ORZESZKOWA, ELIZA

ne PawLowska born May 25, 1841, Milkowszczyzna, Pol. died May 18, 1910, Hrodno, Belorussia, Russian Empire [now in Belarus] one of the most popular novelists in Poland of her day. Her writings are animated by the insurgents' ideals in the ill-fated antitsarist Polish uprising of 1863social justice and equality, individual freedom, the brotherhood of man, and a faith in human perfectibility. Born to a family of gentry, she was married at the age of 17 to a landowner, Piotr Orzeszko. When the marriage was annulled 11 years later, she settled in Hrodno, where in 1879 she opened a bookshop and publishing house. In 1878 she had published Meir Ezofowicz, a novel that presented a lurid picture of Jewish life in a small town in Belorussia and preached not so much toleration as the assimilation of the Jewish community. The Russian authorities closed down her publishing and bookselling operation in 1882, placing her under police surveillance for five years. She remarried in 1894, but her second husband died two years later. Orzeszkowa's well-known peasant novels include Dziurdziowie (1885), which presented a shocking picture of the ignorance and superstition of poor farmers; and Cham (1888; The Boor), the tragic story of a humble fisherman's love for a neurotic and sophisticated city girl. Considered her masterpiece, Nad Niemnen (1888; On the Banks of the Niemen) depicts Polish society in Lithuania. Bene nati (1892; Well Born), describes the impoverished gentry of small villages. During her lifetime many of Orzeszkowa's novels were translated into Russian, German, and Swedish, and three into English. Her collected works, Pisma, appeared in 22 volumes in 193739.