''The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma'' (

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

title: ''Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy'') is a 1932 Polish bestselling political novel by Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz. It was his first major literary success, with immediate material rewards, prompting Mostowicz to write and publish roughly two books per year (in total, he wrote 17 novels). The book, very popular already in the interwar period, was made into a 1956 Polish film with

Adolf Dymsza Adolf Dymsza (born Adolf Bagiński; 7 April 1900 – 20 August 1975) was a Polish comedy actor of both the pre-World War II and post-war eras. He starred in both theatre and film productions, mainly before World War II. He and Kazimierz Krukowski ...

in the title role, then into a 1980 television miniseries starring

Roman Wilhelmi Roman Zdzisław Wilhelmi (June 6, 1936 in Poznań – November 3, 1991 in Warsaw) was a Polish theatre and film actor, notable for his roles in two of the most popular Polish television series of the 1980s. In 1958, he graduated from the Natio ...

, and into a 2002 comedy film starring

Cezary Pazura Cezary Andrzej Pazura (born 13 June 1962 in Tomaszów Mazowiecki) is a Polish actor known for his comedy roles in movies such as ''Kiler'', ''Chłopaki nie płaczą'', ''Kariera Nikosia Dyzmy'' and the sitcom ''13 posterunek''. In addition to hi ...

Plot

Nicodemus Dyzma is a small-town man who comes to the Polish capital from the Eastern provinces (known as "

Kresy Eastern Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Wschodnie) or simply Borderlands ( pl, Kresy, ) was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the History of Poland (1918–1939), interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural ...

") in search of work. While walking the streets of Warsaw, he finds a lost invitation to a party reception. Hoping for a free meal, he decides to use it because he owns a

tuxedo Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element ...

. At the reception, he befriends a member of parliament and wins the hearts of guests with his attitude. He is introduced to a wealthy landowner by the name of Kunicki, a former

con artist A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have ...

, who is so impressed by Dyzma that he offers him a job as superintendent of his country estate. At the estate, Dyzma meets Kunicki's wife, Nina, who quickly falls in love with him, but earns the distaste of Kunicki's daughter, Kasia, a lesbian who had been carrying on an affair with Nina. Soon Dyzma takes control of all affairs of the estate and starts to climb the social and political ladder. He is offered a series of prestigious appointments; however, he is forced to hide his past from the prying eyes of his adversaries and the general public. His lack of knowledge about things that are expected of him are taken either as his humour or eccentricities, or by his underlings as attempts to test them. Dyzma's rise in status is not good for his morals, as eventually he commissions the murder of his former boss from the provinces who might have revealed the truth of Dyzma's background. Ultimately he marries Nina and decides to refuse a commendation to become prime minister for fear that his pretenses will be revealed.

Background

Dołęga-Mostowicz was a journalist critical of the Polish

interbellum In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relative ...

political movement,

Sanation Sanation ( pl, Sanacja, ) was a Polish political movement that was created in the interwar period, prior to Józef Piłsudski's May 1926 ''Coup d'État'', and came to power in the wake of that coup. In 1928 its political activists would go on ...

, and its founder,

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Naczelnik państwa, Chief of State (1918–1922) and Marshal of Poland, First Marshal of Second Polish Republic, Poland (from 1920). He was ...

. Dołęga-Mostowicz was abducted by a group of soldiers in mufti, beaten up, and dumped outside Warsaw. He wrote the novel as a critique of the political class then in power.

Legacy

''Nicodemus Dyzma'' has become proverbial in Poland as an archetype of the crude opportunist who makes his upwardly-mobile way by dint of fortuitous connections, ruthlessness and the acquiescence of an oblivious society. He is forced by the spirit of his times and the society around him to become something they need him to become. Ignorant and malleable, Dyzma becomes a puppet in the hands of the elite class. Whatever happens to him during his climb of the social ladder falls outside of his mental, financial and legal competence.

Janusz Korwin-Mikke Janusz Ryszard Korwin-Mikke (; born 27 October 1942), also known by his initials JKM or simply as Korwin, is a Polish far-right politician, paleolibertarian and author. He was a member of the European Parliament from 2014 until 2018. He was the ...

compared the eponymous Nikodem Dyzma favourably to the former President of Poland

Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who served as the President of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 election, Wałęsa became the first democrati ...

. In Korwin-Mikke's opinion, there were three major differences between their characters: Dyzma eventually declined to become prime minister, while Wałęsa went on to become president; despite circumstances helping him, it was Dyzma who tricked others, whereas Wałęsa had everything arranged for him by the security services – an exaggeration of allegations of Wałęsa's previous collaboration with the '' SB''; third, Dyzma could play the balalaika, while Wałęsa could not. This was incorrect, as in fact Dyzma played the mandolin. The novel's title has served as the title of a song by

Jacek Kaczmarski Jacek Marcin Kaczmarski (22 March 1957 – 10 April 2004) was a Polish singer, songwriter, poet and author. Life He was the son of painter Anna Trojanowska-Kaczmarska, a Pole of Jewish background, and the artist Janusz Kaczmarski. Kaczmarski ...

, presenting the viewpoint of Dyzma's eventual brother-in-law, Żorż Ponimirski, who eventually reveals the truth about Dyzma's past but is not believed.

Controversy

An American novel, ''

Being There ''Being There'' is a 1979 American satire film directed by Hal Ashby. Based on the 1970 novel of the same name by Jerzy Kosiński, it was adapted for the screen by Kosiński and the uncredited Robert C. Jones. The film stars Peter Sellers an ...

'' (1971), by fellow Polish native Jerzy Kosiński, has been said to bear a strong resemblance to the exploits of Nicodemus Dyzma. In June 1982, a ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'' article by Geoffrey Stokes and Eliot Fremont-Smith accused Kosiński of plagiarizing Dołęga-Mostowicz, whose best-selling novel was largely unknown to English-readers at the time of Kosiński's 1970 publication. (The article further claimed that all of Kosiński's novels, including ''Being There'', had been ghost-written or possibly translated from Polish by his "assistant editors," pointing to striking stylistic differences among them and sparking further authorship controversies about Kosiński's literary output.)

Translation

Ewa Malachowska-Pasek and Megan Thomas translated the novel into English in 2018, and the English-language edition was published in September 2020 by

Northwestern University Press Northwestern University Press is an American publishing house affiliated with Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. It publishes 70 new titles each year in the areas of continental philosophy, poetry, Slavic and German literary criticism ...

. The translation won the Found in Translation Award for 2021.

Plot

Background

Legacy

Controversy

Translation

See also

Notes

Further reading