''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-nationalist flavor. In 1937 he published his fi ...

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

cult novel A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

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 ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the Capital city, capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata ...

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 count ...

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

, 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
Stream of Subconsciousness
– review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' 10 December 2000 The 2000 edition, translated by Danuta Borchardt, has an introduction by

Susan Sontag Susan Sontag (; January 16, 1933 – December 28, 2004) was an American writer, philosopher, and political activist. She mostly wrote essays, but also published novels; she published her first major work, the essay "Notes on 'Camp'", in 1964. He ...

. Direct and indirect translations now exist in over twenty languages.Bibliography of translations of Ferdydurke
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Adaptations

Jerzy Skolimowski directed the 1991 film adaptation of ''Ferdydurke'' (alternate English title: '' 30 Door Key'') with an international cast including Iain Glen, Crispin Glover, Beata Poźniak,

Robert Stephens Sir Robert Graham Stephens (14 July 193112 November 1995) was a leading English actor in the early years of Britain's Royal National Theatre. He was one of the most respected actors of his generation and was at one time regarded as the natu ...

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

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of ...

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.".

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 in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. ...

)
YUP page with reviews

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