Background
Stanislaw Przybyszewski was born on May 7, 1868, in Lohdorf, Kingdom of Prussia, North German Confederation (currently Łojewo, Gmina Inowrocław, Poland). He was a son of a village schoolteacher Józef Przybyszewski.
(Originally published in the German language in 1898, the ...)
Originally published in the German language in 1898, the book describes the origins and development of modern Satanism and its roots in Gnostic Christianity and the reaction against the Catholic Church and its persecutions.
https://www.amazon.com/Synagogue-Satan-Stanislaw-Przybyszewski-ebook/dp/B00J2GEH66/?tag=2022091-20
1898
Stanislaw Przybyszewski was born on May 7, 1868, in Lohdorf, Kingdom of Prussia, North German Confederation (currently Łojewo, Gmina Inowrocław, Poland). He was a son of a village schoolteacher Józef Przybyszewski.
Stanislaw Przybyszewski developed early interests in music, religious studies, and folklore. He began his secondary education in a German Grammar gymnasium in Thorn (currently Toruń) where he studied from 1881 to 1884. Then, he spent five years at the German grammar school in Wągrowice.
Soon after the graduation, Przybyszewski moved to Berlin to study architecture, changing his curriculum a year later to medicine and psychiatry. He subsequently withdrew from his university studies to devote himself to his writing and his interest in the occult. He was thrown out of the university in 1893 because of his involvement in the workers’ movement.
Stanislaw Przybyszewski started his career as a writer after the relocation to Berlin at the end of the 1880s. It was during this period of time when the young man discovered the philosophy of Nietzsche, became fascinated with theosophy and occultism and joined Berlin’s bohemian life.
While still a medical student, Stanislaw Przybyszewski began writing Zur Psychologie des Individuums (On the Psychology of the Individual), a two-volume psychological treatise in which he developed the view that modern society represses freedom and fulfillment and presented Nietzsche and Frederic Chopin as examples of artists who sought liberation from social strictures through their works. Soon, Przybyszewski left his university studies and devoted himself to his writing and his interest in the occult.
The publication of ‘On the Psychology of the Individual’ in 1892 brought its author to the attention of Berlin literary society, and he quickly became a central figure among the group of international avant-garde writers and artists who frequented the tavern Zum Schwarzen Ferkel. Among the circle were German poet Richard Dehmel, Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, and Swedish dramatist August Strindberg, who became Przybyszewski’s close friend and a strong artistic influence.
During the 1890s, Przybyszewski published a series of novels typified by ‘Homo Sapiens', a work depicting demonic passions and destructive eroticism. In 1892, he joined the staff of the ‘Gazeta Robotnicza’ (Workers Paper), Polish-language weekly of socialists where he served as an editor for a while. He also co-founded the art and literature journal ‘PAN’ and contributed his articles to several German periodicals, including ‘Die Fackel’ and ‘Freie Bühne’. From 1894 to 1898, the writer shared his time between Germany and Norway, the home country of his then wife.
Then, Przybyszewski returned to Poland to become the editor of ‘Życie’ (Life), an arts and sciences magazine in Kraków. He changed the editorial focus of the journal to reflect his preoccupation with art and published a manifesto titled “Confiteor,” which articulated a program of art for art’s sake. Soon afterward, the writer’s precepts were adopted as the official creed for the Young Poland movement, and Życie provided a forum for the works of Young Poland writers.
In 1903, Przybyszewski became widely known as a dramatist through a popular production of his play ‘Snieg’ (Snow). Thereafter, he undertook a series of speaking engagements in Central Europe and Russia. Living in Warsaw, Thorn and Munich and Prague through World War I, he wrote novels and dramas that were not well received by critics.
Stanislaw Przybyszewski returned to Poland in 1918 where he took part at the reconstruction of the Polish state. Six years later, he came to Warsaw and served in the Civil Office of the President of the Republic. He remained in the city until the end of his life.
(Originally published in the German language in 1898, the ...)
1898(An English translation of a play in four acts initially p...)
1920Stanislaw Przybyszewski's novels and dramas are notable primarily as illustrations of his studies of psychology and the occult. In these works, he portrayed characters possessed by dark psychological forces. Critics have often compared Przybyszewski to Sigmund Freud for using a libidinal unconscious as a base. Modern society, according to Przybyszewski, constrains the instincts, and great individuals are forced to convert basic drives into a self-destructive sensuality. In doing so, they approach the state the writer referred to as the “naked soul,” an absolute “primeval source” existing before restrictions were imposed by language and society. The artist best communicates this state through subjective expressions of unconscious forces, rather than through naturalistic portrayals of life.
In his best-known novel, ‘Homo Sapiens’, Przybyszewski used ornate language to trace the dissolution of an artist through alcohol and destructive eroticism. The hedonistic protagonist, his adaptation of Nietzsche’s Superman, provides alternately ecstatic and tormented self-analyses.
Przybyszewski’s dramas also stress introspection and typically reveal their characters’ internal conflicts through monologues. Drawing on conventions of Symbolist theater, his most significant dramas concentrate less on overt action than on evoking an atmosphere of prolonged yearning or anxiety.
Stanislaw Przybyszewski led an extravagant lifestyle having multiple love affairs and several children born out of wedlock.
Stanislaw Przybyszewski had multiple love affairs during his life.
While his first years in Berlin, he lived with a woman named Martha Foerder who gave birth to three children. Then, Przybyszewski left Martha to marry a Norwegian pianist Dagny Juel on August 18, 1893.
Later, Przybyszewski had a romantic relationship with the wife of playwright Jan Kasprowicz, Jadwiga Gąsowska. The writer broke out with Dagny Juel in 1899. Six years later, Przybyszewski married Gąsowska after she received an official divorce from her first husband.