Bolesław Prus

Nationality Polish
Period 1872–1912
Genre
Realist novel
Historical novel
Short story
Micro-story
Prose poetry
Literary movement Positivism
Spouse Oktawia Głowacka, née Trembińska
Children An adopted son, Emil Trembiński
Signature
Bolesław Prus (pronounced: [bɔ'lεswaf 'prus]; 20 August 1847*– 19 May 1912), born Aleksander Głowacki, is a leading figure in the history of Polish literature[1] and philosophy and a distinctive voice in world literature.[2]

As a 15-year-old he joined the Polish 1863 Uprising against Imperial Russia. Shortly after his 16th birthday, he suffered severe battle injuries. Five months later he was imprisoned for his part in the Uprising. These early experiences may have precipitated the panic disorder and agoraphobia that would dog him through life, and shaped his opposition to attempting to regain Poland's independence by force of arms.

In 1872 at age 25, in Warsaw, he settled into a 40-year journalistic career that highlighted science, technology, education, and economic and cultural development. These societal enterprises were essential to the endurance of a people who had in the 18th century been partitioned out of political existence by Russia, Prussia and Austria. Głowacki took his pen name "Prus" from the appellation of his family's coat-of-arms.

As a sideline he wrote short stories. Succeeding with these, he went on to employ a larger canvas; over the decade between 1884 and 1895, he completed four major novels: The Outpost, The Doll, The New Woman and Pharaoh. The Doll depicts the romantic infatuation of a man of action who is frustrated by his country's backwardness. Pharaoh, Prus' only historical novel, is a study of political power and of the fates of nations, set in ancient Egypt at the fall of the 20th Dynasty and New Kingdom.

Life

Early years

Prus' Hrubieszów birthplace

Lublin Castle, Prus' prison during 1863–65 Uprising
Aleksander Głowacki was born 20 August 1847 in Hrubieszów, now in southeastern Poland, very near the present-day border with Ukraine. The town was then in the Russian-controlled sector of partitioned Poland, known as the "Congress Kingdom". Głowacki was the younger son of Antoni Głowacki, an estate steward at the village of Żabcze, in Hrubieszów County, and Apolonia Głowacka, née Trembińska. In 1850, when the future Bolesław Prus was three years old, his mother died; the child was placed in the care of his maternal grandmother, Marcjanna Trembińska of Puławy, and, four years later, in the care of his aunt, Domicela Olszewska of Lublin. In 1856 Prus was orphaned by his father's death. In 1862 Prus' brother Leon, a teacher thirteen years his senior, took him to Siedlce, then to Kielce.[3]