The Coming Spring

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Central European University Press Budapest – New York Sales and information: ceupress@ceu.hu Website: http://www.ceupress.com One of the great masterpieces of European fiction of the 20th century, The Coming Spring tells the story of Cezary Baryka, a young Pole living in Baku, Azerbaijan, as the Russian Revolution breaks out. He becomes embroiled in the chaos caused by the revolution , and barely escapes with his life. Then he sets off on a horrendous journey west and makes it to the newly independent Poland. Here he struggles to find his place. He wants to help his country; he sees the suffering of the poor and the working classes, yet his experiences in the newly formed Soviet Union make him deeply suspicious of socialist and communist solutions. Żeromski paints a masterful portrait of the turmoil of the new country—the elation of independence sobered by the glaring social inequities found between classes. In rich, pithy, memorable language he describes both the hope and the agony of the times. His account of Polish society is deeply, painfully honest and brilliantly insightful. Stefan Żeromski (1864–1925) is universally acknowledged as the most outstanding Polish novelist of his generation. He was a writer with a strong social conscience, taking up the concerns of the poor and downtrodden. Yet he did so with a poet’s sensibility , and his novels, stories, and plays are superbly constructed works of art that constitute major accomplishments in European literature. In the 1920’s Żeromski was a leading contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature; his candidacy was supported by Joseph Conrad, who was a fervent admirer of his work. Ceu Press Classics ...