"Infirmity of heart" : man in "Rotten wood" by Berent

The author makes an attempt at a new interpretation of Wacław Berent’s novel. He states that it treats not only of a sociological problem (description of the artists’ community) but also of anthropological perspective. The following problems are discusses: lack of characters’ integrality, characters numinotic attitude toward the world, transcendental integration of a personality, attempts at interpersonal, axiological and metaphysical (cosmological) accomplishment.