Eliza Orzeszkowa

The Argonauts (Dodo Press) Eliza Orzeszkowa

Eliza Orzeszkowa (1841-1910), a Polish novelist, was born near Hrodna (now Belarus), to the noble Pawowski family. In her sixteenth year she married Piotr Orzeszko, a Polish nobleman, who was exiled to Siberia after the January 1863 Uprising. She wrote a series of powerful novels and sketches dealing with the social conditions of her country. Eli Makower (1875) describes the relations between the Jews and the Polish nobility, and Meir Ezofowicz (1878) the conflict between Jewish orthodoxy and modern liberalism. On the Niemen (1888), perhaps her best work, deals with the Polish aristocracy, Lost Souls (1886) and Cham (1888) with rural life in Belarus. Her study on patriotism and cosmopolitanism appeared in 1880. A uniform edition of her works was published in Warsaw, 1884-1888. Much of her work is available in German translation. According to the official records of the Nobel Prize committee, she was considered for a prize in 1905, sharing it with H. Sienkiewicz, but finally only the latter ended up as laureate.