Stefan Żeromski
1864–1925
Biography
Stefan Żeromski was a Polish novelist and playwright and one of the leading writers of the Young Poland circle around 1900. He was born in 1864 at Strawczyn, a village in the Kielce region of Congress Poland, which was then under Russian rule, and he died in Warsaw in 1925. He sometimes wrote under pen names, among them Maurycy Zych.
Many readers and critics saw him as the moral voice of Polish writing. His books took up social injustice, the duties owed to the nation, and the choices ordinary people face under pressure. He was nominated four times for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and he served as the first president of the Polish PEN Club.
Three of his books are on this site. Popioły (Ashes) is a historical novel set in the years of the Napoleonic wars, when Poles fought in the hope of restoring their nation. The other two are Dzieje grzechu (The History of a Sin) and Syzyfowe prace (The Labours of Sisyphus), which readers can take up after the first.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
Dzieje grzechu
by Stefan Żeromski
Ewa Pobratyńska, a young woman of Warsaw, is drawn into a passionate affair with Łukasz Niepołomski, and a chain of lies, a child and a crime follows. Żeromski's two-volume novel of 1908 tells this 'story of a sin' with fierce psychological detail. This book uses the racial and…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.Popioły
by Stefan Żeromski
Young Rafał Olbromski goes from the manor of his family to the Napoleonic wars, hoping that the Emperor will give Poland back its freedom, while his brother and the woman he loves are drawn into the same fires. Żeromski's wide historical novel follows the Polish Legions from…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.Syzyfowe prace
by Stefan Żeromski
Marcin Borowicz, the son of a village farmer, is sent to a gymnasium in the Russian-ruled town of Klerykowo, where teachers work to strip Polish pupils of their language and history. Żeromski's school novel follows the boy and his friends as they find in books and in each other…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.Uroda życia
by Stefan Żeromski
Piotr Rozłucki, a cadet held in the strict drill of a military school, longs for the world beyond its windows. Żeromski's novel of 1912, in three parts, follows him out of the school into the larger life that waits for a young man of the intelligentsia. This book uses the racial…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.Wierna rzeka
by Stefan Żeromski
In the winter of 1863 the young insurgent Józef Odrowąż, wounded in the January Uprising, is hidden in a ruined manor on the Vistula by Salomea Brynicka, a lady who has her own secrets. Żeromski's short, lyrical novel tells of their love and of the uprising's defeat. This book…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.