The Peasants: Autumn

“This epic novel is characterized by an art so grand, so sure, so powerful, that we may predict a lasting value and rank for it, not only within Polish literature but also within the whole of that branch of imaginative writing which has here been given a distinctive and monumental shape.” Per Hallström, Chairman of the Nobel Committee (Swedish Acadamey) The Peasants by Władysław Reymont are a series of novels about a community united by joint work and joint life. Characteristically for Reymont's novels, the community includes its typical representatives, such as a squire, priest, organist, miller, rich farmers, farm hands and beggars, all endowed with individual traits. The rites of human lives are subordinated to the rhythm of nature, it defining the sequences of work and rest. The rhythm of nature is close to the order of liturgy, with church holidays and folk rituals, and human and natural life thus acquiring a cosmic and sacral dimension. Critics unanimously agreed that by painting a comprehensive picture of village life, work and customs, Reymont wrote a great realistic set of novels, a peasant epic and a timeless myth of human and natural life. The novels have a unique language, for Reymont wrote its dialogues in a styled dialect which he himself created rather than imitated. Long and numerous descriptions of nature, however, are written predominantly in a lyrical language with clear Young Poland's influences. Władysław Stanisław Reymont (1867 - 1925) was a Polish novelist and the 1924 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His works have been translated into more than a dozen languages. His former estate of Kołaczkowo now houses his museum.