In this article author presents the history of critical reception of first Stefan Grabinski's drama. By analyzing the reviews, he tries to determine which of its elements were a decisive factor in the overall negative evaluation of the writer's creation. Critics pointed out, that Grabinski do not understand the rules of constructing a drama, his works lack necessary action and characters seem unnatural. All in all, the flaws were concluded as one major flaw named "novelization of the drama", which means The mansion by the sea is too similar to prose in terms of composition, etc.