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The Coming Spring and Other Seasons

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with interpretations of Stefan Żeromski’s novel The Coming Spring (1925). Figuring on compulsory reading lists in schools during the Polish People’s Republic, this novel used to be Żeromski’s best-known work. Bolecki shows how the interpretations form above manipulated pupils to read the novel as a tribute to the Bolshevik Revolution, while Żeromski’s programmatic texts – unpublished at the time – suggest that he intended the novel as a poignant warning against Bolshevism. In his new interpretation Bolecki not only highlights the novel’s rootedness in the literary tradition, but he also makes the bold claim that Witkacy’s novel Farewell to Autumn (1927) represents an immediate continuation of The Coming Spring. Bolecki concludes by contesting the widespread notion according to which Żeromski’s novel is outdated, arguing instead that it is entirely up to date.

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