Józef Ignacy Kraszewski
| Józef Ignacy Kraszewski | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
28 July 1812 Warsaw, Duchy of Warsaw, Poland |
| Died | 19 March 1887 (aged 74) Geneva, Switzerland |
| Occupation | Novelist, journalist and historian |
| Language | Polish |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Period | 19th century |
| Notable works | Stara Baśń (An Ancient Tale, 1876) |
Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (28 July 1812 – 19 March 1887) was a Polish writer, publisher, historian, journalist, scholar, painter and author who produced more than 200 novels and 150 novellas, short stories, and art reviews. He is best known for his epic series on the history of Poland, comprising twenty-nine novels in seventy-nine parts.
The son of a nobleman, Kraszewski studied at the University of Wilno between 1829 and 1830. He was imprisoned from 1830 to 1832 for participating in a secret patriotic organization. Banished from Congress Poland in 1863, he settled in Dresden, where he remained until 1884. Throughout his life he was active in publishing and journalism. He began publishing in 1830, gradually evolving from a romantic to a realist writer. His literary legacy consists of about 600 volumes of prose, poetry, drama, literary criticism and works on history and philosophy. A major Polish novelist, Kraszewski is known for his cycle of novels on the history of Poland (29 novels in 78 volumes), written between 1876 and 1887, of which the best from an artistic standpoint are The Countess Cosel (1874), Brühl (1875), and An Ancient Tale (1876). Kraszewski's "peasant" novels, including Ulana (1843) and Ostap Bondarczuk (1847), deal with the painful problems of the serf society and community. Outstanding among his social novels on contemporary themes are The Magic Lantern (1843–44) and Morituri (1874–75). The classic Polish realist writers regarded Kraszewski as their forerunner and mentor, however as a novelist writing about the history of Poland, Kraszewski is generally regarded as second only to the Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz.
Kraszewski was considered a real cultural institution uplifting the Polish spirit during the country's partition.
Kraszewski was born on 28 July 1812 as the oldest son of Jan Kraszewski and Zofia Kraszewska née Malska. He was born to a noble family whose manor was located in Dołhe near the town of Prużany, however, he was born in Warsaw because of his mother who came there in 1812 in fear of the military activities of Napoleon's army heading for Moscow. He spent his childhood in his grandmother's mansion in Romanowo in the Podlasie region, where he would come back eagerly when he was young (nowadays the J. I. Kraszewski Museum is located there). From 1822 he went to schools in Biała Podlaska, Lublin and Świsłocza, and in 1829 he commenced studies in Wilno: first he studied medicine, then – despite his father's disapproval – literature. After the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising in November 1830, he and a group of his friends were arrested and he was kept in a Russian prison for more than a year, and, once released, he stayed in Wilno under strict police surveillance. When he was finally allowed to come back to Dołhe, Kraszewski continued the literary work he had started in Wilno and completed his education (as the Russian authorities had closed down the local University). The habit of avid but careful reading of literature and reviews from all around Europe would not leave him till his death.
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