The most famous Polish writers of the 20th-21st centuries

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Polish writers may not be so familiar to the Russian reader. However, the classical layer of the literature of this country is very original and especially dramatic. Perhaps this is due to the tragic fate of the Polish people, many centuries of conquest and division of land, the Nazi invasion, the destruction of the country and its difficult restoration from ruins.

However, Polish writers are also known to us on the other hand, as the brightest representatives of such popular genres as science fiction and ironic detective. Let's talk about the most notable Polish writers of the 20th and 21st centuries, whose fame went beyond the borders of their native country.

Senkevich Henrik

At the end of the 19th century, Sienkiewicz became the most famous Polish writer. Books by Polish writers do not often win the world's largest prizes, but Sienkiewicz won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905. It was given for all his literary work.

One of his most famous works is the historical saga “With Fire and Sword”, which tells about the SpeechCommonwe alth. In 1894, he wrote his next landmark work, Quo Vadis, in the Russian translation of “Kamo Gryadeshi”. This novel about the Roman Empire establishes Sienkiewicz as a master of the historical genre in literature. To this day, this novel remains very popular and is translated into various languages. His next work was the novel "The Crusaders" about the attacks of the Teutonic Order on Poland.

With the outbreak of World War I, Sienkiewicz left for Switzerland, where he died in 1916 and was buried there. His remains were later reburied in Warsaw.

Lem Stanislav

Polish futurist writer Stanisław Lem is known all over the world. He is the author of such famous works as "Solaris", "Eden", "Voice of the Lord" and others.

He was born in 1921 in the city of Lvov, which was then Polish. During the German occupation, miraculously did not end up in the ghetto thanks to forged documents. After the end of World War II, he moved to Krakow under the repatriation program, where he studied to be a doctor. In 1946, Lem published his first story, and already in 1951, his debut novel “The Astronauts” was published, which instantly made him famous.

All the writer's work can be conditionally divided into several groups. One is a serious work in the spirit of science fiction. The other was written by him as a satirist writer. These are grotesque works such as “Cyberiad” and “Peace on Earth”.

Polish science fiction writer - author of works that have been translated into 40 languages and sold more than 30 in the worldmillion copies of his books. Some of his works have been filmed.

Witold Gombrowicz

This is a Polish writer, satirist, playwright of the period of the 50-60s of the 20th century. His first major novel, Ferdydurka, made a big splash. He forever divided the literary world of Poland into admirers and critics of his work, among whom were other Polish writers.

A month before the start of World War II, Gombrowicz sails on a ship to Argentina, where he lives in exile during the terrible years of the war. After the end of hostilities, the writer realizes that his work is forgotten at home, but it is not easy to win fame abroad either. Only in the mid-1950s did his old works begin to be reprinted in Poland.

In the 60s, his popularity returned, largely due to the new novels "Cosmos" and "Pornography", which are published in France. In the history of world literature, Witold Gombrowicz has remained a master of words and a philosopher who has more than once entered into a dispute with history.

Vishnevsky Janusz

Few modern Polish writers are as famous in the world as Janusz Wisniewski. Despite the fact that he now lives in Frankfurt am Main, his works are always colored by the unique charm of Polish prose, its drama and lyricism.

Vishnevsky's debut novel "Loneliness in the Net" about virtual love literally blew up the world. The book was a bestseller for three years, it was filmed and translated into many languages.

However, and subsequentthe author's works do not leave readers indifferent, because he writes about love, about the strength of this feeling and about its weakness, about everything that is familiar to the reader, but he sometimes cannot express it in words.

Khmelevskaya Joanna

The works of Mrs. Khmelevskaya are not considered high true literature, and it is not surprising, because its genre is an ironic detective story. However, her fame cannot be denied. Khmelevskaya's books have become so popular not only because of the intrigue and cleverly twisted detective stories, but also because of the charm of her characters. The main character of many books is written off from the author - brave, ironic, smart, reckless, Pani John left no one indifferent. The rest Khmelevskaya wrote off from her friends, relatives and colleagues. At the behest of her fantasy, many became victims or criminals and, as they later noted with a laugh, could not get rid of the imposed image.

Her own life threw her a lot of stories - love affairs, dizzying meetings, travel and much less pleasant events of World War II, the occupation of Warsaw, the difficult economic fate of the country. All this brought to her books that lively language and sharp humor that spread far beyond the borders of her native country.