Novels
- Po*rnografia (1966)
- Cosmos (1967)
- Possessed (1982)
- Ferdyduke (1986)
- Trans-atlantyk (1994)
- Bacacay (2004)
Omnibus
- Ferdydurke / Po*rnografia / Cosmos (1978)
Collections
- Three Plays (1995)
Plays
- Ivona, Princess of Burgundia (1969)
- The Marriage (1969)
Non fiction
- Polish Memories (2004)
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Witold Gombrowicz Books Overview
Po*rnografia
One of the indisputable totems of twentieth century world literature, Witold Gombrowicz wrote Po*rnografia after leaving his native Poland for Argentina in 1939 and then watching from afar as the German invasion destroyed his country. Translated for the first time into English from the original Polish by award winning translator Danuta Borchardt, Po*rnografia is one of Gombrowicz’s highest regarded works a richly imagined tale of violence and carnality set in wartime Poland. In the midst of the German occupation, two aging intellectuals travel to a farm in the countryside, looking for a respite from the hellish scene in Warsaw. They quickly grow bored of their bucolic surroundings that is, until they are hypnotized by a pair of country youths who have grown up alongside each other at the farm. The older men are determined to orchestrate a tryst between the two teenagers, but they are soon distracted by a string of violent developments, including an order from the underground movement for the men to assassinate a rogue resistance captain who has sought refuge with them. The erotic games are put on hold until the two dissolute intellectuals find a way to involve their pawns in the murderous plot.
Cosmos
A dark, quasi detective novel, Cosmos follows the classic noir motif to explore the arbitrariness of language, the joke of human freedom, and man’s attempt to bring order out of chaos in his psychological life. Published in 1965, Cosmos is the last novel by Witold Gombrowicz 1904 1969 and his most somber and multifaceted work. Two young men meet by chance in a Polish resort town in the Carpathian Mountains. Intending to spend their vacation relaxing, they find a secluded family run pension. But the two become embroiled first in a macabre event on the way to the pension, then in the peculiar activities and psychological travails of the family running it. Gombrowicz offers no solution to their predicament. Cosmos is translated here for the first time directly from the Polish by Danuta Borchardt, translator of Ferdydurke.
Ferdyduke
In this bitterly funny novel by the renowned Polish author Witold Gombrowicz, a writer finds himself tossed into a chaotic world of schoolboys by a diabolical professor who wishes to reduce him to childishness. Originally published in Poland in 1937, Ferdydurke became an instant literary sensation and catapulted the young author to fame. Deemed scandalous and subversive by Na*zis, Stalinists, and the Polish Communist regime in turn, the novel as well as all of Gombrowicz’s other works was officially banned in Poland for decades. It has nonetheless remained one of the most influential works of twentieth century European literature. Ferdydurke is translated here directly from the Polish for the first time. Danuta Borchardt deftly captures Gombrowicz’s playful and idiosyncratic style, and she allows English speakers to experience fully the masterpiece of a writer whom Milan Kundera describes as ‘one of the great novelists of our century.’
Trans-atlantyk
Witold Gombrowicz 1904 1969, novelist, essayist, and playwright, is considered by many to be the most important Polish writer of the 20th century. Author of four novels, several plays, and a highly acclaimed Diary, he was a candidate for the Nobel Prize in literature in 1968. Trans Atlantyk is a semi autobiographical, satirical novel that throws into heightened perspective all of Gombrowicz’s major literary, philosophical, psychological, and social concerns. First published in Paris in 1953, it is based on the author’s experience of being caught in Argentina at the outbreak of World War II. The narrator finds himself alone, without family and friends, at odds with the Argentinian literary world and with Polish emigre society. Throughout the book, Gombrowicz ridicules the self centered pomposity of the Polish community in Argentina. More than this, he explores with prophetic vision the modern predicament of exile and displacement in a disintegrating world. The form and style of Trans Atlantyk reinforce Gombrowicz’s satire. The novel is written in the idiom of the gaweda, a 17th and 18th century Polish oral genre typical of the conservative culture of provincial nobility, that presents a jarring and sometimes hilarious contrast to the formless and expansive culture of the modern world. Because of its stylistic difficulty, Trans Atlantyk is the only one of Gombrowicz’s works that has never before been translated into English. Now Carolyn French and Nina Karsov have produced a daring and original translation, the product of over ten years of effort, that corresponds roughly in tone and diction to a 17th/18th century English idiom and that conveys Gombrowicz’s irreverent and fierce parody of an anachronistic culture in the 20th century.
Bacacay
One of the great novelists of our century. Milan KunderaFirst published in 1957 in Poland, Bacacaya nod to his street in Buenos Aires is a collection of 12 short stories by Witold Gombrowicz 1904 1968, one of the major European literary figures of the 20th century. Stunningly original in both style and content, these stories are often hilarious yet have an undercurrent of profound moral disquiet and horror when the respectable turns slowly but inexorably into the outrageous, conveying both the horrors of upper class life and the deepest anguish of the human condition. Gombrowicz has perfect pitch for language; he revels in linguistic play, combining words in extraordinary ways. The commonplace and the everyday are juxtaposed with the bizarre and unsettling to make a world in which unspeakable subconscious urges have a habit of poking through the surface of ordinary life, leaving permanent scars. Bacacayis a brilliant series of satires on the limitations, quirks and phobias of the upper class. In Gombrowicz’s hands, words create worlds. Witold Gombrowiczis the single most important Polish prose writer of the 20th century. He is best known for his novels Ferdydurke1937, Po*rnografia1960 and Cosmos1966 and his plays Princess Ivona1935 and The Marriage1953. Gombrowicz left Poland in 1939, lived in Argentina for over 20 years, and died in France. In 1967, he was awarded the Prix Formentor. This is Bacacay s first English language publication. Bill Johnston is director of the Polish Studies Center at Indiana University. His translations include Gustaw Herling s The Noonday Cemetery and Other StoriesNew Directions, 2003, Stefan Zeromski s The Faithful RiverNorthwestern, 1999, and Magdalena Tulli s Dreams and Stones Archipelago Books, 2004.
Polish Memories
Although Witold Gombrowicz’s unique, idiosyncratic writings include a three volume Diary, this voluminous document offers few facts about his early life in Poland before his books were banned there and he went into voluntary exile. Polish Memories a series of autobiographical sketches Gombrowicz composed for Radio Free Europe during his years in Argentina in the late 1950s fills the gap in our knowledge. Written in a straightforward way without his famous linguistic inventions, the book presents an engaging account of Gombrowicz s childhood, youth, literary beginnings, and fellow writers in interwar Poland and reveals how these experiences and individuals shaped his seemingly outlandish concepts about the self, culture, art, and society. In addition, the book helps readers understand the numerous autobiographical allusions in his fiction and brings a new level of understanding and appreciation to his life and work. Witold Gombrowicz is the author of Ferdydurke, Trans Atlantyk, Po*rnografia, and Cosmos, the first two available from Yale University Press. These, along with his plays and the three volume Diary, have been translated into more than thirty languages.