Born:
May 6, 1868, in Kobielo Wielkie (in occupied by Russia part of Poland)
Died: December 5, 1925, in Warsaw
(Poland)
The early days. His father was the village organist, supporting
with his meager income a family of nine children. Reymont left the school
after third grade. He was admitted to the tailor's guild as a journeyman
in Warsaw. He became interested in theater and developed a lasting love
for the stage. In 1888 he was expelled from the guild when the Russian
authorities suspected him of taking part in a strike in Lodz. At that
time his parents had a watermill and land of some importance in the vicinity
of Piotrków, close to the railway from Warsaw to Vienna. As Reymont
wrote in his autobiography: I could tolerate neither the tyranny
of my father nor the extreme conservatism and Catholicism of my family.
This was the reason why he run away and joined a travelling acting company
but he found out that he lacked the necessary talent.
Starts writing. He worked later in the railways and in a factory. Reymont's
railroad job paid very little, but it provided him opportunity to write
short stories, poems, dramas and novels without end. As a writer Reymont
relied on experience, and used his adventures as raw material for his
fiction. Between the years 1884 and 1894 he kept diary, which helped him
in his literary apprenticeship Having benefited financially from a railway
accident, he moved to Warsaw and gained succes with his book Pilgrimage
to the Mountains of Life (1894) which explored the mood of a group of
people on pilgrimage to Jasna Góra. It attracted the attention
of the closed circle of Polish intellectuals and writers by its portrayal
of the collective psychology.
First novels. Reymont's first novel, The Comedienne, appeared two years
later, and was followed by sequel, Ferments . It told a story about the
rebellion of a young woman, and her acceptance of the necessity, understanding
that the revolt against the laws of society must end in failure.
The Promised Land. The Promised Land (1899) was about the rapidly growing
industrial city of Lodz and the cruel effects of industrialization on
textile mill owners. It painted a kaleidoscopic view of its people, places,
generations, nationalities. The narrative technique adopted influences
from film, cutting from one scene to another. Reymond saw industrialization
as a huge beast that swallows human resources, anticipating modern enviromental
debate. At the beginning of the 20th century Reymont was injured in a
railroad accident. He received substantial settlement, that brought him
financial independence, without the need to earn a living from other work.
In 1902 Reymont moved to Paris, where he finished his major work, The
Peasants.
The Peasants. Its final volume was published in 1909 and was compared
to the best works of Thomas Hardy and Émile Zola . The narrative
structure followed the seasons from autumn to summer and the church holidays
and religious rituals interwoven with the rhythm of the season. In the
story Reymont focused on the love affair of Antek Boryna, the son of the
Maciej, a wealthy peasant, with his father's young and sensual stepmother,
Jagna. Although Reymont continued to write prolifically he did not gain
the same popular and critical success that greeted The Peasants.
Later works.Nobel Prize. Among his later works are The Dreamer (1910)
and an occult novel, The Vampire (1911). Reymont returned to Poland in
1914. He visited the United States in 1919 and 1920, and settled in the
1920s on his own estate, Kolaczkowo. He got the Nobel Prize in Literature
in 1924.
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