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1. APOLLO KORZENIOWSKI AS A LITERARY CRITIC
Apollo Nalçcz-Korzeniowski (1820-1869) was not only one of the most distinctive Polish playwrights of the second half of the 19th century, but also one of the best informed about new currents in literature. After his premature death, however, his poetry and plays were soon forgotten and for almost a century he was known only as the father of Konrad Korzeniowski, otherwise known as the distinguished English writer Joseph Conrad. It is only since the middle of the 20th century that his life and work have once again begun to attract the attention of scholars and literary critics.
Apollo Nalçcz-Korzeniowski is known above all for being a Polish patriot. A couple of years before the outbreak of the 1 863 January Uprising, he helped to organize the underground anti-tsarist "Committee of the Movement" in Warsaw - the forerunner of the later 1 863 "National Central Committee qua Provisional National Government" (Komitet Centralny Narodowy jako Tymczasowy Rzqd Narodowy). Although the tsarist police never discovered the true extent of his political activity - and in particular his involvement in organizing the "Committee of the Movement" - he was arrested on much lesser charges in 1 861 and he and his wife Ewa were subsequently sentenced to a term of exile in Russia.1 Together with their four-year-old son Konradek, the Korzeniowskis were eventually sent to Vologda. In January 1863 the Russian authorities moved them do Czernihów (Chernihov / Chernihiv) in northeastern Ukraine, where Apollo's wife Ewa (née Bobrowska) died in April 1865. Apollo Nalçcz-Korzeniowski was released from his term of exile (together with his son) towards the end of 1867. In January 1868 father and son came to live in Lwów (Lvov / Lviv / Lemberg) and towards the end of February 1869 they moved to Cracow. Apollo died of tuberculosis on 23rd May 1869 and was buried at the Rakowicki Cemetery in Cracow.
Of Apollo Nalçcz-Korzeniowski's many writings, which include the epigonic (i.e. post-Romantic) poems entitled Songs of Purgatory Czysccowe piesni) written between 1849 and 18542 (and which are yet to be published) and numerous mediocre poems, only some have stood the test of time. These are the two plays Komedia A Comedy) [first published 1 854-1 855,3 published separately in...