Bruno Schulz reads Witold Gombrowicz’s Ferdydurke.
Schulz reads the book version of Ferdydurke, which was published at the end of October 1937 by Rój*. Schulz read parts of Gombrowicz’s* book before. In May 1936 he expressed his scepticism. At the beginning of 1937, Gombrowicz gave him a nearly finished manuscript version, to which Schulz reacted coolly again. Only the final book version exerts an “electrifying” and “dazzling” effect on Schulz. “[W]hen he read Ferdydurke as a book, he erupted in a flame, which almost burned me, cold that I am” – reminisces Gombrowicz. Schulz sends him telegrams several times a day to express his increasing admiration. In his opinion it is a revelatory, innovative novel, eluding any literary classification. He compares Gombrowicz’s spiritual enterprise to Sigmund Freud and Marcel Proust’s achievements, calling him a genius. In one of the letters, he confesses that he is in a sense “charged” with Gombrowicz’s novel, which will not leave him alone. Thus, he plans to write a text about Ferdydurke, which he finishes in the next few weeks. Already on 11 January 1938, prompted by Romana Halpern, Schulz will read his article during a meeting in the venue of the Polish Writers’ Union* in Warsaw. In July 1938 the talk will be published in a literary journal Skamander. (ts) (transl. ms)
See also: January 1937*, 24–30 October 1937*, 11 January 1938*, July 1938*.
