Synopsis
Wladislaw Reymont (1867-1925) was a Polish novelist and laureate of the Novel Prize in Literature. Although The Comedienne is riddled with with comical episodes and a persistent insistence upon the uncanny lightness of being human, this is a harrowing novel. Here we witness the metamorphosis of Janina, the young provincial protagonist. After she refuses her domineering father's commands that she mary, she is exiled from her home and town, and quickly enters the world of “the comediennes,” as she joins a Warsaw theatre company. Liberated from her home, she grasps after “freedom,” personal freedom, and Reymont spares us nothing as we behold the free comedienne's fate. In writing this, his first novel, the author drew heavily on his own experience as a young actor. After he rejected the trade his parents had raised him to pursue, Reymont ran away and joined a theater troupe that took him to Warsaw. There, tasting the world of glamour and fame, he encountered the grim realities that forced him to wrestle with the great Shakespearean distinction between “seems” and “is.” WISEBLOOD BOOKS is an editing and publishing line dedicated to preserving, discovering, pruning, and printing fiction, essay collections, and other work fit for the world stage. We believe that many brilliant manuscripts should be published widely but remain buried in desk drawers because they cannot meet the often specious requisites of the New York publishing industry. We aim to remedy that. Through WISEBLOOD CLASSICS we hope to bring hard-to-find great books back into print, and conserve classic works of literature. Forthcoming titles include novels by Antonio Fogazzaro and Henryk Sienkiewicz. Visit us at www.wisebloodbooks.com We are wide-eyed for new epiphanies of beauty.
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