Gombrowicz a man of two faces says widow during jubilee

Rita Gombrowicz: photo - PAP/Piotr Polak

“In everyday life he was gentle and kind,” Rita Gombrowicz told Polish Radio.

“His work was something altogether different,” she added.

Witold Gombrowicz's most celebrated novel, Ferdydurke, was first published in October 1937, and commemorative events are taking place across Poland.

The novel follows the plight of a 30-year-old man who is abducted by a teacher and forced to become a schoolboy again.

Rita Gombrowicz reveals she was not fully aware of her husband's literary standing when they first moved in together after meeting the exiled writer near Paris in 1964.

“We moved in together and after three months Witold said that I must read something, and then he gave me a French version of "Ferdydurke",” she recalled.

“I locked myself in a room and read the book, and then Witold questioned me about it,” she revealed.

When she declared that the book was “brilliant”, the writer gave a succinct reply.

“You'll have to get used to it,” he said.

Polish publisher Wydawnictwo Literackie has published a new edition of the classic to coincide with the jubilee, and an exhibition is being held at Warsaw University Library.

An academic conference entitled “Ferdydurke is not dead” will be held on Thursday in Krakow.

Witold Gombrowicz boarded a cruise-liner to South America in the summer of 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II.

The communist regime that took power in Poland after the conflict banned the author's works for many years, and he never returned to his homeland. (nh)