''Ferdydurke'' is a novel by the Polish writer

Witold Gombrowicz Witold Marian Gombrowicz (August 4, 1904 – July 24, 1969) was a Polish writer and playwright. His works are characterised by deep psychological analysis, a certain sense of paradox and absurd, anti-nationalism, anti-nationalist flavor. In 1937, ...

, published in 1937. It was his first and most controversial novel. The book has been described as a "

cult novel Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ha ...

Author's comment

Gombrowicz himself wrote of his novel that it is not "... a satire on some social class, nor a nihilistic attack on culture... We live in an era of violent changes, of accelerated development, in which settled forms are breaking under life's pressure... The need to find a form for what is yet immature, uncrystalized and underdeveloped, as well as the groan at the impossibility of such a postulate – this is the chief excitement of my book."

Translations

The first translation of the novel, to Spanish, published in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

1947 It was the first year of the Cold War, which would last until 1991, ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Events January * January–February – Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country i ...

, was done by Gombrowicz himself. A translation committee presided over by the Cuban writer

Virgilio Piñera Virgilio Piñera Llera (August 4, 1912 – October 18, 1979) was a Cuban author, playwright, poet, short story writer, essayist and translator. His best known works are the poem ''La isla en peso'' (1943), the collection of short stories ''Cuento ...

helped him in this endeavor, since Gombrowicz felt that he did not know the language well enough at the time to do it on his own. Gombrowicz again collaborated on a French translation of the book, with Ronald Martin in 1958. A direct German translation by Walter Tiel was published in 1960. In 2006, the first Brazilian Portuguese translation by Tomasz Barciński, direct from the Polish original text, was delivered. The first English translation of ''Ferdydurke'', by

Eric Mosbacher Eric Mosbacher (22 December 1903 – 2 July 1998) was an English journalist and translator from Italian, French, German, and Spanish. He translated work by Ignazio Silone and Sigmund Freud.'Eric Mosbacher', ''The Times'', 10 July 1998, p.25 Life ...

, was published in 1961. It was a combined indirect translation of the French, German and possibly Spanish translations. In 2000, Yale University Press published the first direct translation from the original Polish.

Eva Hoffman Eva Hoffman (born Ewa Wydra on 1 July 1945) is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning writer and academic. Early life and education Eva Hoffman was born in Kraków, Poland, shortly after World War II. Her parents, Boris and Maria Wydra, surv ...

Stream of Subconsciousness
– review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' 10 December 2000 The 2000 edition, translated by

Danuta Borchardt Danuta is a Polish feminine given name. Its diminutive is Danusia. Notable people named Danuta include: *Danuta Bartoszek (born 1961), long-distance runner for Canada * Danuta Bułkowska (born 1959), former Polish champion in high jumping * Danut ...

, has an introduction by

Susan Sontag Susan Lee Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, critic, and public intellectual. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on "Camp", Notes on 'Ca ...

. Direct and indirect translations now exist in over twenty languages.

Adaptations

Jerzy Skolimowski Jerzy Skolimowski (; born 5 May 1938) is a Polish film director, screenwriter, dramatist, actor and painter. Beginning as a screenwriter for Andrzej Wajda's ''Innocent Sorcerers'' (1960), Skolimowski has made more than twenty films since his dire ...

directed the 1991 film adaptation of ''Ferdydurke'' (alternate English title: '' 30 Door Key'') with an international cast including

Iain Glen Iain Alan Sutherland Glen (born 24 June 1961) is a Scottish actor. He has appeared as Dr. Alexander Isaacs/Tyrant in three films of the Resident Evil (film series), ''Resident Evil'' film series (2004–2016) and as Ser Jorah Mormont, Jorah Morm ...

Crispin Glover Crispin Hellion Glover (born April 20, 1964) is an American actor, filmmaker and artist. He is known for portraying eccentricity (behavior), eccentric Character actor, character roles on screen. His breakout role was as George McFly in ''Back to ...

Beata Poźniak Beata Poźniak (; born 30 April 1960) is a Polish-American actress, film director, poet, painter and an Earphones Award-winning narrator. She is also a human rights defender, human rights activist who introduced the first bill in the history of ...

Robert Stephens Sir Robert Graham Stephens (14 July 193112 November 1995) was an English actor in the early years of Britain's Royal National Theatre. Early life Stephens was born in Shirehampton, Bristol, in 1931, the eldest of three children of shipyard ...

Judith Godrèche Judith Godrèche (; born 23 March 1972 in Paris) is a French actress, author and feminist activist, who has appeared in more than 30 films. Early life Judith Godrèche was born in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. Her father is a psychoanalyst ...

Zbigniew Zamachowski Zbigniew Zamachowski (; born 17 July 1961) is a Polish actor. He is a two-time recipient of the Polish Academy Award for Best Actor. Life and career He was born on 17 July 1961 in Brzeziny near Łódź. Zamachowski graduated from the actor's ...

, and Fabienne Babe. In 1999, ''Ferdydurke'' was adapted into a stage play by Provisorium & Kompania Theater from

Lublin Lublin is List of cities and towns in Poland, the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin i ...

Analysis

The novel has been described as a "meditation on stupidity and immaturity", with its other main themes being the tragedy of passing from immature, utopian youth to adulthood, and the degree to which culture can infantilize various subjects.

Reception

The book was Gombrowicz's first and most controversial novel. It has been described since as a cult novel. Writing in 1995, Warren F. Motte commented that the book "exemplifies that rare bird of literary avant-garde: a text that retains, decades after its initial publication, the power to shock.".

Influences

Among works influenced by the book is

Jacek Dukaj Jacek Józef Dukaj (pronounced: ; born 30 July 1974) is a Polish science fiction and fantasy writer. His fiction explores such themes as alternate history, alternative physics and logic, human nature, religion, the relationship between science a ...

's novel '' Other Songs''.

References

External links

Presentation, analysis and excerpt of ''Ferdydurke''
on the official website of Witold Gombrowicz

at UK publisher website

at Polish Library
Ferdydurke A. D. 1947
article about the publication of the Spanish translation in Argentina (

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

)
YUP page with reviews

in 2001 NYT * ttp://www.rogalinski.com.pl/untranslatable-elements-in-ferdydurke/ Untranslatable elements in "Ferdydurke" {{Authority control 1937 Polish novels Existentialist novels Polish novels Polish novels adapted into films Polish novels adapted into plays Polish satirical novels Works by Witold Gombrowicz Novels by Witold Gombrowicz 1937 debut novels