"Comedienne"

The novel "Comedienne" (Komediantka, 1896) and its sequel "The Ferments" (Fermenty, 1897), based on the experiences of the author, were the result of laborious efforts, as can be seen by looking at the manuscripts. But they brought a very accurate picture of life in a fusty provincial town and indicated the talent of the writer and his sensitivity to current social phenomena. The story of Janka Orlowska who, after a short career as a "comedienne" performing with a wandering troupe, goes back home and reconciles herself to the life she had fruitlessly tried to escape from, deals with a problem frequently found in the novels and plays written towards the end of the 19th century-namely the rebellion of young women of temperament who went in search of erotic experiences under the guise of artistic aspirations, individuals straining against the bonds of convention, only to waste their lives in the end, or having gone through these mental "ferments", finally reconcile themselves to a dull everyday life. This common and typical phenomenon, connected with economic and social processes and still observed today, was presented in a different way in Reymont's works than in Zeromski's novels with their psychological depth and sociological significance Reymont recorded real life,he produced a narrative that was rather reminiscent of a documentary social report. This was because of the writer's attitude to the reality he knew, to the conditions in a remote little railway station situated amid the fields and woods, and to the little world of hungry wandering players, and because of his sensitivity to the various human characters he met in these environments. He was not a psychologist and sociologist but a painter of life in all its diverse forms and his writings are a proof of his great gifts of observation and narration.