Remarks to Maryla’s Biography in Light of a Recently Found Document Cover Image

Uwagi do biografii Maryli w świetle odnalezionego dokumentu
Remarks to Maryla’s Biography in Light of a Recently Found Document

Author(s): Dorota Samborska-Kukuć
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Adam Mickiewicz; Maria Puttkamer; Polish Literature (19 c.); Biography

Summary/Abstract: Issues of the biography of Maria Puttkamer, née Wereszczak, who was Adam Mickiewicz’s calf love, aroused literary historians’ interest due to interrelations of Maryla’s biography with that of the Polish Bard. In particular, efforts were made to reconcile her family life – the marriage and children – with her staying faithful to the poet, by e.g. suggesting that a ‘white marriage’ between them was the case. In the face of a document that has been found (and confirmed the presumption regarding Maryla’s first-born child, based on works by certain scholars and biographers), i.e. the birth-certificate of the Puttkamers’ eldest daughter of 1823, the reader’s reception of Ms. Puttkamer’s correspondence with Mickiewicz, Tomasz Zan and Jan Czeczot changes and gets modified, to an extent. The numerous allusions, confessions and suggestions contained in these letters gain a meaning that has been hidden until very recently.

  • Issue Year: 2009
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 218-233
  • Page Count: 16
  • Language: Polish