Warsaw in the novel The Doll
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The novel Lalka (The Doll), written by Bolesław Prus (a synonym for Aleksander Głowacki), is a huge novel that provides a complex description of Poland and Warsaw in the 1870s and describes the enormous changes taking place around this time.
It’s a period when the power of the nobility is disappearing in favour of an upwardly mobile class of merchants and manufacturers. Prus, however, moves through all walks of life and also describes the life of ordinary people with a job that enables them to live quite honourably. We are also introduced to the tensions between ethnic Poles and Jews, who do not feel recognised even if they renounce Jewish traditions and live as ordinary city dwellers. You can clearly feel the Russian yoke and the dream of a new war of liberation, which may well come from France. It is also a work that presents Warsaw with photographic accuracy, and many of the descriptions were used during the reconstruction after WWII.
The novel’s protagonist is the successful businessman Wokulski, who you can meet today at the railway station in the provincial town of Skierniwice – about 60 kilometres from Warsaw
Business is booming and people enjoy spending time in pubs, drinking beer and discussing trade and the state of the country. And if you have time, you can stroll and flirt in the park “The Royal Baths”, which is especially popular among the meaningless nobility who still consider themselves special, but who are largely bankrupt and living on loans secured on their good name. One of the main characters is an impoverished nobleman whose only remaining wealth is a rental property:
“Tomasz Łęcki and his daughter Izabela and his cousin Florentynka did not live in their own rental property, but rented an eight-room apartment near Ujazdowski Avenue. There was a living room with three windows, a private study, a study for his daughter, a bedroom for himself, a bedroom for his daughter, a dining room, a room for Miss Florentynka and a wardrobe, not including the kitchen, and an apartment for the servants, which consisted of the old valet, Mikołaj, his wife, who was a cook, and the maid, Anusia”.
It’s a time when railways and streetlights become part of everyday life, but when Prus described it, it was a completely new and revolutionary reality for the inhabitants. You won’t experience electricity or phones in the Doll yet. On the other hand, news travels at motorway speeds with the help of the telegraph. Carriages are still horse driven, duels are commonly accepted and marriage is still a practical function to ensure prosperity, survival or division of labour:
“After getting over the initial discomfort, Miss Izabela realised that you have to accept marriage for what it is. She was determined to marry, but on the one condition that her future companion liked her, had a beautiful name and a suitable fortune”.
In other words: a noblewoman can’t marry downwards, even if she has to take an old man.
However, we also get the impression of a relatively well-organised society. Credits, bills of exchange and mortgages work flawlessly, people register where they live, and the courts hear complaints between citizens in a relatively impartial manner according to the book.
Overall, the book gives a positive impression of Warsaw, but a few of the chapters are also set in Paris, and when compared, Paris comes across as an example of modernity and open-mindedness, where people are equal, as opposed to Warsaw, which is seen as a dark and dirty city, with people living in the past and where hierarchy makes normal contact between people impossible.
Book cover for one of the many editions of Lalka
Although the majority of the book is set in the Warsaw of the elite and wealthy citizens, Prus also ventures into the harsh corners of the city. Here you can clearly see the extreme contrast between the elite’s ostentatious display of luxury and the extreme poverty, prostitution and cramped housing conditions of the poor neighbourhoods.
The story is perhaps primarily a strong psychological tale of urges, passions and lack thereof, social ambitions and the struggle for survival, but it can be read in many ways, and it contains a brilliant and nuanced description of Warsaw from the period, which for me is the most important element of the novel.
It can be read in English under the title “The Doll” (Bolesław Prus). It is also available as a film.
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