Diary Volume 2 [Paperback]

Witold Gombrowicz (Author), Jan Kott (Editor), Lillian Vallee (Translator)

Book Description

Series: Diary | Publication Date: August 1, 1989

Translated from the Polish, the third volume of a literary masterpiece explicates the writer's struggle with freedom and self-consciousness, his ideas about himself and the world around him, and his thoughts on other works of world literature. Simultaneous.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nearly every moment is lived at fever pitch in this dark, exhilarating masterpiece, penned by Polish novelist-playwright Gombrowicz (1904-1969) during his exile in Argentina. An uprooted aristocrat intellectual who sought to remake himself in existential fashion, he combines lacerating self-irony with bold philosophical flights, biting social satire, travel notes, literary critiques, cafe talk, personal rants. In this second, fluently translated installment of a three-volume opus, he focuses his restless mind, in no particular order, on Polish culture, the certainty of death, lawyers, Hitler, Americans' infatuation with France, Borges, Mozart, the enslavement of workers under socialism and capitalism, abstract painting and sundry other topics. A rebel with a cause--himself--Gombrowicz should gain a wider readership with this rendition of his celebrated Diary.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Once described as the world's greatest unknown writer, Gombrowicz fled to Argentina after being exiled from his native Poland by the Nazis and the Communists. The first volume of Diary showed him to be "a witty, acerb satirist. . . . But his force compels and deserves a wider audience" ( LJ
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 239 pages
• Publisher: Northwestern University Press (August 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810107171
• ISBN-13: 978-0810107175
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,067,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gombrowicz lost in translation, August 2, 2000

By 

Adam Gajlewicz "Adam Gajlewicz" (WROCLAW Poland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Diary Volume 1 (Paperback)

It would be superfluous to praise Gombrowicz's Diary. It is one of the landmarks of European avangarde literature of the 20th century... The French and German translations made Gombrowicz well-known outside Poland. The Vallee perfectible translation, however, not only fails to reflect the most sensitive nuances of the original, but, also commits a lot of material mistakes, too many to quote at this place. Yet, all this could have been avoided, if the Polish-born editor had taken enough trouble to revise the galleys more thoroughly before the work was ultimately published... Even so, this unusual book, the most authentic confession of a great Polish writer, will delight everyone seeking to fathom the European thought of the elapsing century.....

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best book ever!, June 26, 1999

By 

Mihaela Rusu ([e-mail]) (Bucharest, Romania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diary Boxed Set (Paperback)

Excellent east European writer. And just as all east Europeans, deeply in love with its country. The book is an exquisite piece of style and subtlety. The suffering of living far from Poland gets mixed to the joy of discovering a new land that fits so well his Romantic vision upon life. His Romantism though is overwhelmed by Naturalism (deep introspections and microscopical descriptions of nature) and even more often by Rationalism. The latter one seems to predominate the book, which is not simply a "book": it is a sample of LIFE in its most unsophisticated and primary values. Gombrowicz questions everything: art, death, human nature. What are these? And all the answers the writer has emerge in one single core: his own personality. No prejudice, no apriorical opinion. The Diary could very well be named "Gombrowicz's main phylosophical work".

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sumptuous intellectual feast, October 17, 2009

By 

Bartolo (New York City, New York USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diary Volume 1 (Paperback)

The retired literature professor who recommended the Diaries to me commented that they may be superior to any of Gombrowicz' fictional accomplishments. Certainly it's hard to imagine a novel or play of equal scope, or more provocative than these ruminations on culture, society, art, existence, and history, to name some principal themes. I confess I'm only halfway through Volume I and have found it so dense, provocative and wise that if the rest were total bilge I would consider it a wonderful find.

To call Gombrowicz' observations and reflections "ruminations" is to reflect their seeming off-handedness but not their cogency or profundity. I have encountered no other writer of equal penetration, eloquence or insight on these subjects; in fact, in my experience, no one writer has Gombrowicz' compass. One would have to tether together Santayana, George Steiner, William Irwin Thompson, Aldous Huxley, Ad Reinhardt, Wallace Stevens, Agnes Martin and any number of other diarists and intellectuals to create even a straw man for comparison. This is dense thought, beautifully expressed (even in what is supposedly a bad translation!), but never so abstract as to lose the personality of the author. I confess I've underlined or flagged three or four passages on practically every page, remarkable enthusiasm in a student but even moreso in a sixty-something artist like myself.

Gombrowicz is equally effective describing his life in exile in Argentina, the Argentines, the cities and countryside, and sprinkles observations on the minutę of his everyday life that are equally winning. When he reviews the work of a fellow Pole or discusses the literary politics of Polish exiles, his insights are accessible and worthwhile even to those of us a hemisphere and half-century away. It seems criminal that this singular work is out of print, and subsequent volumes of the Diary all but unobtainable, but Gombrowicz himself foresaw this when he noted the publishers who view books as "product" that need "promotion" to affect the "bottom line." Our current, benighted scene would sadden but not surprise him.

(Tantalizingly, the publisher lists this on its website, complete with "Add to Cart." Only to tell you that it is, in fact, out of print. Maybe a financially-strapped university press can't be blamed.)