Witold Gombrowicz - Collected Works (16 books)

* Witold Gombrowicz - Collected Works (16 books)

WITOLD GOMBROWICZ (1904–1969) was an avant-garde Polish writer and playwright who gained fame only during the last years of his life, but is now considered one of the foremost figures of Polish literature. His multifaceted oeuvre is characterised by deep psychological analysis, a sense of paradox, and relentless subversion of national myth and social pretense with sharp, grotesque irony. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times, from 1966 to 1969.

His debut novel FERDYDURKE (1937) is a biting satire on education, social roles, and the tyranny of maturity. Ferdydurke presents many themes explored in his later work: the problems of immaturity and youth, the masks people wear, and an ironic, critical examination of class roles in Polish society and culture, specifically the nobility and provincials. THE POSSESSED (1939) is a gothic, psychological thriller he serialized under a pseudonym on the eve of World War II, which parodies popular romance and horror tropes while retaining his core obsession with human obsession and "inferiority." His other fiction includes his surreal, wartime-provoked narrative TRANS-ATLANTIK (1953), PORNOGRAFIA (1960), which revolves around two middle-aged Warsawian intellectuals, and COSMOS (1965), Gombrowicz's most complex and ambiguous work. His early short fiction is compiled in the collection BACACAY (1957).

Gombrowicz's dramatic catalog includes his subversive debut play IVONA, PRINCESS OF BURGUNDIA (1938), which exposes the inherent cruelty and absurdity of courtly etiquette through a mute protagonist. His subsequent plays further established his reputation as a precursor to the Theater of the Absurd, notably THE MARRIAGE (1953), where a soldier dreams his ruined home into a fragile kingdom, and his final completed masterpiece, OPERETTA (1966), which uses the lightweight framework of musical theater to satirize the bloody ideological shifts of the twentieth century.

Beyond fiction and drama, Gombrowicz’s non-fiction prose is widely considered to be some of his finest artistic achievement, offering unmediated access to his brilliant intellect. His monumental DIARY (published in installments starting from 1953-1969 and considered by many scholars to be his masterpiece), serves as a dazzling mixture of autobiography, philosophical treatise, and polemical assault against Polish nationalism. This is complemented by POLISH MEMORIES (1970), a series of autobiographical essays written for Radio Free Europe that reflects on his formative years in pre-war Poland. His late-career reflections also include A KIND OF TESTAMENT (1968), a book-length series of intellectual interviews. His non-fiction is uniquely rounded out by A GUIDE TO PHILOSOPHY IN SIX HOURS AND FIFTEEN MINUTES (1971), a concise, highly personal series of lectures on major thinkers delivered to his wife Rita on his deathbed.

Together, these works reveal an uncompromising artist who refused to align with any political camp or literary movement. By examining the tension between the individual and the collective, Gombrowicz created a body of work that feels intensely contemporary, offering a profound, often hilarious, exploration of what it means to exist under the judgment of the human gaze.


The following books are in ePUB and/or PDF format as indicated:

== NOVELS ==

* Cosmos [tr. Borchardt] (Yale, 2005) – ePUB / PDF
* Cosmos and Pornografia: Two Novels [tr. Mosbacher & Hamilton] (Grove, 1985) – PDF^
* Ferdydurke [tr. Borchardt] (Yale, 2000) – ePUB / PDF*
* Pornografia [tr. Borchardt] (Grove, 2009) – ePUB / PDF
* The Possessed [tr. Lloyd-Jones] (Grove, 2024) – ePUB
* Trans-Atlantyk [tr. French & Karsov] (Yale, 1994) – ePUB / PDF
* Trans-Atlantyk: An Alternate Translation [tr. Borchardt] (Yale, 2014) – ePUB / PDF

== SHORT FICTION ==

* Bacacay [tr. Johnston] (Archipelago, 2004) – ePUB / PDF

== NON-FICTION ==

* Diary [tr. Vallee] (Yale, 2012) – ePUB / PDF
* A Guide to Philosophy in Six Hours and Fifteen Minutes [tr. Ivry] (Yale, 2004) – ePUB / PDF
* A Kind of Testament [tr. Hamilton] (Temple UP, 1973) – PDF^
* Polish Memories [tr. Johnston] (Yale, 2004) – ePUB / PDF

== PLAYS ==

* History (An Operetta): An Unfinished Play (PAJ, Jan. 1998) – PDF
* Ivona, Princess of Burgundia [tr. Griffith-Jones & Robins] (Grove, 1969) – PDF^
* The Marriage: A Play [tr. Iribarne] (Grove, 1969) – PDF^
* Operetta [tr. Iribarne] (Calder & Boyars, 1971) – PDF

PDF^ courtesy of @Mohamed5438
PDF* courtesy of @pharmakate


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