Jan Czyński, Crown Prince Konstanty, and Joanna Grudzińska, or the Polish Jakubins [1876]

Format: 19 cm.

Volume: XII, 274 pp.

Binding: Burgundy publisher’s cloth, with gilt lettering on the spine.

A historical and political novel by Jan Czyński, a democrat, journalist, and participant in the November Uprising, who wrote primarily in French while in exile. It combines two storylines: the relationship between Grand Duke Konstanty and Joanna Grudzińska, and the patriotic conspiracy in the Kingdom of Poland prior to the November Uprising. The title “Polish Jakubins” refers to a radical faction from the time of the Kościuszko Uprising. The novel takes the form of a political pamphlet criticizing Russian rule in Warsaw.

Posthumous edition, Leipzig 1876, in F. A. Brockhaus’s “Biblioteka Pisarzy Polskich” (Library of Polish Writers).

A copy in a burgundy publisher’s binding with gilt lettering on the spine.

Item from the 18th Polish Antiquarian Book Auction.