Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

Subscribe to Read | $0.00

Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!

Create Free Account

Quick and Easy Sign Up!

It takes less then 1 minute to sign up, then you can enjoy Unlimited eBooks.

Sign Up Browse

Read Anywhere and on Any Device!

  • Download on iOS
  • Download on Android
  • Download on iOS

The Palace

Wiesław Myśliwski
3.59/5 (116 ratings)
Read Now Download Now
A novel about Poland and feudal Polish society at the outbreak of World War II.

It was originally published to acclaim in the author's native Poland in 1970 and made into a movie there. The narrator, a Polish shepherd called Jacob, is deliberately a cipher, serving as a Polish everyman. After a bombing that signals the outbreak of an unnamed war, Jacob finds himself alone in the enormous palace of his master, the local lord. Everyone else has fled, and as Jacob wanders from room to room, he marvels at the wealth manifested there. He feels anger, too, and gives vent to an incongruously articulate monologue expressing his bitter resentment of the stratification of Polish society. Surveying portraits of the noble family, Jacob himself assumes the role of the lord of the manor--or perhaps several generations of lords, as this ``character'' has many voices. He personifies others as well, including a peasant girl who is treated as a sexual slave by the master of the estate. In his ramblings, Jacob portrays both classes unflatteringly-- the palace nobles as genuinely evil, the local peasants as little more than animals. Mysliwski is a master of literary pyrotechnics--Jacob's voices are grand opera, dramatic, exaggerated--and they are propelled by the author's moral outrage, which makes the destruction of the palace not only inevitable but justifiable. Yet the novel's sense of urgency seems to have been dispelled by time and intervening events.
Format:
Pages:
200 pages
Publication:
1991
Publisher:
Peter Owen
Edition:
First Edition
Language:
pol
ISBN10:
0720607906
ISBN13:
9780720607901
kindle Asin:
0720607906

The Palace

Wiesław Myśliwski
3.59/5 (116 ratings)
Read Download
A novel about Poland and feudal Polish society at the outbreak of World War II.

It was originally published to acclaim in the author's native Poland in 1970 and made into a movie there. The narrator, a Polish shepherd called Jacob, is deliberately a cipher, serving as a Polish everyman. After a bombing that signals the outbreak of an unnamed war, Jacob finds himself alone in the enormous palace of his master, the local lord. Everyone else has fled, and as Jacob wanders from room to room, he marvels at the wealth manifested there. He feels anger, too, and gives vent to an incongruously articulate monologue expressing his bitter resentment of the stratification of Polish society. Surveying portraits of the noble family, Jacob himself assumes the role of the lord of the manor--or perhaps several generations of lords, as this ``character'' has many voices. He personifies others as well, including a peasant girl who is treated as a sexual slave by the master of the estate. In his ramblings, Jacob portrays both classes unflatteringly-- the palace nobles as genuinely evil, the local peasants as little more than animals. Mysliwski is a master of literary pyrotechnics--Jacob's voices are grand opera, dramatic, exaggerated--and they are propelled by the author's moral outrage, which makes the destruction of the palace not only inevitable but justifiable. Yet the novel's sense of urgency seems to have been dispelled by time and intervening events.
Format:
Pages:
200 pages
Publication:
1991
Publisher:
Peter Owen
Edition:
First Edition
Language:
pol
ISBN10:
0720607906
ISBN13:
9780720607901
kindle Asin:
0720607906

More Books

El rey de las Dos Sicilias

Andrzej Kuśniewicz

Pnin

Vladimir Nabokov

Ashes and Diamonds (European Classics)

Jerzy Andrzejewski

Król

Szczepan Twardoch

The Street of Crocodiles

Bruno Schulz

Katedra

Jacek Dukaj

The Investigation

Stanisław Lem

Het zout der aarde

Józef Wittlin

Gra na wielu bębenkach

Olga Tokarczuk

Farewell Waltz

Milan Kundera

Madame

Antoni Libera

Panny z Wilka

Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz