Forma i metafizyka. O cyklu Opowiadania wieczorne Bolesława Prusa

Abstract

The article is an introduction to a forgotten cycle The Evening Stories written by Bolesław Prus. The 1894 collection has a retrospective character and consists of texts written in 1875-1892. Their common feature is the very subject matter (which is certain life phenomena), suggesting a metaphysical background of events and facts. The stories also contain elements of great literary themes of the period, exploited in Prus' best known no vel s (The Doll, The Suffragettes, The Pharaoh). It is characteristic that this technique is used in Prus' epic forms which are only partly a typical novel. This is also elear from critical reviews of the cyele, which elassify the texts as a grotesque melodrama, dream, allegory or legend.