Ferdydurke

Rating:
Summary: Absurd both in Polish and English.
Review:

I have read this novel in Polish and only some fragments in English. A great absurdist comedy that is both a social commentary and an exercise in argumentative youth philosophy of early 20th century Poland. Slow at first, it describes the battle of oneself with the outside world as much as the inside desires and shortcomings.

Pay attention to the class assignments and activities the students participate in during school. But most importantly - make sure to root for at least one side during the face contests...

Rating:
Summary: Review
Review: Among the great works of Central Europe litterature, Ferdydurke had a profound influence in my life and my writings.

Rating:
Summary: Review
Review: Among the great works of Central Europe litterature, Ferdydurke had a profound influence in my life and my writings.

Rating:
Summary: The Evergreen Ferdydurke
Review: Better late than never! Had this exquisite translation of Ferdydurke been published in the thirties, the Art of today would be radically different. It is comforting to see that, after so many years, the English-speaking reader will have a chance to relish the wittiest and the 'najbardziej wariackie' (craziest) work of the early 20th century European literature and philosophy. A careful reader of Ferdydurke, before she gets a 'pupa', will be able to appreciate the acumen and originality of Gombrowicz's thought only much later developed by Sartre and Camus.....

Rating:
Summary: Zany to the point of seriousness
Review: Ferdydurke is out of print! It has been a battle to get this book openly published in Poland, but look at how English-speaking consumers conduct their own censorship scheme. Yet there is a touch of Anglo-Saxon to the novel's madness: the upper class school boys, the title borrowed from the netherlands of H.G.Wells' corpus and much, much more. The novel questions whether there is such a thing as maturity, sending its main character back to school as an adult, where he is among boys who treat him as another boy (as does everyone else!). It also asks one of the great questions of our time: our characters are made by others; is it possible to escape this or are we merely prisoners of other people's influences? Something for us living under states who idolize individual choice to think about. But Gombrowicz's book is also full of comedy: slapstick, sharp irony, plot twists and philosophical fables. Jokes are used as an ideal way to pose serious questions. Furthermore, in its giant bums and staring contests it shows how much more you can talk about reality, including prudent insights into totalitarian life, through wild fantasy. The experiments of the novel - the unique fantasy, the invasion of the author and the symmetrical interjections - put it at the heart of European modernism. It is a landmark, albeit buttock-shaped.

Rating:
Summary: A brilliant pre-postmodern work
Review: Having tolerated, in my college years, the English translation of the French translation of the original Polish novel, I must say that reading this new direct translation into English was a sublime experience. I highly recommend this book to my intellectual and therapist friends/colleagues alike, for it highlights the common struggle between maturity and immaturity. It defuses most of the usual interpretations by those who are hopelessly married to a single interpretive theory. It also should be required reading for those folks "into" Queer Studies, as Gombrowicz, in this novel, wrestles with his own (later documented) homosexuality. In brief, this is one of the great unsung 20th-century novels.

Rating:
Summary: where is the line between childishness and maturity
Review: I have read this book a couple of years ago. As it seems in some other Gombrowitz's texts the relationship between the childish and mature feelings is investigated: cruelty vs. subtlety, raw vs. refined. Imagine a thirty year old is placed in a school with 10 year olds, how does he act? (similar situation in one of Kundera's novels)

The language even in translation is beautiful, woven with sarcasm, irony and absurdity, it is a most delightful and intriguing investigation of those feeling one can characterize as immature. To all those of us who are still prone to excesses in feelings, and a taste for absurdity, this is a wonderful reference

Rating:
Summary: Ferdydurke
Review: This book is absolutely brilliant! Gombrowicz has a gift for concealing philosophical discourse beneath a layer of satirical wit and absurdity. His larger than life characters drag you along on a mad ride through the subtle twists of Polish class consciousness, all the while spouting witicisms on the insanity of the human condition. I started learning Polish because of this book. I consider it a must read.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful absurdist journey
Review: This highly inventive novel captures readers within the first few pages with its vivid and personal descriptions of the tormented, pretentious, and hilarious mind of the writer (read "artiste") protagonist. Those who have felt caught between the worlds of adolesence and adulthood and those who have wondered why we bother to call art "Art" will find a comrade in arms in this author. His ability to peel away at human pretense and expose the inherent absurdity of life is both ruthless and gentle. The scenarios he builds are profoundly implausible but uncannily truthful reflections of the essential human condition. A must read for lovers of surrealist masterpieces -- like "The Master and Margarita" or "Love in the Time of Cholera".

Rating:
Summary: Who, or what, is Ferdydurke?
Review: You may well ask the above question, but you will never discover the answer, for there is no character, or thing, in this darkly comic masterpiece named Ferdydurke. It just appears to be some play on words, or a nonsense title to intrigue the potential reader. This book, written in Polish between the two world wars, is extremely capably translated, with a good use of slang and diminuitive terms which must have caused endless hours of trouble and frustration for the translator. It appears to be an indictment of the state of society as it existed in Poland in the 1930's, and may appear a bit dated since must of what is excoriated by the author no longer exists. There is particular emphasis upon the type of relationship which existed between the nobility (of a sort) and the peanant and serving classes. There is a lot about the threat of modernity in the country, and a great emphasis upon infantilism and immaturity. The work takes some getting used to by the reader, but read in the context of its time it is very well done, and should be read to be appreciated for what it has to say about the human condition.