It all began with George Sand. Novelistic portraits of Fryderyk Chopin and his music in foreign literature. A survey

• Authors: Kazimierz Maciąg
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

PL

The literary works discussed in this article exploit the motif of Fryderyk Chopin and his oeuvre in a variety of ways. The earliest novel is Lucrezia Floriani (1846), penned by the French writer George Sand, Chopin’s companion. The creation of Prince Karol (Chopin’s name in the novel), as if “detached” from the Polish composer’s biography, is an interesting, although none too original (even within the context of Sand’s oeuvre) example of the Romantic hero. Popular output, aimed at a readership seeking above all scandal and emotion, is represented by the German writer Hermann Richter’s novel Drei Frauen um Chopin (1935) and the contemporary thriller of collective authorship The Chopin Manuscript (2008). In these works, the composer is a tool designed to give readers the illusion of becoming acquainted with his biography or to interest sensation-seekers. Artistically the most interesting novel is Preludes, by the Danish writer Peer Hultberg (1989). Besides its original artistic form, the author is the only one to deal with musical material, attempting to present in prose that which ought to form the heart of every work about the brilliant musician, but which was achieved only by Cyprian Norwid in Fortepian Szopena [Chopin’s piano].

Keywords

PL

Fryderyk Chopin; George Sand; Hermann Richter; Peer Hultberg; literary biography; French literature; German literature; literary motifs

• Publisher: Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
• Journal: Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology
• Year: 2010
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 251-264

Dates

published

2018-10-17

Contributors

author

Kazimierz Maciąg

• doctor, lecturer in the Institute of Polish Philology of the University of Rzeszów. Author of numerous articles and the first Polish monograph on “table-talk”, entitled W kręgu problematyki „pamiętników mówionych” [Table-talk] (Rzeszów, 2001). Interested in Polish literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and especially literary creations of the great historical figures and the related phenomenon of mystification, falsification and literary legend. His most recent book is „Naczelnym u nasjest artystą”. O legendzie Fryderyka Chopina w literaturze polskiej [“He is the foremost artist among us”. On the legend of Fryderyk Chopin in Polish literature] (Rzeszów, 2010).