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Ostatnia brygada

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Mroczny obraz elit II Rzeczypospolitej. Zamiast ofiarnej pracy dla umacniania zdobytej po latach niepodległości na plan pierwszy wybija się egoizm, cynizm, bezwzględne wykorzystywanie własnej pozycji dla prywatnych celów. W to środowisko wkracza Andrzej Dowmunt, młody, przeniknięty pragnieniem uczciwej pracy przemysłowiec. Zdobytym podczas pobytu w Afryce kapitałem pragnie uzdrowić podupadły polski przemysł. Ku swemu zaskoczeniu spostrzega, że otaczają go szalbierze, szpiedzy, konfidenci, a przede wszystkim członkowie „ostatniej brygady” – bezwzględni karierowicze, dorabiający sobie rzekomą legionową przeszłość, po to, aby znaleźć się w obozie władzy. Bohater książki wikła się też w skomplikowane relacje uczuciowe i erotyczne z żoną bankiera, która jest agentką sowieckiego wywiadu, z dwiema arystokratkami, także z odnalezioną po latach pierwszą studencką miłością. Czy odniesie sukces w walce z bezwzględną konkurencją? Czy jego problemy osobiste znajdą szczęśliwe rozwiązanie? Czy pośród „zgrai wilków” tamtej Polski spotka ludzi podobnych sobie?

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1932

22 people want to read

About the author

Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz

43 books72 followers
Tadeusz Dołęga-Mostowicz was a Polish journalist and author of over a dozen popular novels. The best known, which in Poland became a byword for fortuitous careerism, was The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma. It is claimed by some that the book subsequently inspired the 1971 novel Being There by Jerzy Kosiński.

Tadeusz Mostowicz was born August 10, 1898, at his family's village of Okuniewo, near Vitebsk in the Russian Empire, the son of a wealthy lawyer. After graduating from gimnazjum (high school) in Vilna (now Vilnius, Lithuania), then Russian Empire in 1915 he embarked upon law studies at the University of Kiev. There he befriended numerous fellow members of the Polish diaspora and became involved in a local underground group of the Polska Organizacja Wojskowa (Polish Military Organization, abbreviated "POW" in Polish).

After the Russian Revolution, Okuniewo was seized by Bolshevik Russia, and Mostowicz's family moved to Poland, where they bought a small village. Also in 1918, Tadeusz moved to Warsaw, where he joined the Polish Army. He fought as a volunteer in the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921, and was demobilized in 1922.

While working at printing houses, Mostowicz sent short stories to newspapers and was finally discovered to be a talented reporter. From 1925 he was on the staff of the daily Rzeczpospolita (The Republic), one of the most influential newspapers in Poland. About that time he adopted the pen name "Dołęga", after his mother's Dołęga coat of arms. While a journalist, he began publishing short stories and pamphlets, many of which achieved considerable popularity.

In 1928 he quit his journalistic job and devoted himself full-time to writing fiction. The following year he finished his first novel, and in 1930 published it as Ostatnia brygada (The Last Brigade). However, it was not until 1932 that he became famous as the author of Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy (The Career of Nicodemus Dyzma), the most popular of his books. Initially serialized in newspapers, the novel proved a major success. Thereafter Mostowicz wrote an average of 2 novels a year. His monthly income is estimated to have exceeded 15,000 złotych, some 2,800 1939 US dollars.

During Poland's defensive war in 1939, Dołęga-Mostowicz was mobilized and served as commanding officer of an outpost defending a bridge over the Cheremosh River at the town of Kuty in southeastern Poland. On September 22, 1939, he was killed in a skirmish with the advancing Soviet Red Army.

In 1978 his remains were exhumed and on November 24 interred at Warsaw's Powązki Cemetery.

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1 review
October 19, 2017
Ze znanych mi ksiazek Dolegi ta jest zdecydowanie najslabsza. Towarzyska itryga rozgrywajaca sie w kregach najwyzszych sfer (ulubiony temat autora), tutaj wyjatkowo watla a i obraz owczesnych czasow, tak sugestywnie przez niego ukazywany w innych pozycjach, bardzo umowny i daleko niewystarczajacy. Jesli ktos zna wylacznie "Kariere Nikodema Dyzmy" i ma ochote na wiecej, to bardzo polecam "Bracia Dalcz i Spolka".
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