PRUS, BOLESLAW

born Aug. 20, 1847, Hrubieszw, Pol. died May 19, 1912, Warsaw pseudonym of Aleksander GLowacki Polish journalist, short-story writer, and novelist, one of the leading figures of the Positivist period in Polish literature following the revolt of 1863. Though born to a gentry family, Prus had experienced proletarian conditions and was a lifelong believer in social equality. Throughout much of his life he contributed articles called chronicles to daily papers and periodicals; these reveal the talent for detailed observation and lively presentation that was to make his novels and short stories so effective. Among the best known of his tales are Z legend dawnego Egiptu (A Legend of Old Egypt), Kamizelka (The Waistcoat), and Katarynka (The Barrel-Organ). His novels include Lalka (1890; The Doll), which gives a complex picture of bourgeois life in Warsaw toward the end of the 19th century; and Faraon (1897; The Pharaoh), an ambitious evocation of ancient Egypt.