The 17th century Polish nobleman Jan Chryzostom Pasek is the author of only one, but immensely influential literary work – his memoirs. The famed book, portraying his military exploits and later life as a landowner, was a cornerstone of Polish Romanticism and continued to influence writers later on, such as Nobel Prize laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz.
Trumpets & drums, coaches & pistols
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Coronation of Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki as King of Poland and his portrait, photo: Wikipedia
In Poland, when you hear the name Jan Chryzostom Pasek you think: memoirs. That’s because his Pamiętniki (Memoirs) are one of the finest examples of Polish diary literature. The book is also a cornerstone of Polish Romanticism that influenced writers in many eras. The great romantic poet Zygmunt Krasiński wrote in a letter to a friend that ‘whenever he wishes to become more Polish he turns to Pasek to polonise his instincts.’ He wasn’t alone in seeing Pasek’s writing as an epitome of Polishness.
Pasek penned his Memoirs toward the end of his life – around the year 1701. He was born ca. 1636 in Gosławice, a village in central Poland, into a noble, but impoverished family and received an education at the Jesuit collegium in the town of Rawa Mazowiecka. His Memoirs begin in the year 1655, when he was about twenty years old and already a soldier. The first part of the book spans the years up to 1666 and describes Pasek’s military career.
As a military man he lived through plenty of exciting adventures, such as escorting Russian envoys to Poland, or fighting in Denmark against the invading Swedes. Here’s a quote describing how Pasek helped the Danes reclaim a stronghold taken by Swedish forces:
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There was no one in the courtyard because everybody was guarding their own quarters. But then, down the stairs from where the commander was, came the musketeers. I told my crew: ‘we’ve got ‘em.’ We ordered our company to stand single file, not in a group, but in a crescent, fewer people would get shot that way; and we said that right after the first shot we’ll give them the sabres. Somewhere army trumpets were sounding, drums, noise, thunder, shouting (…) Then we jumped at those up front. Shots were fired; a few fell down on both sides and that’s when we gave them the sabres.
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Memoirs by Jan Chryzostom Pasek, translated by MK
In the book’s second half, Pasek wrote about his life after he left the army in 1667. He married the widow Anna Łącka and moved to Lesser Poland. From then on he was preoccupied with the duties of a landowner and with public affairs – he became a producer of grain and owned the village of Smogorzów, among others. In his writings he gives an intriguing description of the election of King Michael I (for centuries Poland’s kings were elected by the country’s nobility). Here’s what occurred after the ruler had been chosen:
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The day after the king was richer by a few million – he had received so many gifts, coaches, horses, fabrics, silverware and other splendours. Even the envoys of the dukes that had competed for the crown gave him gifts. God Almighty made the people’s hearts favour him so much, that the they gave him whatever unique item they happened to have: not only beautiful horses, steeds, but also harnesses, or at least a pair of ivory- or ebony-grip pistols.
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Memoirs by Jan Chryzostom Pasek’s, translated by MK
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'The Last of the Nieczuja Family on a Pilgrimage', a painting by Juliusz Kossak illustrating a series of works written by Zygmunt Kaczkowski in the style of the nobleman's tale.
Although quite remarkable from today’s perspective, Pasek’s life was pretty typical of a 17th century Polish nobleman. His wartime deeds, courageous as they were, resulted mostly from his urge to gain wealth. The business aspect of his service is clearly visible in the episode of escorting the Russian envoys, thanks to which Pasek earned a pretty sum of 17,000 PLN. Many at the time perceived war as an occasion to get richer.
But the literary values of his Memoirs, unlike the life of their narrator, is something that makes them stand out. It is because of them, that the book is considered one of the most important monuments of Polish baroque literature. One could point to a number of things behind Pasek’s appeal as an author, his hot-blooded temperament and undeniable intelligence, as well as his oration skills (these were planted at the Jesuit collegium) are surely among them. Moreover, the style of the ‘nobleman’s tale’, rooted in oral tradition and employed by the writer, allows the reader to establish a special kind of rapport with the text.
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A teller differs from a writer – he doesn’t write, he speaks. And his words he addresses to a group of friends, neighbours, using the language of their social life. His listeners are before him, at the table, the fireplace, at an inn. He considers himself part of the group.
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Rousseau-Mickiewicz by Zofia Szmydtowa, 1961
The eminent Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz is among those who held Pasek’s writing in high regard. He mentioned the author in his lectures on Slavic literature and pointed to his sense of humour as another important element of his style:
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In his descriptions of battles Pasek takes on a light-hearted and funny tone, one the English would call ‘humorous’, one that is the regular tone of a nobleman’s tale.
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From a lecture by Adam Mickiewicz in the book Dzieła, edited by Zbigniew Jerzy Nowak, Maria Prussak, Zofia Stefanowska & Czesław
Pasek was also a legitimately open-minded person, curious of the world that surrounded him. That’s why he exhibits a talent at providing scrumptious details, whether about military life, customs or even clothing. Thanks to this his Memoirs are a great source on the realities of the era. Here’s a funny description of something he noticed in Denmark:
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The people there are also pleasant: the ladies (…) dress beautifully, but they wear wooden shoes, both peasants and townsfolks. When they walk over the cobblestones in the city, they make such a racket that you can’t hear a word of what someone’s saying to you.
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Memoirs by Jan Chryzostom Pasek’s, translated by MK
Creating a literary genre
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Mickiewicz improvises in French in Moscow, a painting by Grigoriy Myasoyedov, photo: Wikipedia
Memoirs, Pasek’s sole literary work, was published in 1836 by Count Edward Raczyński. The author himself didn’t necessarily plan to publish his work. As Patrycja Potaniec writes in her 2003 paper Jan Chryzostom Pasek i Jego Badacze (Jan Chryzostom Pasek & His Researchers) he was more concerned with ‘testifying to his existence as a link in the genealogical chain’ and leaving an ‘example to follow.’ So a limited circulation of the manuscript and its copies among his fellow noblemen would’ve (quite probably) been enough for him.
However, after its publication, Memoirs immediately became a hit and further edition quickly followed. The book was appreciated by the three most important Polish writers of the Romantic era: Mickiewicz, Zygmunt Krasiński and Juliusz Słowacki, who even made Pasek a character in one of his plays – the 1840 Mazepa.
The profound influence Pasek’s writing had on Polish Romanticism can be understood by taking a look at the following quote from Ewa Szczeglacka-Pawłowska’s 2016 paper Romantyczne Odkrycie Manuskryptu Jana Paska (The Romantic Discovery of Jan Pasek’s Manuscript):
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The manuscript’s publication is the beginning of Sarmatian Romanticism, it reopens the cultural richness of the nobleman’s tradition. It creates a sort of centre point for Romantic deliberations pertaining to national and cultural identity (…) it ‘provides’ original means of artistic expression.
Polish Romanticism – which often dealt with the question of preserving Poland’s national identity under the partitions by Russia, Prussia and Austria – saw Pasek as, as Szczeglacka-Pawłowska goes on to write, a ‘synonym of Polishness, a source of national, Polish instincts’.
But already the Romantics sensed that Pasek’s ‘example’ might’ve been just a little too perfect to be entirely true. After all the hero of Memoirs is extremely brave, loyal, good-natured, just and modest… The notion that the book is an idealised, literary vision of Pasek’s life rather than a fully truthful record of the past or a precise diary, was clear in Mickiewicz’s perception:
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He had created, so to say, the literary genre of historical romance.
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From a lecture by Adam Mickiewicz in the book Dzieła, edited by Zbigniew Jerzy Nowak, Maria Prussak, Zofia Stefanowska & Czesław
Little man, great memoirs
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'Jan Chryzosom Pasek Near Lachowicze' by Juliusz Kossak, 19th century, photo: Wikipedia
Mickiewicz’s intuition about Pasek’s work proved to be correct. After Mickiewicz’s death, literary scholars discovered that Pasek omitted plenty of unflattering details about himself in his Memoirs. It seems the author was keen on building a monument, a literary role model, rather than on telling the somewhat less interesting and perfect truth. Perhaps it was to be his legacy – Pasek didn’t have any children of his own (although his wife had six children from an earlier marriage).
Thanks to the work of such researchers like Ignacy Chranowski, Aleksander Brückner and Jan Czubek we now know that the real-life Pasek wasn’t actually good-hearted and just, but rather ‘inhumane and cruel.’ Such knowledge comes from the court archives of old which contain plenty records of Pasek’s wrongdoings (of which there is little or no mention in the diary). For example, he is now known to have forced a servant with whom he had a dispute to eat a raw hare… Pasek wouldn’t return a village to Marcjan Chełmski, even though it was rightfully his. Although Pasek saw himself as an observer of politics, his knowledge of current affairs turned out to be in fact superficial. He is believed to have ‘not realised the shape the country was in’ (the 17th century’s wars weakened Poland heavily).
These facts stand in contrast to the vision found in the pages of Memoirs, of a rightful lord and honourable soldier. But one has to remember that the work and the person behind the work are two different entities. And if you treat Pasek’s diary as a literary creation, a historical romance – rather than a memoir – you’re left with a truly marvellous piece of writing. And, despite the inaccuracies concerning the grim parts of the narrator’s personal story, the historical information is sound, as proven by researchers.
Literary historian Ignacy Chrzanowski wrote the following about Pasek in his 1906 book Historia Literatury Niepodległej Polski (A History of Independent Poland’s Literature):
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This little man authored the best memoir in all of old-Polish literature.
So much life, ease & colour
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A scene from the play 'Memoirs' staged at the Dramatyczny Theatre in Koszalin, photo: Encyklopedia teatru
Pasek was inspirational not only to scholars and Romantic authors but also to many other noted Polish writers such as Józef Ignacy Kraszewski, Melchior Wańkowicz and Ernest Bryll. At least two of the writers known to have drawn on the Memoirs deserve to be mentioned since their Pasek-inspired works because they too have become classics.
The first one is Henryk Sienkiewicz, the Nobel Prize-winning author of the celebrated Trilogy. This series of historical novels about the wars fought by 17th century Poland includes many military characters and is known to have been strongly influenced by Pasek’s writing. Here’s a quote from Ignacy Chrzanowski about one of the Trilogy’s heroes, the clever drunkard Zagłoba:
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Nobody could tell a story so naturally, with so much life, ease, colour, with such jesterly yet honest, entertaining humour, nobody… save for, perhaps, Zagłoba.
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Wilanów Palace Museum website
The second writer is the highly-acclaimed and controversial Witold Gombrowicz. This 20th-century author based one of his novels, the 1953 Trans-Atlantyk, on the aesthetic of the ‘nobleman’s tale’, drawing heavily on Pasek’s Memoirs. This literary device highlighted the narrator’s Polishness and allowed for a stylistic anachronism that created a one-of-a-kind humour. These devices resonate with the plot which puts the narrator in exile in South America far from war-ravaged Poland.
Pasek’s Memoirs (published in English in 1979 by the Kościuszko Foundation) remains influential to this day – in Poland the book is required reading and keep inspiring artists and authors alike. For example, in 2005, the text was adapted for the stage at the Dramatyczny Theatre in Koszalin. The play was titled simply Pamiętniki (Memoirs) and directed by Krzysztof Galos. The newspaper Głos Pomorza published a review by Katarzyna Łukasikm, who wrote that she ‘liked the play at first sight.’ She added:
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What are ‘Memoirs’ about? Basically, they’re about us. It turns out that almost 400 years after their creation, they’re still understandable and portray the Polish society in a current way. Even though times have changed we’re still preoccupied with similar things: money, fame, career, impressing others and… love.
Author: Marek Kępa, March 2019
