Obrazy podróży po Kresach w pismach Józefa Weyssenhoffa

ENThe author of ten novels in which the spacio-temporal prototype of the fictional world was based upon a number of lands that formed Poland before the period of its partitions is remembered in our culture, first of all, as one of the greatest eulogist of former Polish eastern frontiers. Born in the south of Podlesie, spent his school youth in Warsaw, studied in Dorpat, then was a landowner in Samoklęski, published Biblioteka Warszawska, eventually a professional writer, until the end of his life has a fondness for the native land of his fathers - Jużynty in Litwa Górna (Auksztot). Among WeyssenhofF’s outstanding novels devoted to the life of former Polish eastern frontiers one can find Unia (The Union, 1910) and Puszcza (The Primeval Forest, 1915), in the precise canon of the Polish literature one could find Weyssenhoffs masterpiece Soból i panna (A Sable and a Lady, 1911) the prototype of which one would find in Weyssenhoffs native land, hunting adventures and love conquests.In the aforementioned works Weyssenhoff described in an unrivaled way ventures over the heavenly land of rolling hills. He has shown the beauty of Lithuinian marshlands, lakes and rivers, deep forests, meadows, and fields presented with a sentiment similar to the one described in Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz. Weyssenhoff’s protagonists traverse the lands on foot, in a chaise, by boat, or by train. They are marveling at the beauty of the world, they hunt and love, they have their own dilemmas, they talk to their friends and acquaintances. They are happy because the inhabit a perfect reality. The images are at the same time distant - because they reflect a world that is long gone, and close - because they do not let us detach from ourselves, forget who we are.