Cyprian Norwid [antikvár]

Preface This is the first full-length study on the outstanding Polish poet and thinker Cyprian Norwid for the English-speaking reader. It has two interrelated but modest aims. First of all it tries to provide a sketch of Norwid's biography sufBcient for the understanding of his work and the discussion of his achievement in each literary genre, with the main emphasis on poetry. Naturally most attention is paid to Norwid's major or pioneering works, since until now only a handful of his poems, some letters, and two short stories have been translated into English. A two-volume edition of his selected writings due to be published soon under the auspices of the University of Iowa will certainly improve the situation and is bound to be useful to anyone interested in Norwid but lacking a sufficient command of Polish to read him in the original, a task not considered easy even by native Poles, as Norwid uses the language with brilliant inventiveness. My second aim is to give at least some idea of Norwid's thought and historiosophy while indicating his connections with Christian tradition and nineteenth-century European thought. The size of the book makes it impossible to follow up these connections and discuss them in detail. In some cases I present only my conclusions or the conclusions of other scholars without reconstructing the logic of the research that led to it. Norwid's poetic and prose texts are quoted in my own English versions which—needless to say—cannot do justice to the vigor and complexity of the original. In the few cases where I used other English versions, the name of the translator is given after the quoted text. I would like to express my thanks to the institutions whose support enabled me to write this book: first of all, the generosity