Reymont, Wladyslaw Stanislaw

Born May 7, 1867, in the village of Kobiele Wielkie; died Dec. 5, 1925, in Warsaw. Polish writer.

Before turning to writing in 1893, Reymont was a member of a traveling theatrical company, a tailor’s apprentice, and a railroad clerk. In his novels and short stories the traditions of critical realism are blended with naturalistic elements and symbolist tendencies. Daily life in the countryside is naturalistically portrayed in the collections The Meeting (1897) and Before Daybreak (1902) and in the novella With Justice (1899). The novels The Comedienne (1896) and Ferment (1897) depict the mores of provincial officials and the actors’ milieu. The Promised Land (vols. 1–2, 1899), in which several plots are interwoven, describes the everyday life and business dealings of the Łódź textile magnates.

Reymont’s finest work is the novel The Peasants, published in four volumes between 1904 and 1909, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1924. A Russian translation appeared in 1954. The novel presents a picture of rural life with its sharp class conflicts and social and psychological clashes. Reymont is also noted for his historical trilogy The Year 1794, published between 1913 and 1918, dealing with Poland’s political life in the late 18th century and the patriotic movement led by Tadeusz Kosciuszko.