Home | Books By Year | Books from 1935


The Frontier (novel)

Buy The Frontier (novel) now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the book. And once you've experienced the book, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




'The Frontier' ('Granica' in Polish) is a novel written by Zofia Nakowska, a renowned Polish prose writer, dramatist, and prolific essayist. It tells the story of the life of Zenon Ziembiewicz, his way to the top and success, as well as love affairs and problems. The novel itself combines features of many different genres: psychological novel, sensation novel, realistic prose and detective novel.

Originally, the author wanted to title her book Patterns, however, she changed her mind and decided on The Frontier. The novel has been made into a film twice: in 1938 and 1977.

Story is written by means of analepsis and the plot often is interjected with scenes that take the narrative back in time from the current point. Written during the interwar period, the novel describes such controversial topics as abortion, and the economic and social problems of that time.

Characters



* Zenon Ziembiewicz the protagonist of the novel, an intellectual, whose career evolves rapidly

* Elbieta Biecka Zenon's wife, a noble

* Justyna Bogutwna Zenon's lover, comes from deprived home

* Walerian Ziembiewicz Zenon's father, who had numerous lovers during his marriage, and used to be a nobleman

* ancia Ziembiewicz Zenon's mother

* Niewieska mother of Elbieta, a divorced woman, still very beautiful, living abroad

* Niewieski Elbieta's step-father, a very handsome man, minister, financier, politician

* Cecylia Kolichowska aunt of Elbieta

* Adela - Zenon's lover during his time in Paris, dies from tuberculosis after he leaves for Poland

* Karol Wabrowski Zenon's friend who studied with him in Paris, Cecylia's son

Plot



Young Zenon Ziembiewicz, member of a noble, but not very wealthy family, leaves for town and starts studying. There he meets Elbieta Biecka, a young lady, brought up by her aunt, who comes from a rich family. Zenon travels to Paris and starts further study at a university. When he comes back to his hometown, he meets Justyna Bogutwna, a poor and fatherless daughter of a cook. Eventually, a love affair starts between them. Later, without formally breaking up with Justyna, Zenon goes back to town, where he eventually gets engaged to Elbieta. Justyna, due to her mother's illness, by chance moves to the same tenement house as Zenon. They meet once again and soon become lovers again. Elbieta knows the truth and leaves him, however, Zenon wins her back, and soon enough they get married. Later Elbieta becomes pregnant. Despite those circumstances, Zenon wants to help Justyna, who carries his baby, and gives her money for living. Although it was not precisely Zenon's will, Justyna has an abortion and suffers horrible qualms because of what she did. Elbieta's and Zenon's son is born, and named Walerian after Zenon's father. In the meantime, Zenon's career evolves rapidly - he becomes the town's mayor. Justyna, deeply depressed, decides to commit a crime and pours caustic acid over Zenon. As a result, he becomes blind and soon later commits suicide.

References



Category:Polish novels

Category:1935 novels

Category:20th-century Polish novels

Buy The Frontier (novel) now from Amazon

<-- Return to books from 1935



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1034297019.