THE POSSESSED

Eighty-five years after the Nazi invasion of Poland interrupted its original serial publication, Gombrowicz’s second novel receives its first complete Polish-to-English direct translation.

Marian Leszczuk, a working-class coach, travels to a boardinghouse in the Polish countryside to train wealthy tennis prodigy Maja Ochołowska. A few kilometers away stands an ancient castle, bordered by mist and “reed-choked marshes, ”inhabited by the batty Prince Holszański and his secretary (and Maja’s fiance), Henryk Cholawicki. Leszczuk and Maja are drawn into a conspicuously stormy relationship, spurred by their uncanny physical resemblance to one another and by “something deeper and more elusive.” Cholawicki, jealous of Leszczuk and determined to inherit the prince’s fortune, tries to guard both Maja and the castle’s valuables from interlopers. Meanwhile, the prince dodders around his massive castle in a terrified fugue, convinced that “pretty much the whole place is haunted.” Professor Skoliński, another boarder, yearns to study the castle’s antiques rather than leave them “lamentably wasted at the mercy or lack of mercy of a demented aristocrat”—but Skoliński soon realizes the castle is “in possession of unclean forces” fueling the prince’s insanity. Crumbling antiquity, petty scheming, romantic comedy of manners—these are the foundations of an unpredictable gothic pastiche, both brazenly funny and deeply spooky. The short paragraphs fly by, buzzing with intrigue and danger. Even when sentences circle the same woebegone or paranoid sentiments, there is the sense of mounting pressure. Gombrowicz acutely renders the interiority of his capricious characters, most of whom are prone to double-dealing and quick to take offense at social transgressions; their erratic behavior is explained with striking clarity. Lloyd-Jones’ translation crackles with choice phrases, deftly capturing Gombrowicz’s gorgeous scenic descriptions, mordant sense of humor, and evocations of lurking horror.

A delightful revelation of an interbellum novel from one of the great Polish modernists.