Jan Potocki | |
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 Jan Potocki byAlexander Varnek | |
| Born | (1761-03-08)8 March 1761 |
| Died | 23 December 1815(1815-12-23) (aged 54) Uladivka,Vinnytsia,Russian Empire |
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| Era | Enlightenment;Romanticism |
| Known for | The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (1805) |
| Spouses | |
| Children | five |
| Parents |
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Count Jan Potocki (Polish pronunciation:[ˈjanpɔˈtɔt͡skʲi]; 8 March 1761 – 23 December 1815) was a Polish nobleman,ethnologist,linguist, traveller and author of theEnlightenment period, whose life and exploits made him a celebrated figure inPoland. He is known chiefly for hispicaresque novel,The Manuscript Found in Saragossa.[1]
Born into affluent Polish nobility, Potocki lived abroad from an early age and was primarily educated inSwitzerland. He frequently visited the salons ofParis and toured Europe before temporarily returning toPoland in 1778. As a soldier, he fought inAustrian ranks in theWar of the Bavarian Succession, and in 1789 was appointed amilitary engineer in the Polish army. During his extensive voyages he actively documented prevailing customs, ongoing wars, revolutions and national awakenings, which made him a pioneer oftravel literature. Fascinated by theoccult, Potocki studied ancient cultures, rituals and secret societies. Simultaneously, he was a member of parliament and took part in theGreat Sejm shortly before thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ceased to exist.
In spite of his literary career, Potocki became burdened by mental illness andmelancholy. He committed suicide by gunshot in 1815; however, the circumstances of his death remain controversial to this day.
Jan Potocki was born into thePotocki aristocratic family, that owned vast estates across Poland. He was educated inGeneva andLausanne, served twice in thePolish Army as a captain of engineers, and spent some time on a galley as novice to theKnights of Malta.[2] His colorful life took him acrossEurope,Asia andNorth Africa, where he embroiled himself in political intrigues, flirted withsecret societies and contributed to the birth ofethnology – he was one of the first to study the precursors of theSlavic peoples from alinguistic and historical standpoint.[3]
In 1790 he became the first person inPoland to fly in ahot air balloon when he made an ascent overWarsaw with the aeronautJean-Pierre Blanchard, an exploit that earned him great public acclaim.[4] He spent some time in France, and upon his return to Poland, he became a known publicist, publishing newspapers and pamphlets, in which he argued for various reforms.[5] He also established in 1788 in Warsaw a publishing house namedDrukarnia Wolna (Free Press) as well as the city's first free reading room. His relation withStanislaus Augustus was thorny, as Potocki, while often supportive of the king, on occasion did not shy from his critique.[5] He was also highly critical of the Russian ambassador,Otto Magnus von Stackelberg.[5]
Potocki's wealth enabled him to travel extensively about Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia, visiting Italy,Sicily,Malta, theNetherlands,Germany,France,England,Russia,Turkey,Dalmatia, theBalkans, theCaucasus,Spain,Tunisia,Morocco,Egypt, and evenMongolia. He was also one of the firsttravel writers of the modern era, penning lively accounts of many of his journeys, during which he also undertook extensive historical, linguistic, and ethnographic studies.[3]
Potocki married twice and had five children. His first marriage ended in divorce, and both marriages were the subject of scandalous rumors. In 1812, disillusioned and in poor health, he retired to his estate at Uładówka (now Uladivka) nearVinnytsia in present-day Ukraine, suffering from "melancholia" (which today would probably be diagnosed asdepression), and during the last few years of his life he completed his novel.[3]
Potocki's most famous work, originally written inFrench, isThe Manuscript Found in Saragossa (Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse).[6] It is aframe tale. On account of its rich, interlocking structure, and telescoping story sequences, the novel has drawn comparisons to such celebrated works as theDecameron and theArabian Nights.[6]
The book's title is explained in the foreword, which is narrated by an unnamed French officer who describes his fortuitous discovery of an intriguing Spanish manuscript during the sack ofZaragoza in 1809, in the course of theNapoleonic Wars.[7] Soon after, the French officer is captured by the Spanish and stripped of his possessions; but a Spanish officer recognizes the manuscript's importance, and during the French officer's captivity the Spaniard translates it for him into French.
The manuscript has been written by a young officer of theWalloon Guard, Alphonse van Worden. In 1739, whileen route to Madrid to serve with the Spanish Army, he is diverted into Spain's ruggedSierra Morena region.[8] There, over a period of sixty-six days, he encounters a varied group of characters, including Muslim princesses,Gypsies, outlaws, andkabbalists, who tell him an intertwining series of bizarre, amusing, and fantastic tales which he records in his diary.
The sixty-six stories cover a wide range of themes, subjects, and styles, includinggothic horror,picaresque adventures, and comic,erotic, andmoral tales. The stories reflect Potocki's interest insecret societies, thesupernatural, andoriental cultures, and they are illustrated with his detailed observations of 18th-century European manners and customs, particularly those of upper-class Spanish society.
Many of the locations described in the tales are real places and regions which Potocki would have visited during his travels, while others are fictionalized accounts of actual places.
While there is still some dispute about the novel's authorship, it is now generally accepted to have indeed been written by Potocki. He began writing it in the 1790s and completed it in 1814, a year before his death, though the novel's structure is thought to have been fully mapped out by 1805.
The novel was never published in its entirety during Potocki's lifetime. A proof edition of the first ten "days" was circulated inSaint Petersburg in 1805, and a second extract was published in Paris in 1813, almost certainly with Potocki's permission. A third publication, combining both earlier extracts, was issued in 1814, but it appears that at the time of his death Potocki had not yet decided on the novel's final form.
Potocki composed the book entirely in the French language. Sections of the original manuscripts were later lost, but have survived in aPolish translation that was made in 1847 byEdmund Chojecki from a complete French copy, now lost.[7]
The most recent and complete French-language version, edited by François Rosset and Dominique Triaire, was published in 2006 inLeuven, Belgium, as part of a critical scholarly edition of the complete works of Potocki. Unlike Radrizzani's 1989 edition of theManuscript Found in Saragossa, Rosset and Triaire's edition has been based solely on Potocki's French-language manuscripts found in several libraries in France, Poland (in particular, previously unknown autograph pieces that they discovered inPoznań), Spain, and Russia, as well as in the private collection of Potocki's heirs. They identified two versions of the novel: one unfinished, of 1804, published in 1805, and the full version of 1810, which appears to have been completely reconceived in comparison to the 1804 version. Whereas the first version has a lighter, more sceptical tone, the second one tends towards a darker, more religious mood. In view of the differences between the two versions, the 1804 and 1810 versions have been published as two separate books; paperback editions were issued in early 2008 byFlammarion.
The first English-language edition, published in 1995, was a translation of Radrizzani's edition by Oxford scholar Ian MacLean. Potocki's novel became more widely known thanks to the stylish black-and-white1965 film adaptation directed by renowned filmmakerWojciech Has and starringZbigniew Cybulski as Alphonse van Worden.[9]
Modern editions have appeared as follows:
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