Aleksander Groza, Twardowski. A Mystery Based on Folk Tales. Parts I–II. [1873]

Title: Twardowski. A Mystery Based on Folk Legends in Two Parts. Parts I and II.

Author: Aleksander Groza (1807–1875) [poet, playwright, and publisher; one of the leading representatives of the “Ukrainian school” in Polish Romantic poetry].

Publisher: Brody, printed and published by J. Rosenheim.

Year of publication: 1873.

Format: 20 cm.

Volume: Part I: 148 pp.; Part II: 144 pp.

Binding: Half-leather binding (rebound, 2012).

The legend of the sorcerer Mr. Twardowski, who sold his soul to the devil, lived on in folk tales and appeared throughout the 19th century in both Polish and foreign literature. In 1873, it was adapted into an extensive dramatic work in the form of a two-part mystery play by Aleksander Groza. The character was known to a wide audience primarily from Adam Mickiewicz’s humorous ballad “Pani Twardowska” (1822). In 1869, Stanisław Moniuszko adapted it into a ballad for solo voices, choir, and orchestra. Groza gave the legend a serious, multi-part form of a Romantic mystery play. The work was published in Brody, a town in Austrian Galicia right on the border with the Russian partition, by the local J. Rosenheim printing house. The author himself lived and worked on the Russian side of the cordon, in Ukraine. This is the first edition of the work, comprising both parts.

Aleksander Karol Groza was born on June 30, 1807, in Ukraine. He belonged to the “Ukrainian school” of Polish Romanticism, associated with the critic Michał Grabowski, and drew heavily on local folklore. From 1838 to 1842, he co-edited the almanac *Rusałka*, published in Vilnius, and later co-organized a publishing and bookselling enterprise in Zhytomyr. He wrote poetic novels featuring a Cossack character, including *The Starost of Kaniów* and *Hrycio*, as well as ballads set against the backdrop of Ukraine’s steppe landscape. He also published the two-volume *Poezye* and a memoir. He died on November 3, 1875, in Khalaimgródek, Ukraine.

Provenance: no stamps or ownership inscriptions. On the back endpaper, a mark reading “Conservation and binding by J. Bereziuk (2012).”

This is the first edition of the Romantic mystery play about Mr. Twardowski, complete, professionally conserved, and bound in half-leather. A must-have for collectors of 19th-century Polish drama, prints from the Eastern Borderlands and Galicia, and researchers of literary adaptations of the legend of Twardowski.

The block is compact and stable, the stitching is intact, and the folds are straight. The title page and several subsequent pages bear traces of artisanal repairs to paper losses and edge reinforcements; on p. 17, there is a trace of ink. The paper is stiff, with a few small spots and yellowing, but no water stains or waviness. Secondary half-leather binding, made in 2012 by J. Bereziuk; clean and stiff, with no scuffs on the leather, featuring a red label affixed to the spine with clear, gold-lettered title.

Catalog ID: 6478-20-B-W