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KRASZEWSKI, JOSEPH IGNATIUS (1812—1887)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 924 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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KRASZEWSKI, See also:JOSEPH See also:IGNATIUS (1812—1887) , See also:Polish novelist and See also:miscellaneous writer, was See also:born at See also:Warsaw on the 28th of See also:July 1812, of an aristocratic See also:family. He showed a precocious See also:talent for authorship, beginning his See also:literary career with a See also:volume of sketches from society as See also:early as 1829, and for more than See also:half a See also:century scarcely ever intermitting his literary See also:production, except during a See also:period of imprisonment upon a See also:charge of complicity in the insurrection of 1831. He narrowly escaped being sent to See also:Siberia, but, rescued by the intercession of powerful See also:friends, he settled upon his landed See also:property near See also:Grodno, and devoted himself to literature with such See also:industry that a See also:mere selection from his fiction alone, reprinted at See also:Lemberg from 1871 to 1875, occupies 102 volumes. He was thus the most conspicuous literary figure of his See also:day in See also:Poland. His extreme fertility was suggestive of haste and carelessness, but he declared that the contrivance of his See also:plot gave him three times as much trouble as the See also:composition of his novel. Apart from his gifts as a See also:story-See also:teller, he did not possess extraordinary See also:mental See also:powers; the " profound thoughts " culled from his writings by his admiring biographer Bohdanowicz are for the most See also:part mere truisms. His copious invention is nevertheless combined with real truth to nature, especially evinced in the beautiful little story of Jermola the See also:Potter (18J7), from which See also:George See also:Eliot appears to have derived the See also:idea of See also:Silas Marner, though she can only have known it at second See also:hand. Compared with the exquisite See also:art of Silas Marner, Jermola appears See also:rude and unskilful, but it is not on this See also:account the less touching in its fidelity to the tenderest elements of human nature. Kraszewski's literary activity falls into two well-marked epochs, the earlier when, residing upon his See also:estate, he produced romances like Jermola, Ulana (1843), Kordecki (1852), devoid of any See also:special tendency, and that after 1863, when the suspicions of the See also:Russian See also:government compelled him to See also:settle in See also:Dresden. To this period belong several See also:political novels published under the See also:pseudonym of Boleslawila, See also:historical See also:fictions such as Countess See also:Cosel, and the " culture " romances Morituri (1874—1875) and Resurrecturi (1876), by which he is perhaps best known out of his own See also:country. In 1884 he was accused of plotting against the See also:German government and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in a fortress, but was released in 1886, and withdrew to See also:Geneva, where he died on the 19th of See also:March 1887. His remains were brought to Poland and interred at See also:Cracow.

Kraszewski was also a poet and dramatist; his most celebrated poem is his epic Anafcelas (3 vols., 1840—1843) on the See also:

history of Lithuania. He was indefatigable as literary critic, editor and translator, wrote several historical See also:works, and was conspicuous as a restorer of the study of See also:national See also:archaeology in Poland. Among his most valuable works were Litwa (Warsaw, 2 vols., 1847—1850), a collection of Lithuanian antiquities; and an aesthetic history of Poland (See also:Posen, 3 vols., 1873-1875). (R.

End of Article: KRASZEWSKI, JOSEPH IGNATIUS (1812—1887)

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