczów]], near [[Lublin]] in eastern Poland. Outside the palace is a sculpture of Prus seated on a bench. Another statuary monument to Prus at Nałęczów, sculpted by Alina Ślesińska, was unveiled on 8 May 1966.<ref name="krystyna37"/> It was at Nałęczów that Prus vacationed for thirty years from 1882 until his death, and that he met the young [[Stefan Żeromski]]. Prus stood witness at Żeromski's 1892 wedding and generously helped foster the younger man's literary career.<ref>Pieścikowski, Edward, ''Bolesław Prus'', pp. 152, 156.</ref>

While Prus espoused a [[positivist]] and [[Literary realism|realist]] outlook, much in his fiction shows qualities compatible with pre-[[January Uprising|1863-Uprising]] Polish [[Romantic literature]]. Indeed, he held the Polish [[Romanticism|Romantic]] poet [[Adam Mickiewicz]] in high regard.<ref name="szweykowski27"/> Prus's novels in turn, especially ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'' and ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'', with their innovative composition techniques, blazed the way for the 20th-century Polish novel.<ref name="Bolesław Prus28"/>

Prus's novel ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'', with its rich realistic detail and simple, functional language, was considered by [[Czesław Miłosz]] to be the great Polish novel.<ref name="The History of Polish Literature29"/>

[[Joseph Conrad]], during his 1914 visit to Poland just as [[World War I]] was breaking out, "delighted in his beloved Prus" and read everything by the ten-years-older, recently deceased author that he could get his hands on.<ref name="Conrad under Familial Eyes"/> He pronounced ''[[The New Woman (novel)|The New Woman]]'' (the first novel by Prus that he read) "better than [[Charles Dickens|Dickens]]"—Dickens being a favorite author of Conrad's.<ref name="Conrad under Familial Eyes30"/> [[Czesław Miłosz|Miłosz]], however, thought ''[[The New Woman (novel)|The New Woman]]'' "as a whole... an artistic failure..."<ref name="The History of Polish Literature31"/> [[Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian)|Zygmunt Szweykowski]] similarly faulted ''The New Woman'''s loose, tangential construction; but this, in his view, was partly redeemed by Prus's humor and by some superb episodes, while "The tragedy of Mrs. Latter and the picture of [the town of] Iksinów are among the peak achievements of [Polish] novel-writing."<ref name="szweykowski32"/>
''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'', a study of [[political power]], became the favorite novel of Soviet dictator [[Joseph Stalin]], prefigured the fate of U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]], and continues to point analogies to more recent times.<ref name="Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and Curtin's Translation"/> ''Pharaoh'' is often described as Prus's "best-composed novel"<ref name="redniowiecza"/>—indeed, "one of the best-composed [of all] Polish novels."<ref name="tyszkiewicz"/> This was due in part to ''Pharaoh'' having been composed complete prior to newspaper serialization, rather than being written in installments just before printing, as was the case with Prus's earlier major novels.<ref>Pieścikowski, Edward, ''Bolesław Prus'', p. 157.</ref>

''The Doll'' and ''Pharaoh'' are available in English versions.<ref name="welsh"/> ''The Doll'' has been translated into twenty-eight languages, and ''Pharaoh'' into twenty-three. In addition, ''The Doll'' has been filmed several times (including a [[The Doll (1968 film)|1968 film]] directed by [[Wojciech Jerzy Has]]) and been produced as a 1977 [[television miniseries]] (''[[:pl:Lalka (serial telewizyjny)|Lalka]]'', directed by [[:pl:Ryszard Ber|Ryszard Ber]]). ''Pharaoh'' was adapted into a [[Pharaoh (film)|1966 feature film]].

Between 1897 and 1899 Prus [[Serial (literature)|serialized]] in the Warsaw ''Daily Courier'' (''Kurier Codzienny'') a [[monograph]] on ''[[Wikisource:The Most General Life Ideals|The Most General Life Ideals]]'' (''Najogólniejsze ideały życiowe''), which systematized ethical ideas that he had developed over his career regarding ''happiness'', ''utility'' and ''perfection'' in the lives of individuals and societies.<ref>[[Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian)|Zygmunt Szweykowski]], ''Twórczość Bolesława Prusa'' (The Art of Bolesław Prus), pp. 295–97 and ''[[passim]]''.</ref> In it he returned to the society-organizing (i.e., political) interests that had been frustrated during his ''Nowiny'' editorship fifteen years earlier. A book edition appeared in 1901 (2nd, revised edition, 1905). This work, rooted in [[Jeremy Bentham]]'s [[Utilitarianism|Utilitarian philosophy]] and [[Herbert Spencer#General influence|Herbert Spencer's]] view of society-as-organism, retains interest especially for [[philosophy|philosophers]] and [[social science|social scientists]].<ref>Pieścikowski, Edward, ''Bolesław Prus'', pp. 138–39, 161, 163–64.</ref>

Another of Prus's learned projects remained incomplete at his death. He had sought, over his writing career, to develop a coherent theory of literary composition. Notes of his from 1886 to 1912 were never put together into a finished book as he had intended.<ref name="melkowski"/>{{efn|In 1890 Prus wrote: "When I was starting out as a writer, I wrote in part instinctively, in part by inadvertent imitation. My productions were a collection of haphazard observations, put together no doubt against the backdrop of what I had read. Every beginning author does the same. To be sure, this kind of work was to me a great mortification. [...] Then I began asking older authors, and they told me that 'there are no rules, nor can there be any, for the art of novel-writing.' [...] Then [about 1880], brought to desperation, I set about trying to resolve for myself the question: 'Can literary art be reduced to general rules?' After several years of observing and thinking, the matter began to get clearer for me, and as early as August 1886 I set down my first notes [...] and, God willing, I hope to publish a scientific theory of literary art. I expect that it will contain some fairly new things."<ref name="Bolesław Prus41"/>}} His precepts included the maxim, "[[Noun]]s, nouns and more nouns." Some particularly intriguing fragments describe Prus's [[combinatorial]] [[calculation]]s of the millions of potential "individual types" of human [[character structure|characters]], given a stated number of "individual [[Trait theory|traits]]."<ref name="melkowski34"/>

A curious [[comparative literature|comparative-literature]] aspect has been noted to Prus's career, which paralleled that of his American contemporary, [[Ambrose Bierce]] (1842–1914). Each was born and reared in a rural area and had a "Polish" connection (Bierce, born five years before Prus, was reared in [[Kosciusko County, Indiana]], and attended [[high school]] at the [[county seat]], [[Warsaw, Indiana]]). Each became a [[war]] [[Casualty (person)|casualty]] with [[combat]] [[head trauma]]—Prus in 1863 in the Polish [[January Uprising|1863–65 Uprising]]; Bierce in 1864 in the [[American Civil War]]. Each experienced false starts in other occupations, and at twenty-five became a journalist for the next forty years; failed to sustain a career as editor-in-chief; achieved celebrity as a short-story writer; lost a son in tragic circumstances (Prus, an adopted son; Bierce, both his sons); attained superb humorous effects by portraying human egoism (Prus especially in ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'', Bierce in ''[[The Devil's Dictionary]]''); was dogged from early adulthood by a health problem (Prus, [[agoraphobia]]; Bierce, [[asthma]]); and died within two years of the other (Prus in 1912; Bierce presumably in 1914). Prus, however, unlike Bierce, went on from short stories to write novels.<ref name="kasparek"/>
[[File:Statue of Bolesław Prus, in Warsaw.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Over twice-lifesize Prus statue on Warsaw's ''[[Krakowskie Przedmieście]]'']]
[[File:Prus, Holy Cross Church.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|Plaque, [[Holy Cross Church, Warsaw]], commemorating Prus, "great writer and teacher of the nation"]]
[[File:Prusposter.jpeg|thumb|upright=1.3|"2012: Year of Prus": poster commemorating 100th anniversary of Prus' death, in a window of the [[Polish Academy of Sciences]], ''[[Krakowskie Przedmieście]]'', Warsaw]]

In Prus' lifetime and since, his contributions to Polish literature and culture have been memorialized without regard to the nature of the political system prevailing at the time. His 50th birthday, in 1897, was marked by special newspaper issues celebrating his 25 years as a journalist and fiction writer, and a portrait of him was commissioned from artist [[Antoni Kamieński]].<ref name="Bolesław Prus35"/>

The town where Prus was born, [[Hrubieszów]], near the present Polish–[[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] border, is graced by an outdoor sculpture of him.

A 1982 plaque on [[Warsaw University]]'s administration building, the historic [[Kazimierz Palace#Warsaw University|Kazimierz Palace]], commemorates Prus' years at the university in 1866–68. Across the street (''[[Krakowskie Przedmieście]]'') from the university, in [[Holy Cross Church, Warsaw|Holy Cross Church]], adjacent to the pillar that holds [[Heart of Frédéric Chopin|Chopin's heart]], a 1936 plaque by Prus' nephew [[Stanisław Jackowski]], featuring Prus' profile, is dedicated to the memory of the "great writer and teacher of the nation."<ref name="reminiscences36"/>

On the front of Warsaw's present-day ''ulica Wilcza 12'' (12 Wolf Street), the site of Prus' last home, is a plaque commemorating the earlier, now-nonexistent building's most famous resident. A few hundred meters from there, ''ulica Bolesława Prusa'' (Bolesław Prus Street) debouches into the southeast corner of Warsaw's [[Triple Cross Square]]. In this square stands St. Alexander's Church, where Prus' funeral was held.<ref name="Bolesław Prus38"/>

In 1937, plaques were installed at Warsaw's ''[[Krakowskie Przedmieście]]'' ''4'' and ''7'', where the two chief characters of Prus' novel ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'', Stanisław Wokulski and Ignacy Rzecki, respectively, were deduced to have resided.<ref name="cikowski39"/> On the same street, in a park adjacent to the [[Hotel Bristol, Warsaw|Hotel Bristol]], near the site of a newspaper for which Prus wrote, stands the [[Bolesław Prus Monument]], a twice-life-size statue of Prus, sculpted in 1977 by [[Anna Kamieńska-Łapińska]];<ref name="Bolesław Prus40"/> it is some 12 feet tall, on a minimal pedestal as befits an author who walked the same ground with his fellow men.

Consonant with Prus' interest in commerce and technology, a Polish Ocean Lines [[cargo ship|freighter]] has been named for him.<ref name="Bolesław Prus-2"/>

For 10 years, from 1975 to 1984, Poles honored Prus' memory with a 10-[[Polish zloty|zloty]] coin featuring his profile. In 2012, to mark the 100th anniversary of his death, the Polish mint produced three coins with individual designs: in gold, silver, and an aluminum-zinc alloy.<ref>{{cite web |title=Three Polish Coins Honor Boleslaw Prus |url=http://news.coinupdate.com/three-coins-honor-boleslaw-prus-1599/ |publisher=Coin Update News |access-date=21 September 2012}}</ref>

Prus' fiction and nonfiction writings continue relevant in our time.<ref>Witness articles such as [[Aleksander Kaczorowski]], ''"My z Wokulskiego"'' ("We [Descendants] of Wokulski) [protagonist of Prus's novel ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'']" in ''Plus Minus'', the ''[[Rzeczpospolita (newspaper)|Rzeczpospolita]]'' (Republic) Weekly [Magazine], no. 33 (1016), Saturday-Sunday, 18–19 August 2012, pp. P8-P9.</ref>

== Works ==
Following is a chronological list of notable works by Bolesław Prus. Translated titles are given, followed by original titles and dates of publication.
[[File:Bolesław Prus - Placówka.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|''[[The Outpost (Prus novel)|The Outpost]]'' book edition]]

=== Novels ===
* ''Souls in Bondage'' (''Dusze w niewoli'', written 1876, [[serial (literature)|serialized]] 1877)
* ''Fame'' (''Sława'', begun 1885, never finished)
* ''[[The Outpost (Prus novel)|The Outpost]]'' (''Placówka'', 1885–86)
* ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'' (''Lalka'', 1887–89)
* ''[[The New Woman (novel)|The New Woman]]'' (''Emancypantki'', 1890–93)
* ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'' (''Faraon'', written 1894–95; [[serial (literature)|serialized]] 1895–96; published in book form 1897)
* ''Children'' (''Dzieci'', 1908; approximately the first nine chapters had originally appeared, in a somewhat different form, in 1907 as ''Dawn'' [''Świt''])
* ''Changes'' (''Przemiany'', begun 1911–12; unfinished)

=== Stories ===
* "Granny's Troubles" (''"Kłopoty babuni,"'' 1874)
* "The Palace and the Hovel" (''"Pałac i rudera,"'' 1875)
* "The Ball Gown" (''"Sukienka balowa,"'' 1876)
* "An Orphan's Lot" (''"Sieroca dola,"'' 1876)
* "Eddy's Adventures" (''"Przygody Edzia,"'' 1876)
* "Damnable Happiness" (''"Przeklęte szczęście,"'' 1876)
* "The Honeymoon" (''"Miesiąc nektarowy"'', 1876)
* "In the Struggle with Life" (''"W walce z życiem"'', 1877)
* "Christmas Eve" (''"Na gwiazdkę"'', 1877)
* "Grandmother's Box" (''"Szkatułka babki,"'' 1878)
* "Little Stan's Adventure" (''"Przygoda Stasia,"'' 1879)
* "New Year" (''"Nowy rok,"'' 1880)
* "The Returning Wave" (''"Powracająca fala,"'' 1880)
* "Michałko" (1880)
* "Antek" (1880)
* "The Convert" (''"Nawrócony,"'' 1880)
* "[[Katarynka|The Barrel Organ]]" (''"Katarynka,"'' 1880)
* "One of Many" (''"Jeden z wielu,"'' 1882)
* "[[The Waistcoat]]" (''"Kamizelka,"'' 1882)
* "Him" (''"On,"'' 1882)
* "[[Fading Voices]]" (''"Milknące głosy,"'' 1883)
* "Sins of Childhood" (''"Grzechy dzieciństwa,"'' 1883)
* "[[Mold of the Earth]]" (''"Pleśń świata,"'' 1884: a brilliant [[flash fiction|micro-story]] portraying [[human history]] as an endless series of conflicts among [[Mold (fungus)|mold]] colonies inhabiting a common boulder)
* "[[wikisource:The Living Telegraph|The Living Telegraph]]" (''"Żywy telegraf,"'' 1884)
* "[[Orestes (mythology)|Orestes]] and [[Pylades]]" (''"Orestes i Pylades,"'' 1884)
* "She Loves Me?... She Loves Me Not?..." (''"Kocha—nie kocha?..."'', a [[Flash fiction|micro-story]], 1884)
* "The Mirror" (''"Zwierciadło,"'' 1884)
* "On Vacation" (''"Na wakacjach,"'' 1884)
* "An Old Tale" (''"Stara bajka,"'' 1884)
* "In the Light of the Moon" (''"Przy księżycu,"'' 1884)
* "A Mistake" (''"Omyłka,"'' 1884)
* "Mr. Dutkowski and His Farm" (''"Pan Dutkowski i jego folwark,"'' 1884)
* "Musical Echoes" (''"Echa muzyczne,"'' 1884)
* "In the Mountains" (''"W górach,"'' 1885)
* "[[Shades (story)|Shades]]" (''"Ciene,"'' 1885: an evocative [[Flash fiction|micro-story]] on [[Existentialism|existential]] themes)
* "Anielka" (1885)
* "A Strange Story" (''"Dziwna historia,"'' 1887)
* "[[A Legend of Old Egypt]]" (''"Z legend dawnego Egiptu,"'' 1888: Prus's stunning first piece of [[historical fiction]]; a preliminary sketch for his only [[historical novel]], ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'', which he wrote in 1894–95)
* "The Dream" (''"Sen,"'' 1890)
* "Lives of Saints" (''"Z żywotów świętych,"'' 1891–92)
* "Reconciled" (''"Pojednani,"'' 1892)
* "A Composition by Little Frank: About Mercy" (''"Z wypracowań małego Frania. O miłosierdziu,"'' 1898)
* "The Doctor's Story" (''"Opowiadanie lekarza,"'' 1902)
* "Memoirs of a Cyclist" (''"Ze wspomnień cyklisty,"'' 1903)
* "Revenge" (''"Zemsta,"'' 1908)
* "Phantoms" (''"Widziadła,"'' 1911, first published 1936)

=== Nonfiction ===
* "Letters from the Old Camp" (''"Listy ze starego obozu"''), 1872: Prus's first composition signed with the pseudonym ''Bolesław Prus''.
* "On the Structure of the Universe" (''"O budowie wszechświata"''), public lecture, 23 February 1873.
* "[[:Wikisource:Translation:On Discoveries and Inventions|On Discoveries and Inventions]]" (''"O odkryciach i wynalazkach"''): A Public Lecture Delivered on 23 March 1873 by Aleksander Głowacki [Bolesław Prus], Passed by the [Russian] Censor (Warsaw, 21 April 1873), Warsaw, Printed by F. Krokoszyńska, 1873. Translated from the Polish by [[Christopher Kasparek]]. [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:Aleksander_G%C5%82owacki_-_O_odkryciach_i_wynalazkach.djvu/5] [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/30407/30407-h/30407-h.htm]
* "Travel Notes (Wieliczka)" [''"Kartki z podróży (Wieliczka),"'' 1878—Prus's impressions of the [[Wieliczka Salt Mine]]; these helped inform the conception of the [[Labyrinth#The Egyptian labyrinth|Egyptian Labyrinth]] in Prus's 1895 novel, ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)#Inspirations|Pharaoh]]'']
* "A Word to the Public" (''"Słówko do publiczności,"'' 11 June 1882 – Prus's inaugural address to readers as the new editor-in-chief of the daily, ''Nowiny'' [News], famously proposing to make it "an observatory of societal facts, just as there are observatories that study the movements of heavenly bodies, or—climatic changes.")
* "Sketch for a Program under the Conditions of the Present Development of Society" (''"Szkic programu w warunkach obecnego rozwoju społeczeństwa,"'' 23–30 March 1883—[[swan song]] of Prus's editorship of ''Nowiny'')
* "''With Sword and Fire''—Henryk Sienkiewicz's Novel of Olden Times" (''"''Ogniem i mieczem''—powieść z dawnych lat Henryka Sienkiewicza,"'' 1884—Prus's review of [[Henryk Sienkiewicz|Sienkiewicz]]'s historical novel, and essay on [[historical novel]]s)
* "The Paris Tower" (''"Wieża paryska,"'' 1887—whimsical divagations involving the [[Eiffel Tower]], the world's tallest structure, then yet to be constructed for the 1889 [[Paris]] ''[[Exposition Universelle (1889)|Exposition Universelle]]'')
* "Travels on Earth and in Heaven" (''"Wędrówka po ziemi i niebie,"'' 1887—Prus's impressions of a [[solar eclipse]] that he observed at [[Mława]]; these helped inspire the solar-eclipse scenes in his 1895 novel, ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)#Inspirations|Pharaoh]]'')
* "A Word about Positive Criticism" (''"Słówko o krytyce pozytywnej,"'' 1890—Prus's part of a [[polemic]] with [[Positivism in Poland|Positivist]] [[guru]] [[Aleksander Świętochowski]])
* "Eusapia Palladino" (1893—a [[newspaper column]] about [[mediumship|mediumistic]] [[séance]]s held in Warsaw by the Italian [[Spiritualism (movement)|Spiritualist]], [[Eusapia Palladino]]; these helped inspire similar scenes in Prus's 1895 novel, ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)#Inspirations|Pharaoh]]'')
* "From Nałęczów" (''"Z Nałęczowa,"'' 1894—Prus's paean to the salubrious waters and natural and social environment of his favorite vacation spot, [[Nałęczów]])
* ''[[Wikisource:The Most General Life Ideals|The Most General Life Ideals]]'' (''Najogólniejsze ideały życiowe'', 1905—Prus's system of pragmatic [[ethics]])
* "Ode to Youth" (''"Oda do młodości,"'' 1905—Prus's admission that, before the [[Russian Empire]]'s defeat in the [[Russo-Japanese War]], he had held too cautious a view of the chances for an improvement in Poland's political situation)
* "Visions of the Future" (''"Wizje przyszłości,"'' 1909—a discussion of [[H. G. Wells]]' 1901 [[futurology|futurological]] book, ''[[Anticipations]]'', which predicted, among other things, the defeat of German imperialism, the ascendancy of the English language, and the existence, by the year 2000, of a "[[European Union]]" that included the Slavic peoples of [[Central Europe]])
* "The Poet, Educator of the Nation" (''"Poeta wychowawca narodu,"'' 1910—a discussion of the cultural and political principles imparted by the Polish poet [[Adam Mickiewicz]])
* "What We... Never Learned from the History of Napoleon" (''"Czego nas... nie nauczyły dzieje Napoleona"''—Prus's contribution to 16 December 1911 issue of the Warsaw ''Illustrated Weekly'', devoted entirely to [[Napoleon]])

==Translations==
[[File:Bolesław Prus, właść. (Aleksander Głowacki) (59237) (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|Prus, drawn by his friend [[Stanisław Witkiewicz]], 1887]]
Prus's writings have been translated into many languages – his [[historical novel]] ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'', into twenty-three; his contemporary novel ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'', into twenty-eight.

Works by Prus have been rendered into [[Croatian language|Croatian]] by a member of the [[Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts]], [[Stjepan Musulin]].

==Film versions==
* 1966: ''Faraon'' [[Pharaoh (film)|(Pharaoh)]], adapted from the novel ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'', directed by [[Jerzy Kawalerowicz]] [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060401/].
* 1968: ''Lalka ([[The Doll (1968 film)|The Doll]]''), adapted from the novel ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'', directed by [[Wojciech Jerzy Has]] [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064570/].
* 1977: ''[[:pl:Lalka (serial telewizyjny)|Lalka]]'' ([[TV serial]], ''The Doll''), adapted from the novel ''[[The Doll (Prus novel)|The Doll]]'', directed by [[:pl:Ryszard Ber|Ryszard Ber]].
* 1979: ''[[:pl:Placówka (film)|Placówka]]'' (The Outpost), adapted from the novel ''[[The Outpost (Prus novel)|The Outpost]]'', directed by Zygmunt Skonieczny.
* 1982: ''[[:pl:Pensja pani Latter|Pensja pani Latter]]'' (Mrs. Latter's Boarding School), adapted from the novel ''[[The New Woman]]'', directed by [[:pl:Stanisław Różewicz|Stanisław Różewicz]].

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
* [[ Bolesław Prus Monument ]]
* [[Flash fiction#Authors|Flash fiction]]
* [[History of philosophy in Poland#Positivism|History of philosophy in Poland]]
* [[List of coupled cousins#Notable people|List of coupled cousins]]
* [[List of newspaper columnists]]
* [[List of Poles#Philosophy|List of Poles—Philosophy]]
* [[List of Poles#Prose literature|List of Poles—Prose literature]]
* [[Logology (science of science)#Discoveries and inventions|Logology (science of science)—Discoveries and inventions]]
* [[Positivism in Poland#Leading authors|Positivism in Poland]]
* [[Zakopane#Notable visitors|Zakopane]]

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|2|refs=

<ref name="Bolesław Prus-2">{{cite web |url=http://www.pol.com.pl/?sub=3&sub2=b&statek=110 |title=''Bolesław Prus'' |access-date=2 March 2008 |publisher=Polish Ocean Lines}}</ref>

<ref name="A Futurological Note: Prus on H.G. Wells and the Year 2000">{{cite journal |last=Kasparek |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Kasparek |year=2003 |title=A Futurological Note: Prus on H.G. Wells and the Year 2000 |journal=[[The Polish Review]] |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=94 }}</ref>

<ref name="A Half Century of Polish Mathematics: Remembrances and Reflections">{{cite book |title=A Half Century of Polish Mathematics: Remembrances and Reflections |last=Kuratowski |first=Kazimierz |author-link=Kazimierz Kuratowski |year=1980 |publisher=Pergamon Press |isbn=0-08-023046-6 }}</ref>

<ref name="Bolesław Prus">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Pieścikowski |first=Edward |pages=146–47 }}</ref>

<ref name="Bolesław Prus18">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Pieścikowski |first=Edward |pages=157–58 }}</ref>

<ref name="Bolesław Prus19">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Pieścikowski |first=Edward |pages=159–60 }}</ref>

<ref name="Bolesław Prus2">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Pieścikowski |first=Edward |page=49 }}</ref>

<ref name="Bolesław Prus21">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Pieścikowski |first=Edward |pages=142–43, 165–67 }}</ref>

<ref name="Bolesław Prus28">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Pieścikowski |first=Edward |pages=10–14}}</ref>

<ref name="Bolesław Prus35">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Pieścikowski |first=Edward |pages=94–95, 159 and ''passim''}}</ref>

<ref name="Bolesław Prus38">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Pieścikowski |first=Edward |pages=136–37}}</ref>

<ref name="Bolesław Prus40">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Pieścikowski |first=Edward |pages=144–45}}</ref>

<ref name="Bolesław Prus41">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus | author=Pieścikowski, Edward |pages=74–75 }}</ref>

<ref name="Bolesław Prus7">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Pieścikowski |first=Edward |page=148 }}</ref>

<ref name="christopher">[[Christopher Kasparek|Kasparek, Christopher]], "Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and Curtin's Translation," ''[[The Polish Review]]'', vol. XXXI, nos. 2–3 (1986), 127.</ref>

<ref name="christopher23">[[Christopher Kasparek|Kasparek, Christopher]] (1994), "Prus' ''Pharaoh'': the Creation of a Historical Novel," ''[[The Polish Review]]'', 39 (1), 46.</ref>

<ref name="cikowski">Edward Pieścikowski, ''Bolesław Prus'', pp. 19, 148.</ref>

<ref name="cikowski1">Edward Pieścikowski, ''Bolesław Prus'', p. 148.</ref>

<ref name="cikowski16">Pieścikowski, Edward, ''Bolesław Prus'', 67.</ref>

<ref name="cikowski24">Pieścikowski, Edward, ''Bolesław Prus'', 167.</ref>

<ref name="cikowski39">Pieścikowski, Edward, ''Bolesław Prus'', 68–69.</ref>

<ref name="Conrad under Familial Eyes">{{cite book |title=Conrad under Familial Eyes |last=Najder |first=Zdzisław |author-link=Zdzisław Najder |page=209 }}</ref>

<ref name="Conrad under Familial Eyes30">{{cite book |title=Conrad under Familial Eyes |last=Najder |first=Zdzisław |author-link=Zdzisław Najder |page=215 }}</ref>

<ref name="futurological">[[Christopher Kasparek]], "A Futurological Note: Prus on [[H. G. Wells]] and the Year 2000," ''[[The Polish Review]]'', vol. XLVIII, no. 1, 2003, p. 89.</ref>

<ref name="kalendarz">Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita. ''Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości'', 387.</ref>

<ref name="kalendarz10">Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, ''Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości'' (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: A Calendar of His Life and Work), p. 251.</ref>

<ref name="kasparek">{{cite journal |last=Kasparek |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Kasparek |year=1995 |title=Two [[Flash fiction|Micro-stories]] by Bolesław Prus |journal=[[The Polish Review]] |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=99–103 }}</ref>

<ref name="klonowska">Pauszer-Klonowska, Gabriela, ''Ostatnia miłość w życiu Bolesława Prusa'', ''passim''.</ref>

<ref name="krystyna">Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, ''Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912'', pp. 51–52.</ref>

<ref name="krystyna37">Tokarzówna, Krystyna, and Stanisław Fita, ''Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912'', photo facing p. 705.</ref>

<ref name="literature">{{cite book |title=The History of Polish Literature |last=Miłosz |first=Czesław |author-link=Czesław Miłosz |year=1983 |publisher=University of California Press |page=302 |isbn=978-0-520-04477-7}}</ref>

<ref name="lorentowicz">[[Jan Lorentowicz|Lorentowicz, Jan]] (''Spojrzenie wstecz'', 1935), in the book, ''Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie'', 106.</ref>

<ref name="melkowski">{{cite book |title=Poglądy estetyczne i działalność krytycznoliteracka Bolesława Prusa |last=Melkowski |first=Stefan |pages=84–146 }}</ref>

<ref name="melkowski34">Melkowski, pp. 117–23.</ref>

<ref name="pauszer">{{cite book |title=Ostatnia miłość w życiu Bolesława Prusa |last=Pauszer-Klonowska |first=Gabriela |pages=passim }}</ref>

<ref name="phenomenon">Parallels between discovery in science and art, including the phenomenon of [[multiple discovery]], have been drawn in David Lamb, ''Multiple Discovery: The Pattern of Scientific Progress'', Amersham, Avebury Press, 1984.</ref>

<ref name="Pieścikowski 157">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Pieścikowski |first=Edward |page=157 }}</ref>

<ref name="Prus, 147">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Pieścikowski |first=Edward |page=147 }}</ref>

<ref name="Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and Curtin's Translation">{{cite journal |last=Kasparek |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Kasparek |year=1986 |title=Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and Curtin's Translation |journal=[[The Polish Review]] |volume=31 |issue=2–3 |pages=127–35 }}</ref>

<ref name="Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and the Solar Eclipse">{{cite journal |last=Kasparek |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Kasparek |year=1997 |title=Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and the Solar Eclipse |journal=[[The Polish Review]] |volume=42 |issue=4 |pages=471–78 }}</ref>

<ref name="Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and the Wieliczka Salt Mine">{{cite journal |last=Kasparek |first=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Kasparek |year=1997 |title=Prus' ''Pharaoh'' and the Wieliczka Salt Mine |journal=[[The Polish Review]] |volume=42 |issue=3 |pages=349–55 }}</ref>

<ref name="redniowiecza">For example, by Janina Kulczycka-Saloni, in Jan Zygmunt Jakubowski, ed., ''Literatura polska od średniowiecza do pozytywizmu'' p. 631.</ref>

<ref name="reminiscences">Kotarbiński, Miłosz, ''"Kilka luźnych wspomnień o Bolesławie Prusie"'' ("Several Loose Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus"), in Stanisław Fita, ed., ''Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie'', 147-48.</ref>

<ref name="reminiscences25">Kotarbiński, Miłosz, "''Kilka luźnych wspomnień o Bolesławie Prusie''" ("Several Loose Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus"), in Stanisław Fita, ed., ''Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie'', 148, 151.</ref>

<ref name="reminiscences36">Kotarbiński, Miłosz, ''"Kilka luźnych wspomnień o Bolesławie Prusie"'' ("Several Loose Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus"), in Stanisław Fita, ed., ''Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie'', 147-48, 151.</ref>

<ref name="robert">Robert Reid, ''Marie Curie'', p. 12.</ref>

<ref name="stepdaughter">The girl was Janina Głoskowska, stepdaughter of Ludwik Trembiński, brother of Prus's wife, Oktawia Trembińska. Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, ''Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości'', p. 782.</ref>

<ref name="szweykowski">{{cite book |title=Twórczość Bolesława Prusa (The Creative Writing of Bolesław Prus) |last=Szweykowski |first=Zygmunt |author-link=Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian) |year=1947 |pages=18–23, 31–32, 293–94 and ''[[passim]]''}}</ref>

<ref name="szweykowski12">{{cite book |title=Twórczość Bolesława Prusa |last=Szweykowski |first=Zygmunt |author-link=Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian) |page=109 }}</ref>

<ref name="szweykowski13">{{cite book |title=Twórczość Bolesława Prusa |last=Szweykowski |first=Zygmunt |author-link=Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian) |pages=66, 84, 122 and ''[[passim]]'' }}</ref>

<ref name="szweykowski14">{{cite book |title=Twórczość Bolesława Prusa |last=Szweykowski |first=Zygmunt |author-link=Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian) |pages=passim }}</ref>

<ref name="szweykowski27">{{cite book |title=Twórczość Bolesława Prusa |last=Szweykowski |first=Zygmunt |author-link=Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian) |pages=111–12 }}</ref>

<ref name="szweykowski32">{{cite book |title=Twórczość Bolesława Prusa |author=Szweykowski, Zygmunt |page=288 }}</ref>

<ref name="The History of Polish Literature">{{cite book |title=The History of Polish Literature |last=Miłosz |first=Czesław |author-link=Czesław Miłosz |year=1983 |publisher=University of California Press |page=293 |isbn=978-0-520-04477-7}}</ref>

<ref name="The History of Polish Literature22">{{cite book |title=The History of Polish Literature |last=Miłosz |first=Czesław |author-link=Czesław Miłosz |year=1983 |publisher=University of California Press |page=303 |isbn=978-0-520-04477-7}}</ref>

<ref name="The History of Polish Literature29">{{cite book |title=The History of Polish Literature |last=Miłosz |first=Czesław |author-link=Czesław Miłosz |year=1983 |publisher=University of California Press |page=296 |isbn=978-0-520-04477-7}}</ref>

<ref name="The History of Polish Literature31">{{cite book |title=The History of Polish Literature |last=Miłosz |first=Czesław |author-link=Czesław Miłosz |year=1983 |publisher=University of California Press |page=299 |isbn=978-0-520-04477-7}}</ref>

<ref name="To samo ramię">{{cite book |title=To samo ramię |last=Wróblewski |first=Zbigniew }}</ref>

<ref name="tokarzówna">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości |last=Tokarzówna |first=Krystyna |author2=Stanisław Fita |pages=45–46 }}</ref>

<ref name="tokarzówna20">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości |last=Tokarzówna |first=Krystyna |author2=Stanisław Fita |page=626 }}</ref>

<ref name="tokarzówna5">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości |last=Tokarzówna |first=Krystyna |author2=Stanisław Fita |pages=605 }}</ref>

<ref name="tokarzówna6">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości |last=Tokarzówna |first=Krystyna |author2=Stanisław Fita |page=604 }}</ref>

<ref name="tokarzówna8">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości |last=Tokarzówna |first=Krystyna |author2=Stanisław Fita |pages=187–90}}</ref>

<ref name="tokarzówna9">{{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości |last=Tokarzówna |first=Krystyna |author2=Stanisław Fita |page=474}}</ref>

<ref name="tyszkiewicz">Wilhelm Feldman, cited in Teresa Tyszkiewicz, ''Bolesław Prus'', p. 339.</ref>

<ref name="undoubtedly">{{cite book |title=The History of Polish Literature |last=Miłosz |first=Czesław |author-link=Czesław Miłosz |year=1983 |publisher=University of California Press |page=291 |isbn=978-0-520-04477-7|quote=Undoubtedly the most important novelist of [[Positivism in Poland|the period]] was Bolesław Prus...}}</ref>

<ref name="welsh">Bolesław Prus, ''The Doll'', translation by David Welsh, revised by Dariusz Tołczyk and Anna Zaranko, 1996; ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'', translated from the Polish by [[Christopher Kasparek]], 2nd ed., 2001.</ref>

<ref name="Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie (Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus)">{{cite book |title=Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie (Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus) |editor=Fita, Stanisław |year=1962 |page=113 }}</ref>

<ref name="wspomnienia">After Prus's death in 1912, she survived him until her own death on 25 October 1936. Tadeusz Hiż, "''Godzina u pani Oktawii''" ("An Hour at Oktawia Głowacka's"), in the book ''Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie'', 281.</ref>

<ref name="wspomnienia15">Hiż, Tadeusz, in Stanisław Fita, ed., ''Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie'', 277-78.</ref>

<ref name="wspomnienia17">Oral account by Prus's widow, Oktawia Głowacka, cited by Tadeusz Hiż, "''Godzina u pani Oktawii''" ("An Hour at Oktawia Głowacka's"), in the book, ''Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie'', 278.</ref>

<ref name="wspomnienia26">Hiż, Tadeusz, ''"Godzina u pani Oktawii"'' ("An Hour at Oktawia Głowacka's"), in Stanisław Fita, ed., ''Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie'', 279.</ref>
}}

=== Bibliography ===
* {{cite book |title=Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie (Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus) |editor=Fita, Stanisław |year=1962 |publisher=Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy |location=Warsaw }}
* [[:pl:Jan Zygmunt Jakubowski|Jan Zygmunt Jakubowski]], ed., ''Literatura polska od średniowiecza do pozytywizmu'' (Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to Positivism), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1979.
* [[Christopher Kasparek]], "Prus' ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'': the Creation of a Historical Novel", ''[[The Polish Review]]'', vol. XXXIX, no. 1, 1994, pp.&nbsp;45–50.
* [[Christopher Kasparek]], "Two Micro-stories by Bolesław Prus", ''[[The Polish Review]]'', vol. XL, no. 1, 1995, pp.&nbsp;99–103.
* [[Christopher Kasparek]], "Prus' ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'': Primer on Power", ''[[The Polish Review]]'', vol. XL, no. 3, 1995, pp.&nbsp;331–34.
* [[Christopher Kasparek]], "Prus' ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'' and the Wieliczka Salt Mine", ''[[The Polish Review]]'', vol. XLII, no. 3, 1997, pp.&nbsp;349–55.
* [[Christopher Kasparek]], "Prus' ''[[Pharaoh (Prus novel)|Pharaoh]]'' and the Solar Eclipse", ''[[The Polish Review]]'', vol. XLII, no. 4, 1997, pp.&nbsp;471–78.
* [[Christopher Kasparek]], "A Futurological Note: Prus on [[H. G. Wells]] and the Year 2000," ''[[The Polish Review]]'', vol. XLVIII, no. 1, 2003, pp.&nbsp;89–100.
* {{cite book |title=Poglądy estetyczne i działalność krytycznoliteracka Bolesława Prusa (Bolesław Prus's Esthetic Views and Literary-Critical Activity) |last=Melkowski |first=Stefan |year=1963 |publisher=Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy |location=Warsaw }}
* [[Czesław Miłosz|Miłosz, Czesław]] (1983), ''The History of Polish Literature'', second edition, Berkeley, University of California Press, {{ISBN|0-520-04477-0}}.
* [[Zdzisław Najder]], ''[[Joseph Conrad|Conrad]] under Familial Eyes'', Cambridge University Press, 1984, {{ISBN|0-521-25082-X}}.
* [[Zdzisław Najder]], ''[[Joseph Conrad]]: A Life'', translated by Halina Najder, Rochester, Camden House, 2007, {{ISBN|1-57113-347-X}}.
* {{cite book |title=Ostatnia miłość w życiu Bolesława Prusa (The Last Love in the Life of Bolesław Prus) |last=Pauszer-Klonowska |first=Gabriela |year=1962 |publisher=Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy |location=Warsaw }}
* [[:pl:Monika Piątkowska|Monika Piątkowska]], ''Prus: Śledztwo biograficzne'' (Prus: A Biographical Investigation), [[Kraków]], [[Wydawnictwo Znak]], 2017, {{ISBN|978-83-240-4543-3}}.
* {{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Pieścikowski |first=Edward |year=1985 |edition=2nd |publisher=Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe |location=Warsaw |isbn=83-01-05593-6 }}
* Bolesław Prus, ''[[s:On Discoveries and Inventions|On Discoveries and Inventions]]: A Public Lecture Delivered on 23 March 1873 by Aleksander Głowacki [Bolesław Prus]'', Passed by the [Russian] Censor (Warsaw, 21 April 1873), Warsaw, Printed by F. Krokoszyńska, 1873.
* {{cite book |title=The Sins of Childhood & Other Stories |url=https://archive.org/details/sinsofchildhoodo00prus |url-access=registration |author=Prus, Bolesław |others=translated by Bill Johnston |year=1996 |publisher=Northwestern University Press |location=Evanston, Illinois |isbn=0-8101-1462-3 }} (This book contains twelve stories by Prus, including the volume's title story, in inaccurate, clunky translations.)
* {{cite book |title=The Doll |author=Prus, Bolesław|year=1996 |publisher=Central European University Press |location=Budapest |isbn=1-85866-065-3 |others=translation by David Welsh, revised by Dariusz Tołczyk and Anna Zaranko, and introduction by [[Stanisław Barańczak]] }}
* {{cite book |title=Pharaoh |author=Prus, Bolesław |edition=2nd |year=2001 |publisher= Polestar Publications |location=Warsaw |isbn=83-88177-01-X|others=translation by [[Christopher Kasparek]] }}
* Robert Reid, ''Marie Curie'', New York, New American Library, 1974.
* {{cite book |title=Nie tylko o Prusie: szkice (Not Only about Prus: Sketches) |last=Szweykowski |first=Zygmunt |author-link=Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian)|year=1967 |edition=1st |publisher=Wydawnictwo Poznańskie |location=Poznań }}
* {{cite book |title=Twórczość Bolesława Prusa (The Creative Writing of Bolesław Prus) |last=Szweykowski |first=Zygmunt |author-link=Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian) |year=1972 |edition=2nd |publisher=Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy |location=Warsaw }}
* {{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: a Calendar of His Life and Work) |last=Tokarzówna |first=Krystyna |author2=Stanisław Fita |editor=Szweykowski, Zygmunt |year=1969 |publisher=Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy |location=Warsaw |editor-link= Zygmunt Szweykowski (historian) }}
* Tokarzówna, Krystyna (1981), ''Młodość Bolesława Prusa'' (Bolesław Prus's Youth), Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, {{ISBN|83-06-00603-8}}.
* {{cite book |title=Bolesław Prus |last=Tyszkiewicz |first=Teresa |year=1971 |publisher=Państwowe Zakłady Wydawnictw Szkolnych |location=Warsaw }}
* {{cite book |title=To samo ramię (The Same Arm) |last=Wróblewski |first=Zbigniew |year=1984 |publisher=Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej (Ministry of National Defense) |location=Warsaw |isbn=83-11-07127-6 }}

== External links ==
{{sister project links| wikt = no| b = no| q = Bolesław Prus | s = Author:Bolesław Prus|Bolesław Prus | commons = Bolesław Prus | n = no| v = no| species = no| display = Bolesław Prus | author = no }}
* [https://pl.wikisource.org/wiki/Autor:Aleksander_G%C5%82owacki Works by Bolesław Prus] at [[Polish language|Polish]] Wikisource
* Józef Bachórz, [http://univ.gda.pl/~literat/autors/prus.htm Bolesław Prus] in the Virtual Library of Polish Literature
* [https://poezja.org/wz/Prus_Boles%C5%82aw/ Bolesław Prus] collected works (Polish)
* {{Gutenberg author | id=25958 | name=Bolesław Prus}}
* {{Librivox author |id=2762}}

{{Bolesław Prus}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prus, Boleslaw}}
[[Category:1847 births]]
[[Category:1912 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Hrubieszów]]
[[Category:People from Lublin Governorate]]
[[Category:January Uprising participants]]
[[Category:University of Warsaw alumni]]
[[Category:19th-century Polish male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish male writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Congress Poland]]
[[Category:Journalists from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Essayists from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Novelists from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Short story writers from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Literary critics from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Polish journalists]]
[[Category:Polish male essayists]]
[[Category:19th-century essayists]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish essayists]]
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[[Category:Polish male short story writers]]
[[Category:19th-century short story writers]]
[[Category:20th-century short story writers]]
[[Category:Polish male novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century Polish novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish novelists]]
[[Category:Polish historical novelists]]
[[Category:Writers of historical fiction set in antiquity]]
[[Category:Burials at Powązki Cemetery]]
[[Category:19th-century Polish philosophers]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish philosophers]]
[[Category:Polish positivists]]

Latest revision as of 09:23, 19 December 2024

Bolesław Prus
1887 photograph
1887 photograph
BornAleksander Głowacki
(1847-08-20)20 August 1847
Hrubieszów, Congress Poland
Died19 May 1912(1912-05-19) (aged 64)
Warsaw, Congress Poland
Pen nameBolesław Prus
OccupationNovelist, journalist, short-story writer
NationalityPolish
Period1872–1912
Genre
Literary movementPositivism
SpouseOktawia Głowacka, née Trembińska
ChildrenEmil Trembiński (adopted)
Signature

Aleksander Głowacki (20 August 1847 – 19 May 1912), better known by his pen name Bolesław Prus (Polish: [bɔˈlεswaf ˈprus] ), was a Polish novelist, a leading figure in the history of Polish literature and philosophy, as well as a distinctive voice in world literature.[1][2]

As a 15-year-old, Aleksander Głowacki joined the Polish 1863 Uprising against Imperial Russia. Shortly after his 16th birthday, he suffered severe battle injuries. Five months later, he was imprisoned for his part in the Uprising. These early experiences may have precipitated the panic disorder and agoraphobia that dogged him through life, and shaped his opposition to attempting to regain Poland's independence by force of arms.

In 1872, at the age of 25, in Warsaw, he settled into a 40-year journalistic career that highlighted science, technology, education, and economic and cultural development. These societal enterprises were essential to the endurance of a people who had in the 18th century been partitioned out of political existence by Russia, Prussia and Austria. Głowacki took his pen name "Prus" from the appellation of his family's coat-of-arms.

As a sideline, he wrote short stories. Succeeding with these, he went on to employ a larger canvas; over the decade between 1884 and 1895, he completed four major novels: The Outpost, The Doll, The New Woman and Pharaoh. The Doll depicts the romantic infatuation of a man of action who is frustrated by his country's backwardness. Pharaoh, Prus's only historical novel, is a study of political power and of the fates of nations, set in ancient Egypt at the fall of the 20th Dynasty and New Kingdom.

Life

[edit]

Early years

[edit]
Prus' Hrubieszów birthplace
Lublin Castle, Prus' prison during 1863–65 Uprising

Aleksander Głowacki was born 20 August 1847 in Hrubieszów, now in southeastern Poland, very near the present-day border with Ukraine. The town was then in the Russian-controlled sector of partitioned Poland, known as the "Congress Kingdom". Aleksander was the younger son of Antoni Głowacki, an estate steward at the village of Żabcze, in Hrubieszów County, and Apolonia Głowacka (née Trembińska).[3]

In 1850, when the future Bolesław Prus was three years old, his mother died; the child was placed in the care of his maternal grandmother, Marcjanna Trembińska of Puławy, and, four years later, in the care of his aunt, Domicela Olszewska of Lublin. In 1856 Prus was orphaned by his father's death and, aged 9, began attending a Lublin primary school whose principal, Józef Skłodowski, grandfather of the future double Nobel laureate Maria Skłodowska-Curie,[4] administered canings (a customary mode of disciplining) to wayward pupils, including the spirited Aleksander.[5]

In 1862, Prus's brother, Leon, a teacher thirteen years his senior, took him to Siedlce, then to Kielce.[6]

Soon after the outbreak of the Polish January 1863 Uprising against Imperial Russia, 15-year-old Prus ran away from school to join the insurgents.[7] He may have been influenced by his brother Leon, one of the Uprising's leaders. Leon, during a June 1863 mission to Wilno (now Vilnius) in Lithuania for the Polish insurgent government, developed a debilitating mental illness that would end only with his death in 1907.[8]

On 1 September 1863, twelve days after his sixteenth birthday, Prus took part in a battle against Russian forces at a village called Białka, four kilometers south of Siedlce. He suffered contusions to the neck and gunpowder injuries to his eyes, and was captured unconscious on the battlefield and taken to hospital in Siedlce.[9] This experience may have caused his subsequent lifelong agoraphobia.[10]

Prus: Warsaw University student

Five months later, in early February 1864, Prus was arrested and imprisoned at Lublin Castle for his role in the Uprising. In early April a military court sentenced him to forfeiture of his nobleman's status and resettlement on imperial lands. On 30 April, however, the Lublin District military head credited Prus's time spent under arrest and, on account of the 16-year-old's youth, decided to place him in the custody of his uncle Klemens Olszewski. On 7 May, Prus was released and entered the household of Katarzyna Trembińska, a relative and the mother of his future wife, Oktawia Trembińska.[11]

Prus enrolled at a Lublin gymnasium (secondary school), the still functioning prestigious Stanisław Staszic School, founded in 1586. Graduating on 30 June 1866, at nineteen he matriculated in the Warsaw University Department of Mathematics and Physics.[12] In 1868, poverty forced him to break off his university studies.[7]

In 1869, he enrolled in the Forestry Department at the newly opened Agriculture and Forestry Institute in Puławy, a historic town where he had spent some of his childhood and which, 15 years later, was the setting for his striking 1884 micro-story, "Mold of the Earth", comparing human history with the mutual aggressions of blind, mindless colonies of molds that cover a boulder adjacent to the Temple of the Sibyl. In January 1870, after only three months at the institute, Prus was expelled for his insufficient deference toward the martinet Russian-language instructor.[12]

Henceforth he studied on his own while supporting himself mainly as a tutor. As part of his program of self-education, he translated and summarized John Stuart Mill's A System of Logic.

In 1872, he embarked on a career as a newspaper columnist, while working several months at the Evans, Lilpop and Rau Machine and Agricultural Implement Works in Warsaw.[13] In 1873, Prus delivered two public lectures which illustrate the breadth of his scientific interests: "On the Structure of the Universe", and "On Discoveries and Inventions."[14]

Columnist

[edit]
Prus

As a newspaper columnist, Prus commented on the achievements of scholars and scientists such as John Stuart Mill, Charles Darwin, Alexander Bain, Herbert Spencer and Henry Thomas Buckle;[15] urged Poles to study science and technology and to develop industry and commerce;[16] encouraged the establishment of charitable institutions to benefit the underprivileged;[16] described the fiction and nonfiction works of fellow writers such as H. G. Wells;[17] and extolled man-made and natural wonders such as the Wieliczka Salt Mine,[18] an 1887 solar eclipse that he witnessed at Mława,[19] planned building of the Eiffel Tower for the 1889 Paris Exposition,[20] and Nałęczów, where he vacationed for 30 years.[21]

His "Weekly Chronicles" spanned forty years (they have since been reprinted in twenty volumes) and helped prepare the ground for the 20th-century blossoming of Polish science and especially mathematics.[a] "Our national life," wrote Prus, "will take a normal course only when we have become a useful, indispensable element of civilization, when we have become able to give nothing for free and to demand nothing for free."[23] The social importance of science and technology recurred as a theme in his novels The Doll (1889)[24] and Pharaoh (1895).[25]

Of contemporary thinkers, the one who most influenced Prus and other writers of the Polish "Positivist" period (roughly 1864–1900) was Herbert Spencer, the English sociologist who coined the phrase, "survival of the fittest." Prus called Spencer "the Aristotle of the 19th century" and wrote: "I grew up under the influence of Spencerian evolutionary philosophy and heeded its counsels, not those of Idealist or Comtean philosophy."[26] Prus interpreted "survival of the fittest," in the societal sphere, as involving not only competition but also cooperation; and he adopted Spencer's metaphor of society as organism.[27] He used this metaphor to striking effect in his 1884 micro-story "Mold of the Earth", and in the introduction to his 1895 historical novel, Pharaoh.[28]

After Prus began writing regular weekly newspaper columns, his finances stabilized, permitting him on 14 January 1875 to marry a distant cousin on his mother's side, Oktawia Trembińska. She was the daughter of Katarzyna Trembińska, in whose home he had lived, after release from prison, for two years from 1864 to 1866 while completing secondary school.[29] The couple adopted a boy, Emil Trembiński (born 11 September 1886, the son of Prus's brother-in-law Michał Trembiński, who had died on 10 November 1888).[30] Emil was the model for Rascal in chapter 48 of Prus's 1895 novel, Pharaoh.[31] On 18 February 1904, aged seventeen, Emil fatally shot himself in the chest on the doorstep of an unrequited love.[32][33]

It has been alleged that in 1906, aged 59, Prus had a son, Jan Bogusz Sacewicz. The boy's mother was Alina Sacewicz, widow of Dr. Kazimierz Sacewicz, a socially conscious physician whom Prus had known at Nałęczów. Dr. Sacewicz may have been the model for Stefan Żeromski's Dr. Judym in the novel, Ludzie bezdomni (Homeless People)—a character resembling Dr. Stockman in Henrik Ibsen's play, An Enemy of the People.[34] Prus, known for his affection for children, took a lively interest in little Jan, as attested by a prolific correspondence with Jan's mother (whom Prus attempted to interest in writing). Jan Sacewicz became one of Prus's major legatees and an engineer, and died in a German camp after the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising of August–October 1944.[35]

Coat-of-arms that inspired the pen-name "Bolesław Prus"

Though Prus was a gifted writer, initially best known as a humorist, he early on thought little of his journalistic and literary work. Hence at the inception of his career in 1872, at the age of 25, he adopted for his newspaper columns and fiction the pen name "Prus" ("Prus I" was his family coat-of-arms), reserving his actual name, Aleksander Głowacki, for "serious" writing.[36]

An 1878 incident illustrates the strong feelings that can be aroused in susceptible readers of newspaper columns. Prus had criticized the rowdy behavior of some Warsaw university students at a lecture about the poet Wincenty Pol. The students demanded that Prus retract what he had written. He refused, and, on 26 March 1878, several of them surrounded him outside his home, where he had returned shortly before in the company (for his safety) of two fellow writers; one of the students, Jan Sawicki, slapped Prus's face.[37] Police were summoned, but Prus declined to press charges.[38]

Seventeen years later, during his 1895 visit to Paris, Prus's memory of the incident was still so painful that he may have refused (accounts vary) to meet with one of his assailants, Kazimierz Dłuski, and his wife Bronisława Dłuska (Marie Skłodowska Curie's sister who 19 years later, in 1914, scolded Joseph Conrad for writing his novels and stories in English, rather than in Polish for the benefit of Polish culture[39]).[40] These curiously interlinked incidents involving the Dłuskis and the two authors perhaps illustrate the contemporary intensity of aggrieved Polish national pride.

In 1882, on the recommendation of an earlier editor-in-chief, the prophet of Polish Positivism, Aleksander Świętochowski, Prus succeeded to the editorship of the Warsaw daily Nowiny (News). The newspaper had been bought in June 1882 by financier Stanisław Kronenberg. Prus resolved, in the best Positivist fashion, to make it "an observatory of societal facts"—an instrument for advancing the development of his country. After less than a year, however, Nowiny—which had had a history of financial instability since changing in July 1878 from a Sunday paper to a daily—folded, and Prus resumed writing columns.[41][42] He continued working as a journalist to the end of his life, well after he had achieved success as an author of short stories and novels.[43]

In an 1884 newspaper column, published two decades before the Wright brothers flew, Prus anticipated that powered flight would not bring humanity closer to universal comity: "Are there among flying creatures only doves, and no hawks? Will tomorrow's flying machine obey only the honest and the wise, and not fools and knaves?... The expected societal changes may come down to a new form of chase and combat in which the man who is vanquished on high will fall and smash the skull of the peaceable man down below."[44]

In a January 1909 column, Prus discussed H. G. Wells's 1901 book, Anticipations, including Wells's prediction that by the year 2000, following the defeat of German imperialism "on land and at sea," there would be a European Union that would reach eastward to include the western Slavs—the Poles, Czechs and Slovaks. The latter peoples, along with the Hungarians and six other countries, did in fact join the European Union in 2004.[17]

Fiction

[edit]
Prus, frontispiece to 1890 book edition of The Doll

In time, Prus adopted the French Positivist critic Hippolyte Taine's concept of the arts, including literature, as a second means, alongside the sciences, of studying reality,[45][46] and he devoted more attention to his sideline of short-story writer. Prus's stories, which met with great acclaim, owed much to the literary influence of Polish novelist Józef Ignacy Kraszewski and, among English-language writers, to Charles Dickens and Mark Twain.[47] His fiction was also influenced by French writers Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, Alphonse Daudet and Émile Zola.[48]

Prus wrote several dozen stories, originally published in newspapers and ranging in length from micro-story to novella. Characteristic of them are Prus's keen observation of everyday life and sense of humor, which he had early honed as a contributor to humor magazines.[49] The prevalence of themes from everyday life is consistent with the Polish Positivist artistic program, which sought to portray the circumstances of the populace rather than those of the Romantic heroes of an earlier generation. The literary period in which Prus wrote was ostensibly a prosaic one, by contrast with the poetry of the Romantics; but Prus's prose is often a poetic prose. His stories also often contain elements of fantasy or whimsy. A fair number originally appeared in New Year's issues of newspapers.[50]

Prus long eschewed writing historical fiction, arguing that it must inevitably distort history. He criticized contemporary historical novelists for their lapses in historical accuracy, including Henryk Sienkiewicz's failure, in the military scenes in his Trilogy portraying 17th-century Polish history, to describe the logistics of warfare. It was only in 1888, when Prus was forty, that he wrote his first historical fiction, the stunning short story, "A Legend of Old Egypt." This story, a few years later, served as a preliminary sketch for his only historical novel, Pharaoh (1895).[51][52]

Eventually Prus composed four novels on what he had referred to in an 1884 letter as "great questions of our age":[53] The Outpost (Placówka, 1886) on the Polish peasant; The Doll (Lalka, 1889) on the aristocracy and townspeople and on idealists struggling to bring about social reforms; The New Woman (Emancypantki, 1893) on feminist concerns; and his only historical novel, Pharaoh (Faraon, 1895), on mechanisms of political power. The work of greatest sweep and most universal appeal is Pharaoh.[54] Prus's novels, like his stories, were originally published in newspaper serialization.[55]

After having sold Pharaoh to the publishing firm of Gebethner and Wolff, Prus embarked, on 16 May 1895, on a four-month journey abroad. He visited Berlin, Dresden, Karlsbad, Nuremberg, Stuttgart and Rapperswil. At the latter Swiss town he stayed two months (July–August), nursing his agoraphobia and spending much time with his friends, the promising young writer Stefan Żeromski and his wife Oktawia. The couple sought Prus's help for the Polish National Museum, housed in the Rapperswil Castle, where Żeromski was librarian.[56]

The final stage of Prus's journey took him to Paris, where he was prevented by his agoraphobia from crossing the Seine River to visit the city's southern Left Bank.[56] He was nevertheless pleased to find that his descriptions of Paris in The Doll had been on the mark (he had based them mainly on French-language publications).[57] From Paris, he hurried home to recuperate at Nałęczów from his journey, the last that he made abroad.[58]

Later years

[edit]
Portrait, 1897, celebrating Prus' 25 years as journalist and fiction writer
Prus, 1897

Over the years, Prus lent his support to many charitable and social causes, but there was one event he came to rue for the broad criticism it brought him: his participation in welcoming Russia's tsar during Nicholas II's 1897 visit to Warsaw.[59] As a rule, Prus did not affiliate himself with political parties, as this might compromise his journalistic objectivity. His associations, by design and temperament, were with individuals and select worthy causes rather than with large groups.[60]

The disastrous January 1863 Uprising had persuaded Prus that society must advance through learning, work and commerce rather than through risky social upheavals. He departed from this stance, however, in 1905, when Imperial Russia experienced defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and Poles demanded autonomy and reforms. On 20 December 1905, in the first issue of a short-lived periodical, Młodość (Youth), he published an article, "Oda do młodości" ("Ode to Youth"), whose title harked back to an 1820 poem by Adam Mickiewicz. Prus wrote, in reference to his earlier position on revolution and strikes: "with the greatest pleasure, I admit it—I was wrong!"[61]

Prus' tomb at Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery

In 1908, Prus serialized, in the Warsaw Tygodnik Ilustrowany (Illustrated Weekly), his novel Dzieci (Children), depicting the young revolutionaries, terrorists and anarchists of the day – an uncharacteristically humorless work. Three years later a final novel, Przemiany (Changes), was to have been, like The Doll, a panorama of society and its vital concerns. However, in 1911 and 1912, the novel had barely begun serialization in the Illustrated Weekly when its composition was cut short by Prus's death.[62]

Neither of the two late novels, Children or Changes, is generally regarded as part of the essential Prus canon, and Czesław Miłosz has called Children one of Prus's weakest works.[63]

Prus's last novel to meet with popular acclaim was Pharaoh, completed in 1895. Depicting the demise of ancient Egypt's Twentieth Dynasty and New Kingdom three thousand years earlier, Pharaoh had also reflected Poland's loss of independence a century before in 1795[64]—an independence whose post-World War I restoration Prus did not live to see.

On 19 May 1912, in his Warsaw apartment at 12 Wolf Street (ulica Wilcza 12), near Triple Cross Square, his forty-year journalistic and literary career came to an end when the 64-year-old author died.[65]

The beloved agoraphobic writer was mourned by the nation that he had striven, as soldier, thinker, and writer, to rescue from oblivion.[66] Thousands attended his 22 May 1912 funeral service at St. Alexander's Church on nearby Triple Cross Square (Plac Trzech Krzyży) and his interment at Powązki Cemetery.[67]

Prus's tomb was designed by his nephew, the noted sculptor Stanisław Jackowski. On three sides it bears, respectively, the novelist's name, Aleksander Głowacki, his years of birth and death, and his pen name, Bolesław Prus. The epitaph on the fourth side, “Serce Serc” ("Heart of Hearts"), was deliberately borrowed from the Latin “Cor Cordium” on the grave of the English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in Rome's Protestant Cemetery.[68][69] Below the epitaph stands the figure of a little girl embracing the tomb – a figure emblematic of Prus's well-known empathy and affection for children.[70][71]

Prus's widow, Oktawia Głowacka, survived him by twenty-four years, dying on 25 October 1936.[72]

In 1902 the editor of the Warsaw Kurier Codzienny (Daily Courier) had opined that, if Prus's writings had been well known abroad, he should have received one of the recently created Nobel Prizes.[73]

Legacy

[edit]
Plaque on Warsaw University's Kazimierz Palace, commemorating student Bolesław Prus

On 3 December 1961, nearly half a century after Prus's death, a museum devoted to him was opened in the 18th-century Małachowski Palace at Nałęczów, near Lublin in eastern Poland. Outside the palace is a sculpture of Prus seated on a bench. Another statuary monument to Prus at Nałęczów, sculpted by Alina Ślesińska, was unveiled on 8 May 1966.[74] It was at Nałęczów that Prus vacationed for thirty years from 1882 until his death, and that he met the young Stefan Żeromski. Prus stood witness at Żeromski's 1892 wedding and generously helped foster the younger man's literary career.[75]

While Prus espoused a positivist and realist outlook, much in his fiction shows qualities compatible with pre-1863-Uprising Polish Romantic literature. Indeed, he held the Polish Romantic poet Adam Mickiewicz in high regard.[76] Prus's novels in turn, especially The Doll and Pharaoh, with their innovative composition techniques, blazed the way for the 20th-century Polish novel.[77]

Prus's novel The Doll, with its rich realistic detail and simple, functional language, was considered by Czesław Miłosz to be the great Polish novel.[78]

Joseph Conrad, during his 1914 visit to Poland just as World War I was breaking out, "delighted in his beloved Prus" and read everything by the ten-years-older, recently deceased author that he could get his hands on.[79] He pronounced The New Woman (the first novel by Prus that he read) "better than Dickens"—Dickens being a favorite author of Conrad's.[80] Miłosz, however, thought The New Woman "as a whole... an artistic failure..."[81] Zygmunt Szweykowski similarly faulted The New Woman's loose, tangential construction; but this, in his view, was partly redeemed by Prus's humor and by some superb episodes, while "The tragedy of Mrs. Latter and the picture of [the town of] Iksinów are among the peak achievements of [Polish] novel-writing."[82]

Pharaoh, a study of political power, became the favorite novel of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, prefigured the fate of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, and continues to point analogies to more recent times.[83] Pharaoh is often described as Prus's "best-composed novel"[84]—indeed, "one of the best-composed [of all] Polish novels."[85] This was due in part to Pharaoh having been composed complete prior to newspaper serialization, rather than being written in installments just before printing, as was the case with Prus's earlier major novels.[86]

The Doll and Pharaoh are available in English versions.[87] The Doll has been translated into twenty-eight languages, and Pharaoh into twenty-three. In addition, The Doll has been filmed several times (including a 1968 film directed by Wojciech Jerzy Has) and been produced as a 1977 television miniseries (Lalka, directed by Ryszard Ber). Pharaoh was adapted into a 1966 feature film.

Between 1897 and 1899 Prus serialized in the Warsaw Daily Courier (Kurier Codzienny) a monograph on The Most General Life Ideals (Najogólniejsze ideały życiowe), which systematized ethical ideas that he had developed over his career regarding happiness, utility and perfection in the lives of individuals and societies.[88] In it he returned to the society-organizing (i.e., political) interests that had been frustrated during his Nowiny editorship fifteen years earlier. A book edition appeared in 1901 (2nd, revised edition, 1905). This work, rooted in Jeremy Bentham's Utilitarian philosophy and Herbert Spencer's view of society-as-organism, retains interest especially for philosophers and social scientists.[89]

Another of Prus's learned projects remained incomplete at his death. He had sought, over his writing career, to develop a coherent theory of literary composition. Notes of his from 1886 to 1912 were never put together into a finished book as he had intended.[90][b] His precepts included the maxim, "Nouns, nouns and more nouns." Some particularly intriguing fragments describe Prus's combinatorial calculations of the millions of potential "individual types" of human characters, given a stated number of "individual traits."[92]

A curious comparative-literature aspect has been noted to Prus's career, which paralleled that of his American contemporary, Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914). Each was born and reared in a rural area and had a "Polish" connection (Bierce, born five years before Prus, was reared in Kosciusko County, Indiana, and attended high school at the county seat, Warsaw, Indiana). Each became a war casualty with combat head trauma—Prus in 1863 in the Polish 1863–65 Uprising; Bierce in 1864 in the American Civil War. Each experienced false starts in other occupations, and at twenty-five became a journalist for the next forty years; failed to sustain a career as editor-in-chief; achieved celebrity as a short-story writer; lost a son in tragic circumstances (Prus, an adopted son; Bierce, both his sons); attained superb humorous effects by portraying human egoism (Prus especially in Pharaoh, Bierce in The Devil's Dictionary); was dogged from early adulthood by a health problem (Prus, agoraphobia; Bierce, asthma); and died within two years of the other (Prus in 1912; Bierce presumably in 1914). Prus, however, unlike Bierce, went on from short stories to write novels.[93]

Over twice-lifesize Prus statue on Warsaw's Krakowskie Przedmieście
Plaque, Holy Cross Church, Warsaw, commemorating Prus, "great writer and teacher of the nation"
"2012: Year of Prus": poster commemorating 100th anniversary of Prus' death, in a window of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście, Warsaw

In Prus' lifetime and since, his contributions to Polish literature and culture have been memorialized without regard to the nature of the political system prevailing at the time. His 50th birthday, in 1897, was marked by special newspaper issues celebrating his 25 years as a journalist and fiction writer, and a portrait of him was commissioned from artist Antoni Kamieński.[94]

The town where Prus was born, Hrubieszów, near the present Polish–Ukrainian border, is graced by an outdoor sculpture of him.

A 1982 plaque on Warsaw University's administration building, the historic Kazimierz Palace, commemorates Prus' years at the university in 1866–68. Across the street (Krakowskie Przedmieście) from the university, in Holy Cross Church, adjacent to the pillar that holds Chopin's heart, a 1936 plaque by Prus' nephew Stanisław Jackowski, featuring Prus' profile, is dedicated to the memory of the "great writer and teacher of the nation."[95]

On the front of Warsaw's present-day ulica Wilcza 12 (12 Wolf Street), the site of Prus' last home, is a plaque commemorating the earlier, now-nonexistent building's most famous resident. A few hundred meters from there, ulica Bolesława Prusa (Bolesław Prus Street) debouches into the southeast corner of Warsaw's Triple Cross Square. In this square stands St. Alexander's Church, where Prus' funeral was held.[96]

In 1937, plaques were installed at Warsaw's Krakowskie Przedmieście 4 and 7, where the two chief characters of Prus' novel The Doll, Stanisław Wokulski and Ignacy Rzecki, respectively, were deduced to have resided.[97] On the same street, in a park adjacent to the Hotel Bristol, near the site of a newspaper for which Prus wrote, stands the Bolesław Prus Monument, a twice-life-size statue of Prus, sculpted in 1977 by Anna Kamieńska-Łapińska;[98] it is some 12 feet tall, on a minimal pedestal as befits an author who walked the same ground with his fellow men.

Consonant with Prus' interest in commerce and technology, a Polish Ocean Lines freighter has been named for him.[99]

For 10 years, from 1975 to 1984, Poles honored Prus' memory with a 10-zloty coin featuring his profile. In 2012, to mark the 100th anniversary of his death, the Polish mint produced three coins with individual designs: in gold, silver, and an aluminum-zinc alloy.[100]

Prus' fiction and nonfiction writings continue relevant in our time.[101]

Works

[edit]

Following is a chronological list of notable works by Bolesław Prus. Translated titles are given, followed by original titles and dates of publication.

The Outpost book edition

Novels

[edit]
  • Souls in Bondage (Dusze w niewoli, written 1876, serialized 1877)
  • Fame (Sława, begun 1885, never finished)
  • The Outpost (Placówka, 1885–86)
  • The Doll (Lalka, 1887–89)
  • The New Woman (Emancypantki, 1890–93)
  • Pharaoh (Faraon, written 1894–95; serialized 1895–96; published in book form 1897)
  • Children (Dzieci, 1908; approximately the first nine chapters had originally appeared, in a somewhat different form, in 1907 as Dawn [Świt])
  • Changes (Przemiany, begun 1911–12; unfinished)

Stories

[edit]
  • "Granny's Troubles" ("Kłopoty babuni," 1874)
  • "The Palace and the Hovel" ("Pałac i rudera," 1875)
  • "The Ball Gown" ("Sukienka balowa," 1876)
  • "An Orphan's Lot" ("Sieroca dola," 1876)
  • "Eddy's Adventures" ("Przygody Edzia," 1876)
  • "Damnable Happiness" ("Przeklęte szczęście," 1876)
  • "The Honeymoon" ("Miesiąc nektarowy", 1876)
  • "In the Struggle with Life" ("W walce z życiem", 1877)
  • "Christmas Eve" ("Na gwiazdkę", 1877)
  • "Grandmother's Box" ("Szkatułka babki," 1878)
  • "Little Stan's Adventure" ("Przygoda Stasia," 1879)
  • "New Year" ("Nowy rok," 1880)
  • "The Returning Wave" ("Powracająca fala," 1880)
  • "Michałko" (1880)
  • "Antek" (1880)
  • "The Convert" ("Nawrócony," 1880)
  • "The Barrel Organ" ("Katarynka," 1880)
  • "One of Many" ("Jeden z wielu," 1882)
  • "The Waistcoat" ("Kamizelka," 1882)
  • "Him" ("On," 1882)
  • "Fading Voices" ("Milknące głosy," 1883)
  • "Sins of Childhood" ("Grzechy dzieciństwa," 1883)
  • "Mold of the Earth" ("Pleśń świata," 1884: a brilliant micro-story portraying human history as an endless series of conflicts among mold colonies inhabiting a common boulder)
  • "The Living Telegraph" ("Żywy telegraf," 1884)
  • "Orestes and Pylades" ("Orestes i Pylades," 1884)
  • "She Loves Me?... She Loves Me Not?..." ("Kocha—nie kocha?...", a micro-story, 1884)
  • "The Mirror" ("Zwierciadło," 1884)
  • "On Vacation" ("Na wakacjach," 1884)
  • "An Old Tale" ("Stara bajka," 1884)
  • "In the Light of the Moon" ("Przy księżycu," 1884)
  • "A Mistake" ("Omyłka," 1884)
  • "Mr. Dutkowski and His Farm" ("Pan Dutkowski i jego folwark," 1884)
  • "Musical Echoes" ("Echa muzyczne," 1884)
  • "In the Mountains" ("W górach," 1885)
  • "Shades" ("Ciene," 1885: an evocative micro-story on existential themes)
  • "Anielka" (1885)
  • "A Strange Story" ("Dziwna historia," 1887)
  • "A Legend of Old Egypt" ("Z legend dawnego Egiptu," 1888: Prus's stunning first piece of historical fiction; a preliminary sketch for his only historical novel, Pharaoh, which he wrote in 1894–95)
  • "The Dream" ("Sen," 1890)
  • "Lives of Saints" ("Z żywotów świętych," 1891–92)
  • "Reconciled" ("Pojednani," 1892)
  • "A Composition by Little Frank: About Mercy" ("Z wypracowań małego Frania. O miłosierdziu," 1898)
  • "The Doctor's Story" ("Opowiadanie lekarza," 1902)
  • "Memoirs of a Cyclist" ("Ze wspomnień cyklisty," 1903)
  • "Revenge" ("Zemsta," 1908)
  • "Phantoms" ("Widziadła," 1911, first published 1936)

Nonfiction

[edit]
  • "Letters from the Old Camp" ("Listy ze starego obozu"), 1872: Prus's first composition signed with the pseudonym Bolesław Prus.
  • "On the Structure of the Universe" ("O budowie wszechświata"), public lecture, 23 February 1873.
  • "On Discoveries and Inventions" ("O odkryciach i wynalazkach"): A Public Lecture Delivered on 23 March 1873 by Aleksander Głowacki [Bolesław Prus], Passed by the [Russian] Censor (Warsaw, 21 April 1873), Warsaw, Printed by F. Krokoszyńska, 1873. Translated from the Polish by Christopher Kasparek. [1] [2]
  • "Travel Notes (Wieliczka)" ["Kartki z podróży (Wieliczka)," 1878—Prus's impressions of the Wieliczka Salt Mine; these helped inform the conception of the Egyptian Labyrinth in Prus's 1895 novel, Pharaoh]
  • "A Word to the Public" ("Słówko do publiczności," 11 June 1882 – Prus's inaugural address to readers as the new editor-in-chief of the daily, Nowiny [News], famously proposing to make it "an observatory of societal facts, just as there are observatories that study the movements of heavenly bodies, or—climatic changes.")
  • "Sketch for a Program under the Conditions of the Present Development of Society" ("Szkic programu w warunkach obecnego rozwoju społeczeństwa," 23–30 March 1883—swan song of Prus's editorship of Nowiny)
  • "With Sword and Fire—Henryk Sienkiewicz's Novel of Olden Times" ("Ogniem i mieczem—powieść z dawnych lat Henryka Sienkiewicza," 1884—Prus's review of Sienkiewicz's historical novel, and essay on historical novels)
  • "The Paris Tower" ("Wieża paryska," 1887—whimsical divagations involving the Eiffel Tower, the world's tallest structure, then yet to be constructed for the 1889 Paris Exposition Universelle)
  • "Travels on Earth and in Heaven" ("Wędrówka po ziemi i niebie," 1887—Prus's impressions of a solar eclipse that he observed at Mława; these helped inspire the solar-eclipse scenes in his 1895 novel, Pharaoh)
  • "A Word about Positive Criticism" ("Słówko o krytyce pozytywnej," 1890—Prus's part of a polemic with Positivist guru Aleksander Świętochowski)
  • "Eusapia Palladino" (1893—a newspaper column about mediumistic séances held in Warsaw by the Italian Spiritualist, Eusapia Palladino; these helped inspire similar scenes in Prus's 1895 novel, Pharaoh)
  • "From Nałęczów" ("Z Nałęczowa," 1894—Prus's paean to the salubrious waters and natural and social environment of his favorite vacation spot, Nałęczów)
  • The Most General Life Ideals (Najogólniejsze ideały życiowe, 1905—Prus's system of pragmatic ethics)
  • "Ode to Youth" ("Oda do młodości," 1905—Prus's admission that, before the Russian Empire's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, he had held too cautious a view of the chances for an improvement in Poland's political situation)
  • "Visions of the Future" ("Wizje przyszłości," 1909—a discussion of H. G. Wells' 1901 futurological book, Anticipations, which predicted, among other things, the defeat of German imperialism, the ascendancy of the English language, and the existence, by the year 2000, of a "European Union" that included the Slavic peoples of Central Europe)
  • "The Poet, Educator of the Nation" ("Poeta wychowawca narodu," 1910—a discussion of the cultural and political principles imparted by the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz)
  • "What We... Never Learned from the History of Napoleon" ("Czego nas... nie nauczyły dzieje Napoleona"—Prus's contribution to 16 December 1911 issue of the Warsaw Illustrated Weekly, devoted entirely to Napoleon)

Translations

[edit]
Prus, drawn by his friend Stanisław Witkiewicz, 1887

Prus's writings have been translated into many languages – his historical novel Pharaoh, into twenty-three; his contemporary novel The Doll, into twenty-eight.

Works by Prus have been rendered into Croatian by a member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Stjepan Musulin.

Film versions

[edit]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Prus was not alone in advocating the development of science and technology. It was part of the spirit of the times. The great Polish mathematician Kazimierz Kuratowski writes that in the period when Poland was under complete foreign rule (1795–1918) "It was a common belief that the cultivation of science and the growth of its potential would somehow guarantee the [survival] of the [Polish] nation."[22]
  2. ^ In 1890 Prus wrote: "When I was starting out as a writer, I wrote in part instinctively, in part by inadvertent imitation. My productions were a collection of haphazard observations, put together no doubt against the backdrop of what I had read. Every beginning author does the same. To be sure, this kind of work was to me a great mortification. [...] Then I began asking older authors, and they told me that 'there are no rules, nor can there be any, for the art of novel-writing.' [...] Then [about 1880], brought to desperation, I set about trying to resolve for myself the question: 'Can literary art be reduced to general rules?' After several years of observing and thinking, the matter began to get clearer for me, and as early as August 1886 I set down my first notes [...] and, God willing, I hope to publish a scientific theory of literary art. I expect that it will contain some fairly new things."[91]

References

[edit]

Citations

[edit]
  1. ^ Miłosz, Czesław (1983). The History of Polish Literature. University of California Press. p. 302. ISBN 978-0-520-04477-7.
  2. ^ Miłosz, Czesław (1983). The History of Polish Literature. University of California Press. p. 291. ISBN 978-0-520-04477-7. Undoubtedly the most important novelist of the period was Bolesław Prus...
  3. ^ Krystyna Tokarzówna, Stanisław Fita, Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: a Calendar of His Life and Work), ed. Zygmunt Szweykowski, Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1969, p. 12.
  4. ^ Robert Reid, Marie Curie, p. 12.
  5. ^ Monika Piątkowska, Prus: Śledztwo biograficzne (Prus: A Biographical Investigation), Kraków, Wydawnictwo Znak, 2017, ISBN 978-83-240-4543-3, pp. 49–50.
  6. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward. Bolesław Prus. pp. 146–47.
  7. ^ a b Pieścikowski, Edward, Bolesław Prus, p. 147.
  8. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward, Bolesław Prus, p. 165.
  9. ^ Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita. Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości. pp. 45–46.
  10. ^ Fita, Stanisław, ed. (1962). Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie (Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus). p. 113.
  11. ^ Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912, pp. 51–52.
  12. ^ a b Pieścikowski, Edward. Bolesław Prus. p. 147.
  13. ^ Edward Pieścikowski, Bolesław Prus, pp. 19, 148.
  14. ^ Edward Pieścikowski, Bolesław Prus, p. 148.
  15. ^ Szweykowski, Zygmunt (1947). Twórczość Bolesława Prusa (The Creative Writing of Bolesław Prus). pp. 18–23, 31–32, 293–94 and passim.
  16. ^ a b Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: A Calendar of His Life and Work), passim.
  17. ^ a b Kasparek, Christopher (2003). "A Futurological Note: Prus on H.G. Wells and the Year 2000". The Polish Review. 48 (1): 94.
  18. ^ Kasparek, Christopher (1997). "Prus' Pharaoh and the Wieliczka Salt Mine". The Polish Review. 42 (3): 349–55.
  19. ^ Kasparek, Christopher (1997). "Prus' Pharaoh and the Solar Eclipse". The Polish Review. 42 (4): 471–78.
  20. ^ Bolesław Prus, "Wieża paryska" ("The Paris Tower"), in Kurier Warszawski (Warsaw Courier), no. 59, 1887.
  21. ^ Bolesław Prus, "Z Nałęczowa" ("From Nałęczów"), in Kurier Codzienny (Daily Courier), no. 237, 1894.
  22. ^ Kuratowski, Kazimierz (1980). A Half Century of Polish Mathematics: Remembrances and Reflections. Pergamon Press. ISBN 0-08-023046-6.
  23. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward. Bolesław Prus. p. 49.
  24. ^ Zygmunt Szweykowski, Twórczość Bolesława Prusa (The Creative Writing of Bolesław Prus), pp. 170–71.
  25. ^ Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' Pharaoh: Primer on Power", The Polish Review, vol. XL, no. 3, 1995, p. 332.
  26. ^ Zygmunt Szweykowski, Twórczość Bolesława Prusa (The Art of Bolesław Prus), p. 22.
  27. ^ Zygmunt Szweykowski, Twórczość Bolesława Prusa (The Art of Bolesław Prus), pp. 32–33.
  28. ^ Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' Pharaoh: the Creation of a Historical Novel", The Polish Review, 1994, no. 1, p. 49.
  29. ^ After Prus's death in 1912, she survived him until her own death on 25 October 1936. Tadeusz Hiż, "Godzina u pani Oktawii" ("An Hour at Oktawia Głowacka's"), in the book Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie, 281.
  30. ^ Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita. Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości, 387.
  31. ^ Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita. Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości. p. 605.
  32. ^ Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita. Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości. p. 604.
  33. ^ The girl was Janina Głoskowska, stepdaughter of Ludwik Trembiński, brother of Prus's wife, Oktawia Trembińska. Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości, p. 782.
  34. ^ Christopher Kasparek, "A Futurological Note: Prus on H. G. Wells and the Year 2000," The Polish Review, vol. XLVIII, no. 1, 2003, p. 89.
  35. ^ Pauszer-Klonowska, Gabriela. Ostatnia miłość w życiu Bolesława Prusa. pp. passim.
  36. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward. Bolesław Prus. p. 148.
  37. ^ Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita. Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości. pp. 187–90.
  38. ^ Lorentowicz, Jan (Spojrzenie wstecz, 1935), in the book, Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie, 106.
  39. ^ Zdzisław Najder, Joseph Conrad: A Life, 2007, p. 463.
  40. ^ Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita. Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości. p. 474.
  41. ^ Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: A Calendar of His Life and Work), p. 251.
  42. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward, Bolesław Prus, 152.
  43. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward, Bolesław Prus, p. 166.
  44. ^ Cited in Zygmunt Szweykowski, Twórczość Bolesława Prusa (The Creative Writing of Bolesław Prus), 2nd ed., Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1972, p. 171.
  45. ^ Szweykowski, Zygmunt. Twórczość Bolesława Prusa. p. 109.
  46. ^ Parallels between discovery in science and art, including the phenomenon of multiple discovery, have been drawn in David Lamb, Multiple Discovery: The Pattern of Scientific Progress, Amersham, Avebury Press, 1984.
  47. ^ Miłosz, Czesław (1983). The History of Polish Literature. University of California Press. p. 293. ISBN 978-0-520-04477-7.
  48. ^ Szweykowski, Zygmunt. Twórczość Bolesława Prusa. pp. 66, 84, 122 and passim.
  49. ^ Szweykowski, Zygmunt. Twórczość Bolesława Prusa. pp. passim.
  50. ^ Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita, Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości, passim.
  51. ^ Hiż, Tadeusz, in Stanisław Fita, ed., Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie, 277-78.
  52. ^ Szweykowski, Zygmunt, "Geneza noweli 'Z legend dawnego Egiptu'" (The Genesis of the Short Story, "A Legend of Old Egypt"), in Nie tylko o Prusie: szkice (Not Only about Prus: Sketches), 1st ed., 1967, pp. 256–61.
  53. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward, Bolesław Prus, 67.
  54. ^ Kasparek, Christopher, "Prus' Pharaoh and Curtin's Translation," The Polish Review, vol. XXXI, nos. 2–3 (1986), 127.
  55. ^ Szweykowski, Zygmunt, Twórczość Bolesława Prusa, passim.
  56. ^ a b Pieścikowski, Edward. Bolesław Prus. p. 157.
  57. ^ Oral account by Prus's widow, Oktawia Głowacka, cited by Tadeusz Hiż, "Godzina u pani Oktawii" ("An Hour at Oktawia Głowacka's"), in the book, Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie, 278.
  58. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward. Bolesław Prus. pp. 157–58.
  59. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward. Bolesław Prus. pp. 159–60.
  60. ^ Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita; Zygmunt Szweykowski, ed.; Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: a Calendar of His Life and Work), 1969, passim.
  61. ^ Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita. Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości. p. 626.
  62. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward. Bolesław Prus. pp. 142–43, 165–67.
  63. ^ Miłosz, Czesław (1983). The History of Polish Literature. University of California Press. p. 303. ISBN 978-0-520-04477-7.
  64. ^ Kasparek, Christopher (1994), "Prus' Pharaoh: the Creation of a Historical Novel," The Polish Review, 39 (1), 46.
  65. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward, Bolesław Prus, 167.
  66. ^ Wróblewski, Zbigniew. To samo ramię.
  67. ^ Kotarbiński, Miłosz, "Kilka luźnych wspomnień o Bolesławie Prusie" ("Several Loose Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus"), in Stanisław Fita, ed., Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie, 147-48.
  68. ^ Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: a Calendar of His Life and Work), edited by Zygmunt Szweykowski, Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1969, p. 708.
  69. ^ Kotarbiński, Miłosz, "Kilka luźnych wspomnień o Bolesławie Prusie" ("Several Loose Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus"), in Stanisław Fita, ed., Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie, 148, 151.
  70. ^ Hiż, Tadeusz, "Godzina u pani Oktawii" ("An Hour at Oktawia Głowacka's"), in Stanisław Fita, ed., Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie, 279.
  71. ^ Pauszer-Klonowska, Gabriela, Ostatnia miłość w życiu Bolesława Prusa, passim.
  72. ^ Monika Piątkowska, Prus: Śledztwo biograficzne (Prus: A Biographical Investigation), Kraków, Wydawnictwo Znak, 2017, ISBN 978-83-240-4543-3, p. 456.
  73. ^ Krystyna Tokarzówna and Stanisław Fita, Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: a Calendar of His Life and Work), edited by Zygmunt Szweykowski, Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1969, pp. 576–77.
  74. ^ Tokarzówna, Krystyna, and Stanisław Fita, Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912, photo facing p. 705.
  75. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward, Bolesław Prus, pp. 152, 156.
  76. ^ Szweykowski, Zygmunt. Twórczość Bolesława Prusa. pp. 111–12.
  77. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward. Bolesław Prus. pp. 10–14.
  78. ^ Miłosz, Czesław (1983). The History of Polish Literature. University of California Press. p. 296. ISBN 978-0-520-04477-7.
  79. ^ Najder, Zdzisław. Conrad under Familial Eyes. p. 209.
  80. ^ Najder, Zdzisław. Conrad under Familial Eyes. p. 215.
  81. ^ Miłosz, Czesław (1983). The History of Polish Literature. University of California Press. p. 299. ISBN 978-0-520-04477-7.
  82. ^ Szweykowski, Zygmunt. Twórczość Bolesława Prusa. p. 288.
  83. ^ Kasparek, Christopher (1986). "Prus' Pharaoh and Curtin's Translation". The Polish Review. 31 (2–3): 127–35.
  84. ^ For example, by Janina Kulczycka-Saloni, in Jan Zygmunt Jakubowski, ed., Literatura polska od średniowiecza do pozytywizmu p. 631.
  85. ^ Wilhelm Feldman, cited in Teresa Tyszkiewicz, Bolesław Prus, p. 339.
  86. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward, Bolesław Prus, p. 157.
  87. ^ Bolesław Prus, The Doll, translation by David Welsh, revised by Dariusz Tołczyk and Anna Zaranko, 1996; Pharaoh, translated from the Polish by Christopher Kasparek, 2nd ed., 2001.
  88. ^ Zygmunt Szweykowski, Twórczość Bolesława Prusa (The Art of Bolesław Prus), pp. 295–97 and passim.
  89. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward, Bolesław Prus, pp. 138–39, 161, 163–64.
  90. ^ Melkowski, Stefan. Poglądy estetyczne i działalność krytycznoliteracka Bolesława Prusa. pp. 84–146.
  91. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward. Bolesław Prus. pp. 74–75.
  92. ^ Melkowski, pp. 117–23.
  93. ^ Kasparek, Christopher (1995). "Two Micro-stories by Bolesław Prus". The Polish Review. 40 (1): 99–103.
  94. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward. Bolesław Prus. pp. 94–95, 159 and passim.
  95. ^ Kotarbiński, Miłosz, "Kilka luźnych wspomnień o Bolesławie Prusie" ("Several Loose Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus"), in Stanisław Fita, ed., Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie, 147-48, 151.
  96. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward. Bolesław Prus. pp. 136–37.
  97. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward, Bolesław Prus, 68–69.
  98. ^ Pieścikowski, Edward. Bolesław Prus. pp. 144–45.
  99. ^ "Bolesław Prus". Polish Ocean Lines. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
  100. ^ "Three Polish Coins Honor Boleslaw Prus". Coin Update News. Retrieved 21 September 2012.
  101. ^ Witness articles such as Aleksander Kaczorowski, "My z Wokulskiego" ("We [Descendants] of Wokulski) [protagonist of Prus's novel The Doll]" in Plus Minus, the Rzeczpospolita (Republic) Weekly [Magazine], no. 33 (1016), Saturday-Sunday, 18–19 August 2012, pp. P8-P9.

Bibliography

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  • Fita, Stanisław, ed. (1962). Wspomnienia o Bolesławie Prusie (Reminiscences about Bolesław Prus). Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.
  • Jan Zygmunt Jakubowski, ed., Literatura polska od średniowiecza do pozytywizmu (Polish Literature from the Middle Ages to Positivism), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1979.
  • Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' Pharaoh: the Creation of a Historical Novel", The Polish Review, vol. XXXIX, no. 1, 1994, pp. 45–50.
  • Christopher Kasparek, "Two Micro-stories by Bolesław Prus", The Polish Review, vol. XL, no. 1, 1995, pp. 99–103.
  • Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' Pharaoh: Primer on Power", The Polish Review, vol. XL, no. 3, 1995, pp. 331–34.
  • Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' Pharaoh and the Wieliczka Salt Mine", The Polish Review, vol. XLII, no. 3, 1997, pp. 349–55.
  • Christopher Kasparek, "Prus' Pharaoh and the Solar Eclipse", The Polish Review, vol. XLII, no. 4, 1997, pp. 471–78.
  • Christopher Kasparek, "A Futurological Note: Prus on H. G. Wells and the Year 2000," The Polish Review, vol. XLVIII, no. 1, 2003, pp. 89–100.
  • Melkowski, Stefan (1963). Poglądy estetyczne i działalność krytycznoliteracka Bolesława Prusa (Bolesław Prus's Esthetic Views and Literary-Critical Activity). Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.
  • Miłosz, Czesław (1983), The History of Polish Literature, second edition, Berkeley, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-04477-0.
  • Zdzisław Najder, Conrad under Familial Eyes, Cambridge University Press, 1984, ISBN 0-521-25082-X.
  • Zdzisław Najder, Joseph Conrad: A Life, translated by Halina Najder, Rochester, Camden House, 2007, ISBN 1-57113-347-X.
  • Pauszer-Klonowska, Gabriela (1962). Ostatnia miłość w życiu Bolesława Prusa (The Last Love in the Life of Bolesław Prus). Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.
  • Monika Piątkowska, Prus: Śledztwo biograficzne (Prus: A Biographical Investigation), Kraków, Wydawnictwo Znak, 2017, ISBN 978-83-240-4543-3.
  • Pieścikowski, Edward (1985). Bolesław Prus (2nd ed.). Warsaw: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe. ISBN 83-01-05593-6.
  • Bolesław Prus, On Discoveries and Inventions: A Public Lecture Delivered on 23 March 1873 by Aleksander Głowacki [Bolesław Prus], Passed by the [Russian] Censor (Warsaw, 21 April 1873), Warsaw, Printed by F. Krokoszyńska, 1873.
  • Prus, Bolesław (1996). The Sins of Childhood & Other Stories. translated by Bill Johnston. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 0-8101-1462-3. (This book contains twelve stories by Prus, including the volume's title story, in inaccurate, clunky translations.)
  • Prus, Bolesław (1996). The Doll. translation by David Welsh, revised by Dariusz Tołczyk and Anna Zaranko, and introduction by Stanisław Barańczak. Budapest: Central European University Press. ISBN 1-85866-065-3.
  • Prus, Bolesław (2001). Pharaoh. translation by Christopher Kasparek (2nd ed.). Warsaw: Polestar Publications. ISBN 83-88177-01-X.
  • Robert Reid, Marie Curie, New York, New American Library, 1974.
  • Szweykowski, Zygmunt (1967). Nie tylko o Prusie: szkice (Not Only about Prus: Sketches) (1st ed.). Poznań: Wydawnictwo Poznańskie.
  • Szweykowski, Zygmunt (1972). Twórczość Bolesława Prusa (The Creative Writing of Bolesław Prus) (2nd ed.). Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.
  • Tokarzówna, Krystyna; Stanisław Fita (1969). Szweykowski, Zygmunt (ed.). Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: Kalendarz życia i twórczości (Bolesław Prus, 1847–1912: a Calendar of His Life and Work). Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.
  • Tokarzówna, Krystyna (1981), Młodość Bolesława Prusa (Bolesław Prus's Youth), Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, ISBN 83-06-00603-8.
  • Tyszkiewicz, Teresa (1971). Bolesław Prus. Warsaw: Państwowe Zakłady Wydawnictw Szkolnych.
  • Wróblewski, Zbigniew (1984). To samo ramię (The Same Arm). Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej (Ministry of National Defense). ISBN 83-11-07127-6.
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