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A new, annotated prose translation of Poland's great national poem. Pan Tadeusz is a classic tale of romance, mystery, war, and patriotism set in the turbulent Napoleonic era.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Preface: Adam Mickiewicz and Pan Tadeusz, by Dr. Andrzej Waśko
Translator’s Preface
List of Main Characters
Author’s Note
BOOK I: The Manor
BOOK II: The Castle
BOOK III: Romantic Pursuits
BOOK IV: Diplomacy and the Hunt
BOOK V: The Brawl
BOOK VI: The Noble Village
BOOK VII: The Council
BOOK VIII: The Foray
BOOK IX: The Battle
BOOK X: Emigration. Jacek
BOOK XI: The Year 1812
BOOK XII: Let Us Love One Another!
About the Translator
About the author
Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855) is arguably Poland's greatest poet. Born in Nowogródek in what is now Belarus, he is often compared to Goethe and Byron, and was the dominant figure in Poland's Romantic Movement. Banished as a political subversive to central Russia in 1824, he was welcomed into the leading literary circles of Saint Petersburg and Moscow where he became a favorite for his agreeable manners and extraordinary talent for poetic improvisation. In 1829, he left the Russian Empire for a life of perpetual exile in Italy, France and Switzerland. For three years he lectured on Slavic literature at the Collège de France in Paris. He died in Constantinople while helping organize Polish and Jewish forces against Tsarism in the Crimean War of 1855. Among his great works besides
Pan Tadeusz are his poetic drama
Dziady (Forefathers' Eve), his historical narrative poems
Grażyna and
Konrad Wallenrod, and his sublime
Crimean Sonnets. His body rests in the crypt of the Wawel Cathedral in Kraków, Poland.
Christopher Adam Zakrzewski is a literary translator, teacher, and scholar. Born in 1948 and raised in the UK and Ontario, Canada, he pursued his doctorate in Russian and Polish literature at the University of British Columbia. Zakrzewski served as a professor of languages and literature at Our Lady Seat of Wisdom College in Barry's Bay, Ontario. Now retired, he resides with his wife Wendy in the village of Wilno, Ontario. They have five children and nine grandchildren.
Dr. Andrzej Waśko is a pre-eminent literary and cultural historian with the Faculty of Polish Studies at the Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
Summary
Arguably the most authoritative English translation of Poland’s great national poem.
Sometimes called the “last epos in world literature,” Pan Tadeusz (first published in Paris in 1834) is a classic tale of romance, mystery, war, and patriotism set in the turbulent Napoleonic era. The old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lies dismembered and erased from the political map of Europe by the great powers of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. A brief ray of hope rekindles national aspirations when Napoleon Bonaparte establishes the Grand Duchy of Warsaw by the terms of the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) and sets the stage for his invasion of Russia.
