Description: Acceptable. 1988-Paperback----Used-Acceptable-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Evanston, IL, Northwestern University Press, 1988.
ISBN-13:9780810107151ISBN:0810107155
Description: 8vo., 230pp., soft cover. Translation by Lillian Vallee. Afterword by Jan Kott. Moderately worn ex-library copy front free endpaper excised and previous owner's name and address inked on title page. ISBN: 0810107155. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Date Published: 1988-03-01
ISBN-13:9780810107151ISBN:0810107155
Description: Very Good. No Jacket. Binding VG-, Minor edge & shelf wear. A plastic coating placed over covers. OP Personal Name: Gombrowicz, Witold. Uniform Title: Diaries. English. Selections Main Title: Diary / Witold Gombrowicz; general editor, Jan Kott; translated by Lillian Vallee. Published/Created: Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1988 Description: 232 p.; 24 cm. ISBN: 0810107155 (pbk. : v. 1) Contents: v. 1. 1953-56 NOTE: This is ONLY Volume 1 out of the 3 Volume set. Notes: Translation ... read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780810107151ISBN:0810107155
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Text in English, Polish. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 232 p. Diary, 1. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: Advance Uncorrected Proof
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Northwestern Univ., IL
Date Published: 1988
Description: VG+ No Jacket. Bound in gray paper wraps. Advance Uncorrected Proof of the first volume in the multi-volume Diary by the noted Polish author. Translated by Lillian Vallee. For the Gombrowicz completist. read more
"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 minutæ 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 remaindered or rare, 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."
"You won't find here the author's breakfast menu... well, actually, you will since Gombrowicz mentions that in case someone wondered. But what you can find is a rich collection of mini lectures on philosophy, literature, art, religion and yes, life. Rewarding read that feels like a conversation with an extremely interesting person - shocking, thought-provoking, perplexing and charming."
"Witold may be the most interesting diarist since...well, you can pick your other favorites. In this book, he nails the feeling of keeping a "private" record. If he is, he asks, writing for himself, then why does he pretend there is someone else listening to his words?"
"My "War and Peace." A new kind of book and, behind it, a new kind of writer. Gombrowicz's biggest obsession is escape, his biggest revelation/enactment that, no matter how involved in your life you are, there's actually a little mini-you sitting in your head watching it all on wide screen. Taken together, the three books of the diary are like the portable holes that Looney Tunes characters used to carry around, fold up, put in their pockets. Unbelievably useful.
New York Times Book Review, 5/22/88 "Now, the American audience can discover a great writer whose complex and multilayered though belongs to the heart of our labyrinthe century." -- Czeslaw Milosz
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Diary Volume 2
by
Witold Gombrowicz, Jan Kott (Editor), Lillian Vallee (Translator)
rating
