SIEROSZEWSKI WACŁAW (SIRKO) Risztau. A novel with illustrations by ANTONIE KAMIEŃSKI [1899].

WARSAW 1899, edition by GEBETHNER AND WOLF, KRAKOW - G. GEBETHNER AND SPÓŁKA, pp. 210, dimensions 11.5 x 18.5, hardcover, period bookbinding, half cloth, spine with gilt titling. Minimally offset block, slight spotting in text; ownership stamps on title page; good condition.

RISZTAU was written shortly after the writer's trip to the Caucasus, and depicts the Polish Strasiewicz family living there: the widow of an 1863 insurgent exiled to Siberia, her sons Szymon and Jurek, and the taken-in orphan Helena. Love is born between Helena, whom Jurek has a secret affection for, and newcomer Stanislaw Wichlicki; but when Stanislaw is threatened with mortal danger in the mountains, Jurek sacrificially rushes to help along with Helena. Excellent descriptions of Caucasian nature, with the dominant peak of Rishtau, accompany the dramatic adventures in which the characters prove themselves.

Waclaw Kajetan Sieroszewski, a.k.a. "Waclaw Sirko" (born August 24, 1858 in Wólka Kozlowska, died. April 20, 1945 in Piaseczno) - Polish writer, writing on the borderline of four eras: positivism, Young Poland, the interwar period and the present day, exile to Siberia, traveler, ethnographer of Siberia and independence activist, Knight of the Cross of Virtuti Militari V cl, MP of the third term and senator of the fourth term in the Second Republic of Poland.