A groundbreaking new translation of the only historical novel by noted Polish writer Bolesław Prus.
“ . . . unique in world literature of the nineteenth century”–Czesław Miłosz
Imbued with poetry, leavened with humor, and graced with moments of transcendent beauty, Pharaoh offers a compelling picture of life at every level of ancient Egyptian society. As the story unfolds, Egypt is experiencing internal stresses and external threats that will culminate in the fall of its Twentieth Dynasty and New Kingdom. The young Pharaoh Ramses learns that challenging power leaves him vulnerable to seduction, defamation, intimidation and even assassination. The ultimate lesson learned by Ramses is the power of knowledge.
Prus is a distinctive voice in world literature and was Joseph Conrad’s favorite Polish writer. This new edition of Christopher Kasparek’s translation of Pharaoh vividly brings this extraordinary novel to life. It includes a detailed foreword and annotations, based on extensive research and textual refinements, that will enhance the reader’s appreciation not only for ancient Egypt, but also for Prus’ composition process.
Pharaoh has been translated into twenty-three languages and was adapted as a 1966 Polish feature film.
Sobre el autor
Christopher Kasparek, son of World War II Polish Armed Forces veterans, was born in Scotland. He produced an initial draft translation of Pharaoh while in secondary school. After pre-medical studies at Monterey Peninsula College, from 1965-66 he studied Polish literature at the University of California, Berkeley with 1980 Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz, including participation in Miłosz’s seminars translating Polish poetry. In 1972-78 Kasparek studied medicine at Warsaw Medical School, in Poland. During that time, he translated papers and two books, A History of Six Ideas and On Perfection, by the doyen of Polish philosophers, Władysław Tatarkiewicz. After receiving his medical degree, Kasparek translated the standard history of Polish breaking of German Enigma-machine ciphers (a cryptological achievement which, a month before the outbreak of World War II, Poland shared with France and Britain, enabling Britain to break Enigma ciphers at Bletchley Park): Władysław Kozaczuk, Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher Was Broken, and How It Was Read by the Allies in World War Two, edited and translated by Christopher Kasparek, Frederick, Maryland, University Publications of America, 1984. Kasparek subsequently practiced psychiatry for 33 years in California, where he resides. He has also published translations of sections of several other books; as well as articles and translations on a wide range of subjects in publications including The Monterey Herald; The Daily Californian (the U.C. Berkeley student newspaper); Zagadnienia Naukoznawstwa (Logology [or] Science of Science; Warsaw—a quarterly of the Polish Academy of Sciences); Dialectics and Humanism: The Polish Philosophical Quarterly; Cryptologia; The Polish Review; Psychiatric News; The Psychiatric Times; Clinical Psychiatry News; and many articles and translations in the online Wikipedia and Wikisource. He resides in Carmel, California.
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