Young Poland, everyday life and Norwid

The book by Radosław Okulicz-Kozaryna entitled Rok 1894 oraz inne szkice o Młodej Polsce [The year 1894 and other sketches on Young Poland] (Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM 2013) is analysed in this review as some sort of original synthesis of the epoch, which primarily focuses on the fuzzy turning points of Young Poland, in particular in regard to its beginnings. The sketch on the poetry by Aleksander Szczęsny, treated here as a “late grandson” of Cyprian Norwid, also included in this book, turned out to be important from the perspective of Norwid Studies. The quiet hero of almost all the stories about the Young Poland included here is Baudelaire. The book is written in the spirit of correlation between the arts – reflection on literature is intertwined with thoughts on painting of the epoch. The author evokes the aura of Young Poland’s “here and now”, he recreates the atmosphere of that artistic everyday life.