IWASZKIEWICZ Jaroslaw
HILARY SON OF THE BOOKKEEPER. POWIEŚĆ
Warsaw 1923; "Ignis" Publishing Society. pp. 177, [1]. broch.; format 13x19.5 cm
Cover designed by Tadeusz Gronowski.
Iwaszkiewicz's first novel!
On the title page dedication autographed by the Author in 1926!
Its fragments were printed in "Zdrój" in 1922; it is stylized as an autobiography.
Hilary, the son of a bookkeeper (Iwaszkiewicz's alter ego) arrives from the provinces to the big city with the intention of making a career, where he has to win the favor of the community by accepting compromises and conformist behavior. The novel shows Warsaw as seen through the eyes of a provincial.
Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz (1894-1980), Polish prose writer, poet, essayist, translator and librettist, co-founder of the Skamander poetry group.
"His early works are maintained in the convention of the fairy-tale-poetic novel ("Zenobia Palmura", "Escape to Baghdad", "Evening at Abdon's"); they are dominated by the modernist tradition, which at the same time undergoes attempts to reevaluate it, centered around the art-life opposition. This motif also runs through the novels stylized as autobiographies ('Hilary, son of the bookmaker', 'The moon rises')." Source: culture.co.uk
DB condition/rubbing and bending of cover edges, tear of front cover vide photo, minor loss of spine
