The Possessed
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
From "a master of verbal burlesque [and] a connoisseur of psychological blackmail" (John Updike), Witold Gombrowicz's harrowing and hilarious pastiche of the Gothic novel, now in a new, authoritative English translation
Witold Gombrowicz is considered by many to be Poland's greatest modernist, and in The Possessed, he demonstrates his playful brilliance and astonishing range by using the familiar tropes of the Gothic novel to produce a darkly funny and lively subversion of the form. With dreams of escaping his small-town existence and the limitations of his class, a young tennis coach travels to the heart of the Polish countryside to train Maja Ocholowska, a beautiful and promising player whose bourgeois family has fallen upon difficult circumstances. Yet as Maja and the young man are alternately drawn to and repulsed by the other, they find themselves embroiled in the fantastic happenings taking place at the dilapidated castle nearby, where a mad prince haunts the halls, and bewitched towels, conniving secretaries, famous clairvoyants, and uncanny doubles conspire to determine the fate of the lovers. Serialized first in Poland in the days preceding the Nazi invasion, and now translated directly into English for the first time by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, The Possessed is a comic jewel, a hair-raising thriller, and a provocative early masterpiece from the acclaimed author of classics like Pornografia and Cosmos.
Product Details
Price
$17.00
$15.81
Publisher
Grove Press, Black Cat
Publish Date
March 19, 2024
Pages
416
Dimensions
5.4 X 8.2 X 1.3 inches | 0.8 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780802162526
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About the Author
Witold Gombrowicz (1904-1969) is one of the twentieth century's most important modernists and enduring avant-garde writers. His first novel, Ferdydurke, was published in Poland in 1937, and he lived in exile in Argentina from the beginning of World War II to 1963. Among many literary works, he is the author of his three-volume Diaries, as well as the novels Trans-Atlantyk, Pornografia, and Cosmos, winner of the 1967 International Prize for Literature.
Reviews
Praise for The Possessed: "Eighty-five years after the Nazi invasion of Poland interrupted its original serial publication, Gombrowicz's second novel receives its first complete Polish-to-English direct translation . . . Crumbling antiquity, petty scheming, romantic comedy of manners--these are the foundations of an unpredictable gothic pastiche, both brazenly funny and deeply spooky. The short paragraphs fly by, buzzing with intrigue and danger . . . Lloyd-Jones' translation crackles with choice phrases, deftly capturing Gombrowicz's gorgeous scenic descriptions, mordant sense of humor, and evocations of lurking horror. A delightful revelation of an interbellum novel from one of the great Polish modernists."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"This 1939 treasure from Polish modernist Gombrowicz, available in its entirety for the first time in English, involves a young tennis coach entangled in intrigue and supernatural phenomena . . Gombrowicz fills the plot with genre tropes . . . What emerges is a crafty and sharp exploration of the greed, lust, and vanity that spin people out of control. Gombrowicz's gleeful misanthropy and sense of the absurd shine through the genre trappings to create a potboiler that's enjoyable on multiple levels. This works perfectly both as a straightforward gothic akin to Du Maurier's Rebecca and as a knowing parody."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Gothic themes and melodramatic flourishes dramatize a modernist novel preoccupied with the fluidity of identity . . . In allowing the utter weirdness of the great Polish modernist to shine through, this new English translation by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, best known for her translations of Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk, may invite reassessment of its place in his oeuvre."--Booklist"[A] seriously good comic novel . . . Exuberant, playful, insincere, sometimes haughty, Gombrowicz was one of Poland's greatest modernist writers . . . Brimming with unruly, high-octane prose, the book has the hallmarks of a classic gothic story: a haunted castle, a mad prince and his conniving secretary--and, of course, treasure. At first glance, this surface is rather depthless, but look closer and you'll see the philosophically minded Gombrowicz getting on with what he described as the central aim of his writing: 'to forge a path through the Unreal to Reality.'"--Matthew Janney, Financial Times"The Possessed reads like a modern Gothic tale written by Dostoevsky, then touched-up and made even odder by the pen of George Saunders. It is certainly one of Gombrowicz's weirdest literary creations--and that's saying something . . . What makes the Gothic part of the story more than pastiche, though, is that Gombrowicz injects such staples with his uniquely grotesque imagination. Only Gombrowicz could turn a dirty yellow towel, hanging on a peg in the old castle kitchen, into a terrifying object."--Leonid Bilmes, 3: AM MagazinePraise for Witold
Gombrowicz:
"One of the great novelists of our
century."--Milan Kundera "A master of verbal burlesque, a
connoisseur of psychological blackmail, Gombrowicz is one of the profoundest
late moderns, with one of the lightest touches." --John Updike "[A] great Polish writer . . .
Extravagant, brilliant, disturbing, brave, funny . . . A masterpiece."--Susan
Sontag, on Ferdydurke "In him, for the first time, Polish literature produced a writer to whom
the agonies of being Polish were less important than the tragicomedy of being
human."--Times Literary Supplement "Probably the most important
20th-century novelist most Western readers have never heard of."--Benjamin
Paloff, Words Without Borders "Cosmos is a vicious and
uncompromised little gem of the obscene." --Adam Novy, The Believer "Borchardt's graceful, powerful,
and inventive translation is a great gift to all lovers of Witold Gombrowicz's
quirky prose."--Jaroslaw Anders, on Cosmos "[Cosmos] will hold special
appeal for fans of Camus's The Stranger. In this deft new translation,
Cosmos reveals itself as a challenging but important work."--Frank Sennett, Booklist
(starred review) "Cosmos is a compulsively
unsettling philosophical drama veiled as a quotidian mystery . . . Borchardt's
new English translation conveys a world wrought with an interconnectedness, or
perceived interconnectedness, that struggles to understand meaningfully a
series of events that defy logical association."--David Thomas Holmberg, Rocky
Mountain Review of Language and Literature "[A] sly, funny, absorbing fourth
novel and lovingly translated by Danuta Borchardt."--Neil Gordon, New York
Times Book Review, on Cosmos "Pornografia is animated by
an unconcealed pain, and that is what lifts it above the ordinary run of
modernist invention and makes it poignant and relevant today . . . It is a book
about the universal longing for the time we have lost by growing old. Does it
matter that it is a reformulation of something that already preoccupies us?
What we ask of art is that it should present a familiar thing in a new and
striking way, and that is what Pornografia does." --Aaron Thier, The
New Republic "A grotesque evocation of obsession
. . . Gombrowicz is a relentless psychoanalyzer and a consummate stylist; his
prose is precise and forceful . . . Borchardt's translation (the first into
English from the original Polish) is a model of consistency, maintaining a
manic tone as it navigates between lengthy, comma-spliced sentences and sharp,
declarative thrusts." --Publishers Weekly (starred review), on Pornografia
"Borchardt . . . spins out a web of
words that vibrate with unholy energy." --Kirkus Reviews, on Pornografia "Gombrowicz's fiction is
hyperactive, grotesque, philosophical, juvenile, lyrical, serious, ironic,
existential, and confrontational--in other words, it harnesses just about every
technique that a fiction writer could hope to master . . . English language readers
who have been lucky enough to pick up and enjoy Gombrowicz in the last ten
years probably have Danuta Borchardt to thank." --Luke Sykora, Rain Taxi,
on Pornografia "Danuta Borchardt brings
Gombrowicz's great novel to us with a force and beauty English-language readers
have not felt before. Deception and illusion, savagery and high mindedness,
fire and ice, desire and impotence: such are the antinomies that anchor this
wildly believable and yet improbable fiction, and all are captured exactly in
the crystalline sentences of a translator who is herself a masterful stylist."
--Robert Boyers, editor of Salmagundi and Director of the New York State Summer
Writers Institute, on Pornografia "The creepy genius of Witold
Gombrowicz's Pornografia is the acute, believable, and unavoidable
awareness that there is another universe right inside the 'real' one that is
fighting with it. What's more, the 'real' world becomes increasingly less
believable as the invisible one takes possession of it. This is High Gothic and
brilliant psychological drama, while it is also, true to its title, profoundly
(but not vulgarly) pornographic. One of the 20th century's truly great writers,
Gombrowicz is lucky to have found a first-class translator in Danuta Borchardt,
who understands and communicates an eeriness rare in English." --Andrei
Codrescu, author of The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess "Gombrowicz is the antithesis of
Borges and the godfather of Bolaño. Who would have thought that a Polish émigré
could become such a superb Argentine writer?" --Ilan Stavans, Professor of Latin
American and Latino Culture, Amherst College "[A] satisfying literary and
emotional experience."--H.B. Segal, Saturday Review, on Pornografia "Danuta Borchardt . . . is faithful
to the substance of the original and gives the reader a good, zesty flavor of
Gombrowicz's inspired idiosyncrasy . . . A genuinely astonishing
masterwork."--Eva Hoffman, New York Times Book Review, on Ferdydurke "Exuberant humor . . . Suggesting
the absurdist drama of Eugene Ionesco, if not the short fiction of Franz
Kafka."--Library Journal, on Ferdydurke "A wonderfully subversive,
self-absorbed, hilarious book. Think Kafka translated by Groucho Marx, with
commentaries."--Kirkus Reviews, on Ferdydurke "Gombrowicz's language . . .
subverts language and ideas to a cosmic meltdown, as if in a fun-house mirror.
Gombrowicz manages to befuddle, amuse, insult and astonish with this tale of
exile, uprootedness and identity."--Susan Miron, Boston Globe, on Trans-Atlantyk
Gombrowicz:
"One of the great novelists of our
century."--Milan Kundera "A master of verbal burlesque, a
connoisseur of psychological blackmail, Gombrowicz is one of the profoundest
late moderns, with one of the lightest touches." --John Updike "[A] great Polish writer . . .
Extravagant, brilliant, disturbing, brave, funny . . . A masterpiece."--Susan
Sontag, on Ferdydurke "In him, for the first time, Polish literature produced a writer to whom
the agonies of being Polish were less important than the tragicomedy of being
human."--Times Literary Supplement "Probably the most important
20th-century novelist most Western readers have never heard of."--Benjamin
Paloff, Words Without Borders "Cosmos is a vicious and
uncompromised little gem of the obscene." --Adam Novy, The Believer "Borchardt's graceful, powerful,
and inventive translation is a great gift to all lovers of Witold Gombrowicz's
quirky prose."--Jaroslaw Anders, on Cosmos "[Cosmos] will hold special
appeal for fans of Camus's The Stranger. In this deft new translation,
Cosmos reveals itself as a challenging but important work."--Frank Sennett, Booklist
(starred review) "Cosmos is a compulsively
unsettling philosophical drama veiled as a quotidian mystery . . . Borchardt's
new English translation conveys a world wrought with an interconnectedness, or
perceived interconnectedness, that struggles to understand meaningfully a
series of events that defy logical association."--David Thomas Holmberg, Rocky
Mountain Review of Language and Literature "[A] sly, funny, absorbing fourth
novel and lovingly translated by Danuta Borchardt."--Neil Gordon, New York
Times Book Review, on Cosmos "Pornografia is animated by
an unconcealed pain, and that is what lifts it above the ordinary run of
modernist invention and makes it poignant and relevant today . . . It is a book
about the universal longing for the time we have lost by growing old. Does it
matter that it is a reformulation of something that already preoccupies us?
What we ask of art is that it should present a familiar thing in a new and
striking way, and that is what Pornografia does." --Aaron Thier, The
New Republic "A grotesque evocation of obsession
. . . Gombrowicz is a relentless psychoanalyzer and a consummate stylist; his
prose is precise and forceful . . . Borchardt's translation (the first into
English from the original Polish) is a model of consistency, maintaining a
manic tone as it navigates between lengthy, comma-spliced sentences and sharp,
declarative thrusts." --Publishers Weekly (starred review), on Pornografia
"Borchardt . . . spins out a web of
words that vibrate with unholy energy." --Kirkus Reviews, on Pornografia "Gombrowicz's fiction is
hyperactive, grotesque, philosophical, juvenile, lyrical, serious, ironic,
existential, and confrontational--in other words, it harnesses just about every
technique that a fiction writer could hope to master . . . English language readers
who have been lucky enough to pick up and enjoy Gombrowicz in the last ten
years probably have Danuta Borchardt to thank." --Luke Sykora, Rain Taxi,
on Pornografia "Danuta Borchardt brings
Gombrowicz's great novel to us with a force and beauty English-language readers
have not felt before. Deception and illusion, savagery and high mindedness,
fire and ice, desire and impotence: such are the antinomies that anchor this
wildly believable and yet improbable fiction, and all are captured exactly in
the crystalline sentences of a translator who is herself a masterful stylist."
--Robert Boyers, editor of Salmagundi and Director of the New York State Summer
Writers Institute, on Pornografia "The creepy genius of Witold
Gombrowicz's Pornografia is the acute, believable, and unavoidable
awareness that there is another universe right inside the 'real' one that is
fighting with it. What's more, the 'real' world becomes increasingly less
believable as the invisible one takes possession of it. This is High Gothic and
brilliant psychological drama, while it is also, true to its title, profoundly
(but not vulgarly) pornographic. One of the 20th century's truly great writers,
Gombrowicz is lucky to have found a first-class translator in Danuta Borchardt,
who understands and communicates an eeriness rare in English." --Andrei
Codrescu, author of The Posthuman Dada Guide: Tzara and Lenin Play Chess "Gombrowicz is the antithesis of
Borges and the godfather of Bolaño. Who would have thought that a Polish émigré
could become such a superb Argentine writer?" --Ilan Stavans, Professor of Latin
American and Latino Culture, Amherst College "[A] satisfying literary and
emotional experience."--H.B. Segal, Saturday Review, on Pornografia "Danuta Borchardt . . . is faithful
to the substance of the original and gives the reader a good, zesty flavor of
Gombrowicz's inspired idiosyncrasy . . . A genuinely astonishing
masterwork."--Eva Hoffman, New York Times Book Review, on Ferdydurke "Exuberant humor . . . Suggesting
the absurdist drama of Eugene Ionesco, if not the short fiction of Franz
Kafka."--Library Journal, on Ferdydurke "A wonderfully subversive,
self-absorbed, hilarious book. Think Kafka translated by Groucho Marx, with
commentaries."--Kirkus Reviews, on Ferdydurke "Gombrowicz's language . . .
subverts language and ideas to a cosmic meltdown, as if in a fun-house mirror.
Gombrowicz manages to befuddle, amuse, insult and astonish with this tale of
exile, uprootedness and identity."--Susan Miron, Boston Globe, on Trans-Atlantyk
