Wacław Berent (

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, 28 September 1878 – 19 November or 22 November 1940, Warsaw) was a Polish novelist, essayist and literary translator from the

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

period, publishing under the pen names S.A.M. and Wł. Rawicz. He studied Natural Science in Kraków and Zurich, and obtained a PhD in Munich before returning to Warsaw and embarking on a literary career around the turn of the century. Polish Literature on the University of Vienna Pages: Wacław Berent.
''Universität Wien''. Retrieved 19 December 2011. Having devoted himself to writing he was influenced by Nietzsche, whom he translated. Berent became a member of the prestigious

Polish Academy of Literature The Polish Academy of Literature ( pl, Polska Akademia Literatury, PAL) was one of the most important state institutions of literary life in the Second Polish Republic, operating between 1933 and 1939 with the headquarters in Warsaw. It was foun ...

( pl, Polska Akademia Literatury) in 1933.Dr Marek Adamiec
Wacław Berent.
''Virtual Library of Polish Literature''. University of Gdansk, 2003.

Literary output

Berent translated into Polish ''

Thus Spoke Zarathustra ''Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None'' (german: Also sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen), also translated as ''Thus Spake Zarathustra'', is a work of philosophical fiction written by German philosopher Friedrich Niet ...

'' by the German philosopher

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...

. Along with

Władysław Reymont Władysław Stanisław Reymont (, born Rejment; 7 May 1867 – 5 December 1925) was a Polish novelist and the 1924 laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature. His best-known work is the award-winning four-volume novel '' Chłopi'' (''The Peasants ...

, he was a leading representative of the realist trend in the

Young Poland Young Poland ( pl, Młoda Polska) was a modernist period in Polish visual arts, literature and music, covering roughly the years between 1890 and 1918. It was a result of strong aesthetic opposition to the earlier ideas of Positivism. Young Pola ...

movement ( pl, Młoda Polska). His main work, a

social novel The social novel, also known as the social problem (or social protest) novel, is a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel". More ...

''Żywe kamienie'' (''Stones Alive''), depicted the circumstances which threatened traditional moral values in the industrial era. He was a critic of late nineteenth-century Positivist slogans, modernist Polish philosophy and European

bohemianism Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people and with few permanent ties. It involves musical, artistic, literary, or spiritual pursuits. In this context, bohemians may be wanderers, a ...

, which postulated " art for art's sake". In his novel ''Ozimina'' (''Winter Crop'') he depicted the emergence of the Polish independence movement prior to the

Revolution of 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905,. also known as the First Russian Revolution,. occurred on 22 January 1905, and was a wave of mass political and social unrest that spread through vast areas of the Russian Empire. The mass unrest was directed again ...

. He was an aesthetic opponent of

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

Works

*''Próchno'' (''Rotten Wood'', 1903) *''Ozimina'' (''Winter Crop'', 1911) *''Żywe kamienie'' (''Living Stones'', 1918). ''Polska.pl'', Literatura. Retrieved 19 December 2011. *''Nurt'' (''Trend'', 1934) *''Diogenes w kontuszu'' (''Diogenes in a

Kontusz Kontusz (Polish plural ''kontusze''; uk, кунтуш, Lithuanian: ''kontušas''; originally from Hungarian ''köntös''- "robe") - a type of outer garment worn by the Hungarian and Polish-Lithuanian male nobility. It became popular in the ...

'', 1937) *''Zmierzch wodzów'' (''The Dusk of the Commanders'', 1939)

References

* Urbanowski, M. 2003. 'Berent Wacław'. In: Słownik Pisarzy Polskich. ed. A. Latusek. Cracow: Wydawnictwo Zielona Sowa. pp. 27–28. in Polish * Mortkowicz-Olczakowa, Hanna (1961). ''Bunt wspomnień.'' Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy. Writers from Warsaw Polish male writers Polish translators Members of the Polish Academy of Literature 1878 births 1940 deaths Translators of Friedrich Nietzsche {{Poland-writer-stub