A new annotated translation in elegant English prose of this masterpiece of European Romantic literature. Pan Tadeusz is a classic tale of mystery, war and patriotism set in the turbulent Napoleonic era. First published in 1834 in Paris, it has been called “the last epos” in world literature. The story takes place over the course of five days in 1811 and two days in 1812. The old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lies dismembered, erased from the political map of Europe by the great powers of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. A brief ray of hope rekindles national hopes in 1807 when Napoleon establishes the Duchy of Warsaw by the terms of the Treaty of Tilsit and prepares to invade Russia. The oft-overshadowed counterpoint to War and Peace and the 1812 Overture.
This is the first major rendering of this work since 1993 by one of the great translators of the Polish language Christopher Adam Zakrzewski.
Christopher A. Zakrzewski is British-born, with a B.A. in modern languages (University of Guelph), an M.A. in Russian Language and Literature (University of Waterloo), and several years of doctoral work in Slavic philology (University of British Columbia).
His expertise is Polish Romantic Poetry. He has published the only significant English-language fragment of
Pan Beniowski by Juliusz Slowacki, the complete cycle of
Crimean Sonnets by Adam Mickiewicz, and recently completed a major new prose rendering of Mickiewicz's 10,000-line masterpiece
Pan Tadeusz, which has been serialized by
Sarmatian Review (Rice University, Houston, Texas).
The Polish Review in New York also published the work (described as a "new annotated translation in elegant English prose") as an electronic book as part of its newly launched Library of Polish Classics Series (208/30 Press).
Among the contemporary Polish writers he has translated into English are Kazimierz Braun, Maciej Patkowski, Joanna Rostropowicz-Clark, and Bronislaw Wildstein.
Adam Bernard Mickiewicz 24 December 1798 - 26 November 1855) was a Polish poet, dramatist, essayist, publicist, translator, professor of Slavic literature, and political activist. He is regarded as national poet in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. A principal figure in Polish Romanticism, he is counted as one of Poland's "Three Bards" and is widely regarded as Poland's greatest poet. He is also considered one of the greatest Slavic and European poets and has been dubbed a "Slavic bard". A leading Romantic dramatist, he has been compared in Poland and Europe to Byron and Goethe.
He is known chiefly for the poetic drama
Dziady (
Forefathers' Eve) and the national epic poem
Pan Tadeusz. His other influential works include
Konrad Wallenrod and
Grazyna. All these served as inspiration for uprisings against the three imperial powers that had partitioned the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth out of existence.
