The Doll - (Prus Boleslaw)

Boleslaw Prus is often compared to Chekhov, and Pruss masterpiece might be described as an intimate epic, a beautifully detailed, utterly absorbing exploration of life in late-nineteenth-century Warsaw, which is also a prophetic reckoning with some of the social forces--imperialism, nationalism, anti-Semitism among them--that would soon convulse Europe as never before. But The Doll is above all a brilliant novel of character, dramatizing conflicting ideas through the various convictions, ambitions, confusions, and frustrations of an extensive and varied cast. At the center of the book are three men from three different generations. Pruss fatally flawed hero is Wokulski, a successful businessman who yearns for recognition from Polands decadent aristocracy and falls desperately in love with the highborn, glacially beautiful Izabela. Wokulskis story is intertwined