The Comedienne

The Comédienne draws on Nobel Prize winner Wladyslav Reymont's own experiences as an actor in a struggling provincial theatre at the fin de siecle at time of massive social upheaval in Europe. Reymont depicts in a slow burning tragedy a young provincial Janina the comédienne of the title who joins a Warsaw theatre company and struggles toward what was then a very modern notion of personal freedom. A 'Comédienne' also played drama and tragedy and the word in Polish had some connotation of a deceiver. As such the title in Reymont's day would have implied a somewhat darker novel that we might unwittingly expect today.

This edition has been completely re-edited and includes over 500 amendments corrections and new translations to the orignal text. The introduction by Marianna Rychlowska includes;

• Biographical details of the author
• Historical context of the book
• Literary notes
• Historical review of early theatre in Poland
• Theatre reportage by Henryk Sienkiewicz

These unique insights provide the contemporary reader with much of the commonly understood historical context that was assumed of the original audience.