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Szczenięce lata

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Nostalgiczna podróz w czasie. Autor powraca pamiecia w rodzinne strony, by opisac nieistniejacy swiat kresowych dworó litewskie Nowotrzeby i bialoruskie Kaluzyce. Z duza pieczolowitoscia odtwarza wyglad budynków, sprzetów, a takze zwyczaje i potrawy. Wspomina dzieciece zabawy i ludzi, których wtedy spotkal. Calosc napisana jest piekna polszczyzna. Tekst jest bogatym zródlem wiedzy o dawnych tradycjach. Please This audiobook is in Polish.

143 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

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About the author

Melchior Wańkowicz

63 books20 followers
Melchior Wańkowicz was a Polish writer, journalist and publisher. He is most famous for his reporting for the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II and writing a book about the battle of Monte Cassino.

Melchior Wańkowicz was born on 10 January 1892 in Kalużyce near Minsk. He attended school in Warsaw, then the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, which he graduated from in 1922. An activist in the Polish independence movement, he was an officer in the Riflemen Union (Związek Strzelecki). During the First World War he fought in the Polish I Corps in Russia under General Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki.

After the war he worked as a journalist, for a time working as a chief of the press department in the Polish Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1926 he founded a publishing agency, "Rój". He also worked in the advertising business, coining a popular slogan for the advertisement of sugar - "cukier krzepi" (sugar strengthens). He wrote three books during the interwar period, all of them gaining him increasing fame and popularity. A few decades later he coined another famous slogan - "LOTem bliżej" ("closer with LOT"), advertising the Polish LOT airlines.

After the German invasion of Poland he lived for a while in Romania, where he wrote about the events of the Polish September. Later, from 1943 to 1946 he undertook what would be perhaps his most famous endeavour - he become a war correspondent for the Polish Armed Forces in the West. Later he wrote an account of the battle of Monte Cassino, his most famous book. One of his daughters, Krystyna, died as a member of Polish resistance Armia Krajowa during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.

From 1949 to 1958 he lived in the United States, afterwards returning to communist Poland. He opposed the communist regime, writing and lecturing about the Polish Forces in the West (whose participation was minimized by the government, which tried to emphasize the role of the Soviet-aligned Berling Army). His most known work is a three tome book about the battle of Monte Cassino, a tribute to the soldiers of the Anders Army - a book that was published in Poland only in a shortened, censored form (until the fall of communism in 1990).

After he cosigned the letter of 34 in 1964, protesting against the censorship, he was repressed by the government - the publication of his works was prohibited, and he was himself arrested, charged with slander of Poland and "spreading anti-Polish propaganda abroad" (partially due to the publication of some of his works by Radio Free Europe, but the chief evidence was a private letter to his daughter living in the USA) and sentenced to three years of imprisonment. However the sentence was never executed, and he was rehabilitated in 1990, after the fall of communism in Poland.

Wańkowicz died on 10 September 1974 in Warsaw.

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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Profile Image for Clarence.
195 reviews4 followers
December 22, 2025
„Szczenięce lata”, nie licząc „Tędy i owędy”, które porzuciłem po kilku akapitach, są moją pierwszą stycznością z Wańkowiczem. Moje odczucia są raczej pozytywne, ale trudno tu mówić o jakimś zachwycie. Książka jest zapisem wspomnień z lat dziecięcych, napisanych w formie gawędy szlacheckiej. Wańkowicz wywodzi się ze szlachty i widoczna jest jego tęsknota za tym wymierającym już stanem, ale z drugiej strony absolutnie go nie idealizuje — czasem nawet się z niego wyśmiewa. „Szczenięce lata” napisane są wymagającym, ale bardzo pięknym językiem; autor nie szczędzi też humoru.
Czytanie tej pozycji było dla mnie nierówne: co kilka stron książka wzbierała moje zainteresowanie, by w następnych znowu mnie znudzić. W gruncie rzeczy jest to jednak ciekawy tytuł, a ponieważ książka jest krótka, nie zdążyła mnie zanadto wynudzić.
Profile Image for Magdalena.
6 reviews
March 10, 2025
Opowieść o kraju lat dziecinnych w żartobliwym tonie. Przewodnikiem po szlacheckich włościach jest człowiek, który zaznał szaleństwa i przekleństwa wieku XX i pragnie pokrzepić sam siebie i nas wspomnieniami z dzieciństwa. Gadka starego dziada, czy urzekająca opowieść? Ja osobiście dałam się złapać i urzec.
Profile Image for Kate.
643 reviews1 follower
September 18, 2022
Utrzymana w stylu gawędy szlacheckiej książka przytaczający historie z młodości autora. Dość zajmująca, acz pełna dygresji.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews

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