--- product_id: 42563761 title: "Ferdydurke (Margellos World Republic of Letters)" price: "€ 57.95" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.gr/products/42563761-ferdydurke-margellos-world-republic-of-letters store_origin: GR region: Greece --- # Ferdydurke (Margellos World Republic of Letters) **Price:** € 57.95 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Ferdydurke (Margellos World Republic of Letters) - **How much does it cost?** € 57.95 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.gr](https://www.desertcart.gr/products/42563761-ferdydurke-margellos-world-republic-of-letters) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description In this bitterly funny novel by the renowned Polish author Witold Gombrowicz, a writer finds himself tossed into a chaotic world of schoolboys by a diabolical professor who wishes to reduce him to childishness. Originally published in Poland in 1937, Ferdydurke became an instant literary sensation and catapulted the young author to fame. Deemed scandalous and subversive by Nazis, Stalinists, and the Polish Communist regime in turn, the novel (as well as all of Gombrowicz’s other works) was officially banned in Poland for decades. It has nonetheless remained one of the most influential works of twentieth-century European literature. Ferdydurke is translated here directly from the Polish for the first time. Danuta Borchardt deftly captures Gombrowicz’s playful and idiosyncratic style, and she allows English speakers to experience fully the masterpiece of a writer whom Milan Kundera describes as “one of the great novelists of our century.” Review: unique, complex, hilarious - "ferdydurke" is a unique satirical novel, a comedy of ideas, an innovation in style and a ransacking of novelistic conventions on par with "jacques the fatalist" or "tristram shandy". it's also weightier than its landscape of juvenile nonsense suggests. the core theme is the "mug", a person's definite identity and role in society, and how this is "kneaded" out of the struggle between inner and outer, immaturity and maturity, class and wealth, youth and age; mug is shaped by the imperatives of what microsociologists call impression management, and is deformed by the "grimace" or inappropriate countenance, the primal form of rebellion. these tensions take on the form of the "pupa" which is "fixed" on each person by pedantic schooling and oppressive convention generally. "ferdydurke" plays maniacally with the duality of power: about the requirement to conform, to do as your told or do as you're expected to do and the infantilizing effect this has on social relationships and human nature. it's also about innovation and creative change, or as gombrowicz described it, the awkward struggle to "find a form for what is yet immature, uncrystallized and underdeveloped." from opposite sides, oppression and creativity create the same battle lines in human nature. all this sounds dry but it is displayed across a variety of comedic eruptions and some laugh out loud turns of phrase. yet the extended chapter "preface to 'the child runs deep in filidor'" is a manifesto that merits careful reading. gombrowicz's style is both deeply angry and provocatively feisty in its analysis of trivial social interactions. it is too much to say gombrowicz had a "system," but the richness of his metaphors, symbols and comic encounters makes for a complexity unusual in a satirical novel -- even an ironic one. apparently the translator preferred the word "tush" to render "pupa" (bottom, buttocks) but was deflected by her editor and a reviewer. the problem is that this polish term is used affectionately by mothers toward their children and by adults as a derogatory term of belittlement or aggression ("dealing someone the pupa"). it captures the dual aspects of nurture and menace, the professed concern for citizen welfare and implicit threat of retribution for disobedience, that characterized the communist regime under which the book was written. borchardt would have done her work better service by delving these issues in her introduction. instead, she lists the many english synonyms for "pupa" while declaring it untranslatable. (a later speech, linked below, provides the background missing from the book's introduction.) despite that quibble, in this new (and first complete) translation into american english the mocking laughter of the book comes through brilliantly. http://www.corpse.org/archives/issue_5/critical_urgencies/borchar.htm Review: A one-of-a-kind masterpiece - The world of Ferdydurke seems at first to be concocted out of equal parts of Kafka and Swift. There is the absurdity of Kakfa: events occur for no apparent reason, and the main character seems to be under some mysterious hypnotic spell. And there is the savage humor of Swift. Violent conflict erupts between the followers of two opposed and equally absurd and ridiculous systems of belief. But as the book progresses, it becomes clear that Gombrowicz has put his own special stamp on this world, and created a type of fiction that is totally unique. The plot line is simple: a man of about 30 years of age is abducted by a priggish professor and finds himself, for reasons unexplained, transformed into an adolescent schoolboy. The novel consists of the "adventures" of this anti-hero in the world of adolescence, which he views with both fascination and disgust, and from which he remains detached, and yet at the same time with which he becomes intensely involved. (Ferdydurke is above all else a novel of unresolved contradictions.) Although the narrator is subjected to all the humiliations of an adolescent schoolboy (patronized by adults, frustrated by hopeless desire for a girl who disdains him, etc.), he also retains an adult outlook. In fact, it may be said that he is the only character who is adult (in the psychological sense of being self-aware) and who struggles, not always with success, to remain sane. Part of the genius of the book is that the adults in it seem crazy from the narrator's perspective as a youth, and the adolescents seem crazy from the narrator's perspective as an adult. In spite of its simple plot, Ferdydurke bursts with a dazzling exuberance of incidents, contradictions, characters, and digressions. Readers who demand strict linear plot development in a novel should probably look elsewhere. Ferdydurke can be read at many levels. It is not surprising that a novel which features conflicts between two equally absurd systems should come out of 1930s Poland, beset as it was by two powerful opposed enemies, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Ferdydurke can also be read as an exploration of the fragility of the adult ego, of the fine line between "maturity" and "immaturity". The violent schoolboy quarrels which so fascinate and repel the narrator seem like absurdist, distorted parodies of very serious adult matters. And this novel is also about hidden, dark passageways in the human psyche. The narrator confesses to thoughts and behavior that most of us would never want to allow into the daylight of consciousness, much less to own up to. Ferdydurke is not a difficult read, but it is quite digressive and very different from what most English-speakers expect a novel to be. Until this new translation, the first directly into English, it was effectively unavailable. This book is not for everyone. But it is a fascinating read for those who are seeking a multi-faceted, complex, and uncompromising (one noted critic has called it "Nietzchean") exploration of what it means to be a "mature adult", and who are not looking for easy answers or Hollywood endings. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #212,187 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #13,432 in Literary Fiction (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 87 Reviews | ## Images ![Ferdydurke (Margellos World Republic of Letters) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71+3wBHlWBL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ unique, complex, hilarious *by D***E on May 20, 2015* "ferdydurke" is a unique satirical novel, a comedy of ideas, an innovation in style and a ransacking of novelistic conventions on par with "jacques the fatalist" or "tristram shandy". it's also weightier than its landscape of juvenile nonsense suggests. the core theme is the "mug", a person's definite identity and role in society, and how this is "kneaded" out of the struggle between inner and outer, immaturity and maturity, class and wealth, youth and age; mug is shaped by the imperatives of what microsociologists call impression management, and is deformed by the "grimace" or inappropriate countenance, the primal form of rebellion. these tensions take on the form of the "pupa" which is "fixed" on each person by pedantic schooling and oppressive convention generally. "ferdydurke" plays maniacally with the duality of power: about the requirement to conform, to do as your told or do as you're expected to do and the infantilizing effect this has on social relationships and human nature. it's also about innovation and creative change, or as gombrowicz described it, the awkward struggle to "find a form for what is yet immature, uncrystallized and underdeveloped." from opposite sides, oppression and creativity create the same battle lines in human nature. all this sounds dry but it is displayed across a variety of comedic eruptions and some laugh out loud turns of phrase. yet the extended chapter "preface to 'the child runs deep in filidor'" is a manifesto that merits careful reading. gombrowicz's style is both deeply angry and provocatively feisty in its analysis of trivial social interactions. it is too much to say gombrowicz had a "system," but the richness of his metaphors, symbols and comic encounters makes for a complexity unusual in a satirical novel -- even an ironic one. apparently the translator preferred the word "tush" to render "pupa" (bottom, buttocks) but was deflected by her editor and a reviewer. the problem is that this polish term is used affectionately by mothers toward their children and by adults as a derogatory term of belittlement or aggression ("dealing someone the pupa"). it captures the dual aspects of nurture and menace, the professed concern for citizen welfare and implicit threat of retribution for disobedience, that characterized the communist regime under which the book was written. borchardt would have done her work better service by delving these issues in her introduction. instead, she lists the many english synonyms for "pupa" while declaring it untranslatable. (a later speech, linked below, provides the background missing from the book's introduction.) despite that quibble, in this new (and first complete) translation into american english the mocking laughter of the book comes through brilliantly. http://www.corpse.org/archives/issue_5/critical_urgencies/borchar.htm ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A one-of-a-kind masterpiece *by R***N on September 10, 2005* The world of Ferdydurke seems at first to be concocted out of equal parts of Kafka and Swift. There is the absurdity of Kakfa: events occur for no apparent reason, and the main character seems to be under some mysterious hypnotic spell. And there is the savage humor of Swift. Violent conflict erupts between the followers of two opposed and equally absurd and ridiculous systems of belief. But as the book progresses, it becomes clear that Gombrowicz has put his own special stamp on this world, and created a type of fiction that is totally unique. The plot line is simple: a man of about 30 years of age is abducted by a priggish professor and finds himself, for reasons unexplained, transformed into an adolescent schoolboy. The novel consists of the "adventures" of this anti-hero in the world of adolescence, which he views with both fascination and disgust, and from which he remains detached, and yet at the same time with which he becomes intensely involved. (Ferdydurke is above all else a novel of unresolved contradictions.) Although the narrator is subjected to all the humiliations of an adolescent schoolboy (patronized by adults, frustrated by hopeless desire for a girl who disdains him, etc.), he also retains an adult outlook. In fact, it may be said that he is the only character who is adult (in the psychological sense of being self-aware) and who struggles, not always with success, to remain sane. Part of the genius of the book is that the adults in it seem crazy from the narrator's perspective as a youth, and the adolescents seem crazy from the narrator's perspective as an adult. In spite of its simple plot, Ferdydurke bursts with a dazzling exuberance of incidents, contradictions, characters, and digressions. Readers who demand strict linear plot development in a novel should probably look elsewhere. Ferdydurke can be read at many levels. It is not surprising that a novel which features conflicts between two equally absurd systems should come out of 1930s Poland, beset as it was by two powerful opposed enemies, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Ferdydurke can also be read as an exploration of the fragility of the adult ego, of the fine line between "maturity" and "immaturity". The violent schoolboy quarrels which so fascinate and repel the narrator seem like absurdist, distorted parodies of very serious adult matters. And this novel is also about hidden, dark passageways in the human psyche. The narrator confesses to thoughts and behavior that most of us would never want to allow into the daylight of consciousness, much less to own up to. Ferdydurke is not a difficult read, but it is quite digressive and very different from what most English-speakers expect a novel to be. Until this new translation, the first directly into English, it was effectively unavailable. This book is not for everyone. But it is a fascinating read for those who are seeking a multi-faceted, complex, and uncompromising (one noted critic has called it "Nietzchean") exploration of what it means to be a "mature adult", and who are not looking for easy answers or Hollywood endings. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The limitations of a novel of ideas *by B***O on December 19, 2009* Read Gombrowicz's "Diary." I've read only Part 1 of that series, but I'm satisfied that it's a monument of 20th century writing and a work of great humanity. As to "Ferdydurke," it suffers from the same malady as "Candide," its avowed inspiration: rather thin in writing quality, uneven in its satiric force, too much of a polemic to be involving. "Candide" and its progenitors like "Gulliver's Travels" get their power from the truths they demonstrate, the persistence of the philosophic errors and solecisms they lampoon. (In Swift's case, I think his passion comes through and carries "Travels" to another level) By that token, many of Gombrowicz's targets are relics of the past (e.g., Polish culture's then-overemphasis on "adult" virtues, something nonexistent in our own youth-worshipping culture), as he himself later confessed. "Ferdydurke" is a modernist satire to be read by serious students of 20th c. European literature, but while its innovative form engages the intellect it doesn't go beyond to plumb any depths of human experience. I would submit there is simply not enough of Gombrowicz in this effort, or a too-young edition of the man. Great works of literature have always happily immersed me beyond my intellectual grasp, either to present me with a situation with too many parts to rationally connect or with an author too complex to safely encapsulate. And at the same time resonate with my own experience of the world. It could be that "Trans-Atlantik" accomplishes this; the "Diary" certainly does; but "Ferdydurke"--in spite of Sontag calling it a "masterpiece" and "wonderful" in her introduction--does not. That said, there is an analysis here of master-servant relations that made me very happy I'd read the book. Never mind the enforced goofiness and satirical extravagances throughout, there is a description in the second half of the book of relations between country squires and servants, between the traditional two classes, as nuanced and observant and analytically sound (absolutely convincing in its psychological penetration) as could be imagined. Not only was the description convincing as it related to centuries of ingrained attitudes, it went to, goes to, dominant/subordinant relations wherever they are found--and of course they are still found, democracies to the contrary notwithstanding. Nobody had brought it home to me before as effectively as Gombrowicz. The examination here is subtle enough as almost to throw his deft satire out of whack, as if he needed a bigger canvas with fewer self-imposed stylistic restrictions. The "Diary" was later to provide just such a canvas. Parenthetically, Gombrowicz himself would find it amusing that negative reviews here and elsewhere on Amazon, no matter how detailed and nuanced, always garner fewer numbers of "helpful" votes than the ecstatic ones ("8 of 29 people found the following review helpful"). Expectant readers want to have their hopes justified. 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