What is the best Polish book ever written.

just help me out

come on i want to buy the best book ever in poland

the adventures of filemon the cat.

Przedwojski Roman: Mineralogia, petrografia i geomorfologia.

Some would say Elementarz ;)

or Słownik Ortograficzny

Kodeks Boziewicza

and, close second: Trędowata

Got a spare copy? I like a bit of geologia.

Wiedzmin saga?

i'll send you everything i have. treasures of the polish literature.

.................goodreads.com/list/show/2023.Best_Polish_Books

the list of the best :D

Check out Stanislaw Lem books.

The best ever Polish book for me is called "But I Survived".
Its about a man called Tadeusz Sobolewicz & his life during the second world war in Poland, i am not a book fan but i was totally glued to this book from start to finish. There is a Polish version & English version.

depends what sort of books your into.
If you want something because its polish - go for things like Sienkiewicz, Mickiewicz etc.
Most famous and worth reading. Also there is quite few books about "Columbs" generation -WWII generation of young people that is absolutely brilliant. Of that i would say "Kamienie na szaniec" is a good start.

If you want just good read - still depends on what books you like.
I would recomment Sapkowski but thats because im a fan :) Also Chmielewska is good read.

Chmielewska "Lesio"

Sienkiewicz is no great literature. It has got huge historical significance because it was something uplifting for the occupied Poles to read, but in fact these are just adventure books set in important moments of Polish history, intellectually shallow, with awfully flat characters and a lot of ideology and populist nationalism. Something like Hollywood films about the Vietnam war nowadays.

If you look for something sophisticated and artistic, better go for Gombrowicz, Różewicz, Lem or Schultz.

"Pan Tadeusz" by Adam Mickiewicz is a masterpiece and probably
the best book ever written in Polish language. I used to know large
extracts of it by heart.

"O Szczęściu" (On Happiness) of Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz.
Also Lem is quite a good writer.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_by_country#Poland


It's a wonderful satire on Poles. I found no other book, or author who drerides Poles and Polish vices so skillfully. What's even funnier is that in Poland the books is taught as the greatest Polish patriotic epic. Not that Mickiewicz was not a patriot, but the book was just one huge joke.

definitely "quo vadis" and "w pustyni is puszczy."

Of course it is. But I think, no - I'm quite sure, that there is much
more in "Pan Tadeusz" than just a satire. Some of the beautiful
old Polish customs are also described there, and I simply love the
impressive descriptions of the nature and wild-life in it.


It is definately more than just a satire and it's certainly not "just one huge joke".

Also, from linguisitc and poetic point of view, the book is a masterpiece of Polish
language.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_in_Literature

And it wasn't far from the general perception of literary merits in that time. Often, book was judged by its ideological contents more than purely literary quality.

Even very conservative Polish teachers sometimes admit Sienkiewicz wrote popular literature.

I agree that the Nobel prize can't be a measure of an author/book quality, just look at the first 50 years: 11 awards for Scandinavian writers (1/4 of the total, because the Prize wasn't awarded in some years) and having among laureates such mediocre authors like the Norwegian Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson is just a laugh (yes, I did read some of his works).

Back to the original question (from February), it's strange, you won't ever reach a consensus in such matters, I wonder if the English speaking world has one book that they nominated "the best" :)

nah.
the question can't be answered as it's too general.
if you say what type of literature you are interested in,
we will be able to help.
I hope You know that You cannot compare romanticism and Mickiewicz
to post-modern Lem, crime-satires of Chmielewska and so on.

here's a question for you: what is the best book written in English?