„Piękne więzienie” i „miasto przeklęte” – Berlin końca XIX wieku oczami Bolesława Prusa oraz Stanisława Przybyszewskiego
A ‘Beautiful Gaol’ and a ‘Cursed City: Late-Nineteenth-Century Berlin as Seen by Bolesław Prus and Stanisław Przybyszewski

Summary/Abstract: The Berlin of the 1880s was visited by big numbers of Poles, especially those affiliated to the world of arts. Among those who arrived and stayed there for some time was Ignacy-Jan Paderewski, Artur Rubinstein, Julian Fałat, or Wojciech Kossak. Bolesław Prus’s lived in Berlin for more than a month, while Stanisław Przybyszewski’s sojourn was several years’ long. The two authors, of different generations and world-views, were ‘united’ in their personal experience of the city’s realities, close to each other in terms of quality and language. Both of them experienced moments of enchantment with the German capital, which was followed by a phase of acquisition of adifferent, less approving perspective; at the end of this path was a desire to flee. ‘Beautiful gaol’ and a ‘cursed city’ are metaphors which aptly render both novelists. impressions from their stay in late-nineteenth-century Berlin – where fascination meets dread and dismay.

• Details
• Contents