thumb|upright=.8|[[Bolesław Prus.]]"Shades" (Polish: "Cienie") is one of Bolesław Prus' shortest micro-stories. Written in 1885, it comes from a period of pessimism in his life caused partly by the 1883 failure of Nowiny (News), a Warsaw daily that he had been editing for less than a year. Prus, the "lamplighter" who had striven to dispel darkness and its attendant "fear, madness, and mischief," had failed to sufficiently interest the public in Nowiny, his Positivist "observatory of societal facts," .
Themes
"Shades" is one of several micro-stories by Bolesław Prus that were inspired partly by 19th-century French prose poetry.
Prus scholar Zygmunt Szweykowski writes:
Prus' micro-story "Shades" comprises two parts. The first half evokes the above-described atmosphere of dread, via Prus' description of an eternal contest between light and darkness. The second half describes the efforts of one of a number of nameless lamplighters to dispel the darkness, for as long as his finite lifespan permits.
See also
- "Mold of the Earth" (a micro-story by Bolesław Prus).
- "The Living Telegraph" (a micro-story by Bolesław Prus).
- Prose poetry.
- "A Legend of Old Egypt" (Prus' first historical short story).
- Darkness.
References
Sources
- Christopher Kasparek, "Two Micro-Stories by Bolesław Prus," The Polish Review, 1995, no. 1, pp. 99–103.
- Zygmunt Szweykowski, Twórczość Bolesława Prusa (The Writings of Bolesław Prus), 2nd ed., Warsaw, Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1972.
- Barbara Bobrowska, "Latarnicy Wóycickiego i Prusa, czyli o 'fizjologii parabolicznej'" ("Wóycicki's and Prus' Lamplighters: 'parabolic physiology'"), in Małe narracje Prusa (Prus's Small Narratives), Gdańsk, słowo/obraz terytoria, 2004, pp. 113–34.