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{{Short description|Polish novelist, dramatist and poet (1868-1927)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name          = Stanisław Przybyszewski
| image         = Stanisław Przybyszewski.PNG
| image_size    = 180px
| caption       = Stanisław Przybyszewski
| pen_name      = 
| birth_name    = Stanisław Feliks Przybyszewski
| birth_date    = {{Birth date|1868|5|7|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[Łojewo, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[North German Confederation]]<br>(now Poland)
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1927|11|23|1868|5|7|df=y}}
| death_place   = [[Jaronty]], Poland
| resting_place = [[Góra, Inowrocław County]]
| occupation    = Poet, writer, novelist, playwright
| language      = [[Polish language|Polish]], German
| period        = [[Young Poland]]
| genre         = 
| subject       = 
| movement      = 
| notable_works = 
| spouse        = [[Dagny Juel Przybyszewska]], Jadwiga Kasprowicz
| children      = Zenon Przybyszewski Westrup
| relatives     = 
| influences    = 
| influenced    = 
| awards        = 
}}

'''Stanisław Przybyszewski''' ({{IPA|pl|staˈɲiswaf pʂɨbɨˈʂɛfskʲi}}; 7 May 1868 – 23 November 1927) was a Polish novelist, dramatist, and poet of the [[decadent]] [[Naturalism (literature)|naturalistic]] school. His [[drama]] is associated with the [[Symbolism (movement)|Symbolist]] movement. He wrote both in [[Polish language|Polish]] and in German.<ref name="HFL">{{cite journal |title=Stanisław Przybyszewski |author=Halina Floryńska-Lalewicz |date=January 2004 |publisher=[[Adam Mickiewicz Institute]] |journal=[[Culture.pl]] |url=http://culture.pl/en/artist/stanislaw-przybyszewski}}</ref>

==Life==
Stanisław Feliks Przybyszewski was born in [[Łojewo, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship|Łojewo]] near [[Kruszwica]] during the partitions of Poland. The son of a local teacher, Józef Przybyszewski, Stanisław attended a German gymnasium in [[Toruń]],<ref name="HFL" /> graduating in 1889. He left for [[Berlin]], where he first studied architecture and then medicine. It was there that he became fascinated by the philosophy of [[Nietzsche]], began referring to himself as a [[Satanism|Satanist]], and immersed himself into the [[Bohemianism|bohemian]] life of the city.

In Berlin, he lived with—but did not marry—Martha Foerder. They had had three children together: two before he left her to marry [[Dagny Juel]] on 18 August 1893 and one during his marriage to Dagny. From 1893 to 1898, he lived with Juel (formerly a model for [[Edvard Munch]]), sometimes in Berlin and at others in Juel's hometown of [[Kongsvinger (town)|Kongsvinger]], in Norway. They frequented with other artists [[Zum schwarzen Ferkel]] in Berlin.

In 1896, he was arrested in Berlin on suspicion of the murder of his common-law wife Martha but released after it was determined that she had died of [[carbon monoxide poisoning]]. After Martha's death, the children were sent to different foster homes. In the autumn of 1898, he and Juel moved to [[Kraków]], where he set himself up as the leader of a group of revolutionary young artists and as editor of their mouthpiece ''[[Życie]]'' (Life). He remained a fervent apostle of [[industrialism]] and self-expression.

He traveled to [[Lviv]] and visited the Polish poet and playwright [[Jan Kasprowicz]]. Przybyszewski started an affair with Kasprowicz's second wife, Jadwiga Gąsowska. Kasprowicz married Jadwiga in 1893; his first marriage to Teodozja Szymańska in 1886 ended in divorce after a few months.

[[File:Stachu Dagny.jpg|thumb|left|Dagny and Stanisław Przybyszewski in 1897/1898]]

In 1899, Przybyszewski abandoned Juel and set up a house with Jadwiga in [[Warsaw]]. Around this time, he was also involved with [[Aniela Pająkówna]], one of whose two daughters was Przybyszewski's. Dagny returned to [[Paris]] and was murdered by a young friend of hers, Władysław Emeryk, in [[Tbilisi]] in 1901.

In 1905, Przybyszewski and Jadwiga moved to [[Toruń]], where he attempted rehabilitation from his [[alcoholism]]. While there, Jadwiga's divorce was finalized, and they married on 11 April 1905. Przybyszewski's struggle with alcoholism continued till his death.

In 1906, the couple moved to [[Munich]], thanks to the money obtained through the sale of the manuscript of the play ''Śluby'' (''The Vows''). During the war, they lived for a short time in [[Bohemia]] ([[Czech Lands]]) and moved to newly re-established Poland in 1919.

In [[Poznań]], he applied for the position of director of a literary theatre, but his work with German political brochures during the war prevented the appointment. He got a job working as a German translator for the post office. In 1920, he found work in the [[Free City of Danzig]] ([[Gdańsk]]) with the railways. He lived in Gdańsk until 1924 and managed a Polish bookshop there. Afterward, he tried to settle in [[Toruń]], [[Zakopane]], and [[Bydgoszcz]], all without success. At last, he found work in [[Warsaw]], in the offices of the president. He lived in rooms in the old [[Royal Castle, Warsaw|Royal Castle]]. In 1927, he returned to the [[Kujawy]] region and died in [[Jaronty]] in November of that year, aged 59.

He wrote a number of successful novels, of which ''Homo Sapiens'', the most popular, has been translated into English.

Przybyszewski is considered to be the precursor of contemporary 20th-century intellectual Satanism. [[August Strindberg]] called him "a brilliant Pole" ("der geniale Pole") and said that he "influenced German literature in the last decade of the nineteenth century like few others".

==Works==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
{{div col}}
* ''Zur Psychologie des Individuums'' (1892)
* ''De Profundis'' (1895)
* ''Vigilien'' (1895)
* ''[[Homo sapiens (novel)|Homo Sapiens]]'' (1896)
* ''Die Synagoge des Satan'' (1897); ''Synagoga szatana'' (1899 Polish edition); ''[[The Synagogue of Satan]]'' (English edition)
* ''Satans Kinder'' (1897); ''[[Children of Satan]]'' (2023 English edition)
* ''Das große Glück'' (1897)
* ''Epipsychidion'' (1900)
* ''Androgyne'' (1900)
* ''Totentanz der Liebe'' (1902)
* ''Synowie ziemi'' (1905)
* ''Gelübde'' (1906)
* ''Polen und der heilige Krieg'' (1915)
* ''Z polskiej duszy. Próba (pisma o zrozumieniu narodu)'' (1917)
* ''Krzyk'' (1918)
* ''Moi współcześni'' (1928)

===Drama===
* ''[[The Eternal Fairy-Tale]]''
* ''[[The Golden Fleece (play)|The Golden Fleece]]''
* ''[[The Snow (play)|The Snow]]'' (''Śnieg'', 1903)
* ''[[For Happiness]]'' (''Dla szczęścia'')
{{div col end}}

==See also==
* [[Culture of Kraków]]
* [[List of Polish people#Prose literature|List of Polish people]]
* [[Stanisława Przybyszewska]]
* "Trajectory of a Comet: Poland's Arch-Decadent", by [[Brian R. Banks]], in ''[[Wormwood (magazine)|Wormwood]]'', no.6 ([[Tartarus Press]], United Kingdom)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Stanisław Przybyszewski}}
* [http://culture.pl/en/artist/stanislaw-przybyszewski Stanisław Przybyszewski] at Culture.pl
* {{Librivox author |id=11264}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Przybyszewski, Stanislaw}}
[[Category:1868 births]]
[[Category:1927 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Inowrocław County]]
[[Category:Writers from the Province of Posen]]
[[Category:19th-century Polish dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:19th-century Polish novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish novelists]]
[[Category:Polish male novelists]]
[[Category:Symbolist dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of Polonia Restituta]]
[[Category:19th-century Polish male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Polish male writers]]
[[Category:Polish male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Writers from Bydgoszcz]]
[[Category:German-language Polish writers]]
[[Category:Writers from the German Empire]]
[[Category:Polish Satanists]]