Władysław Reymont, Polish novelist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1925)
Władysław Stanisław Reymont (Polish: [vwaˈdɨswaf ˈɾɛjmɔnt], 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).
Born into an impoverished noble family, Reymont was educated to become a master tailor, but instead worked as a gateman at a railway station and then as an actor in a troupe. His intensive travels and voyages encouraged him to publish short stories, with notions of literary realism. Reymont's first successful and widely praised novel was The Promised Land from 1899, which brought attention to the bewildering social inequalities, poverty, conflictive multiculturalism and labour exploitation in the industrial city of Łódź (Lodz). The aim of the novel was to extensively emphasize the consequences of extreme industrialization and how it affects society as a whole. In 1900, Reymont was severely injured in a railway accident, which halted his writing career until 1904 when he published the first part of The Peasants.
Władysław Reymont was very popular in communist Poland due to his style of writing and the symbolism he used, including socialist concepts, romantic portrayal of the agrarian countryside and toned criticism of capitalism, all present in literary realism. His work is widely attributed to the Young Poland movement, which featured decadence and literary impressionism.
1867May, 7
Władysław Reymont
Choose Another Date
Events on 1867
- 29Mar
British North America Act
Queen Victoria gives Royal Assent to the British North America Act which establishes the Dominion of Canada on July 1. - 1Apr
Crown colony
Singapore becomes a British crown colony. - 15May
Imperial Bank of Canada
Canadian Bank of Commerce opens for business in Toronto. The bank would later merge with Imperial Bank of Canada to become what is CIBC in 1961. - 3Nov
Battle of Mentana
Giuseppe Garibaldi and his followers are defeated in the Battle of Mentana and fail to end the Pope's Temporal power in Rome (it would be achieved three years later). - 9Nov
Meiji Restoration
Tokugawa shogunate hands power back to the Emperor of Japan, starting the Meiji Restoration.