Morska, Irena. "Polish authors of today and yesterday"

In 1863 there was one final attempt to free the country from the tyrrany of occupation, but it failed and in it was lost the last of poland's aspirations to independence. In this defeat, literature came out as usual as the barometer of the people's will. In it was represented the acknowledgment that the people had material needs and wants and that only by attacking the very foundations of the evils in society could they hope to correct the wrongs. 10 Education, attacks against illiteracy, against ignorance and fanaticism were fought against by the new generation. It was called the positivist movement to separate it from the romanticism movement and sought to find out why poland was so miserable. Th movement sought to find out about the common man and found cultural ties that united all poles. The writers did not always give an answer to the problems they found, but they were good and displaying the problems. 10

A new social class was being formed at this time with the advent of greater industry. This coincided with the spread of socialist ideals. When the ideas of the west joined the revolutionary conditions in Russia they found action in Poland. The blood shed in Russia was also shed in Poland and the beginning of the 20th century brought about a new type of culture and literature called Young Poland.

Sienkiewicz is best known of the authors outside of Poland. He wrote his trilogy about the wars Poland fought against occupiers in the 17th century. Prus wrote about the Poland he knew and the people that were in it during his life. He was able to show the changing of the times and the weakening of the landed gentry. Oreszkowa wrote about the problems with women's emanicpation and the life of Jews in the country and the hatred they had to endure. She was a supported of education for the peasants. She wrote about the political collapse after the 1863 revolt and felt that literature must serve a political means. Zeromski wrote at the beginning of the 20th century and was the 'conscience of poland.' He felt and wrote about the misery of Poland and his heroes are lonely, persecuted by hypocrasy, thoughtless laziness and drowning of a sea of hopelessness in which the best ideas go to waste. His heroes are doomed. He wrote about the glory of the history of Poland's past. Reymont wrote much about lodz and the country.