Róża bez kolców Zofii Urbanowskiej. Dzieje wydawnicze powieści

Abstract

The greatest novel by Zofia Urbanowska, Róża bez kolców: Opowiadanie osnute na tle przyrody tatrzańskiej (Rose with no thorns: a tale based on the Tatra mountains nature) was first published in episodes in a youth weekly Wieczory Rodzinne in issues 1 to 51 in year 1900, and in issues 6 to 32 in year 1901; it received a fixed title banner and unusually rich illustrations featuring the Tatra regional ornaments and the Tatra fauna and flora. In 1903 Księgarnia K. Grendyszyńskiego (the publishing house of K. Grendyszyński) in St. Petersburg published the first edition of the novel on 458 numbered pages, in 32 richly illustrated chapters. The critics positively evaluated the aesthetic layer of the novel and the ethnographic details included in the descriptions of cultural peculiarities. They also emphasized the author’s scientific objectivism in noting the achievements of T. Chałubiński, S. Witkiewicz, W. Matlakowski and K. Dembowski in popularization of the Tatras and the highlanders’ culture. The second edition of the novel appeared from Książnica Atlas (Lwów–Warszawa) (the Atlas publishing house, based in Lviv and Warsaw), in the series ”Biblioteka Iskier”, in 1928. It was published in two volumes, with very few corrections, concerning the natural science issues, made in the text by Konstanty Stecki, obviously in cooperation with the author. In 1958, the publishing house Czytelnik re-edited the novel as a classic, with scarce illustrations by Roman Owidzki. Reviewing this edition, Krystyna Kuliczkowska voted for the illustrations from the first edition and accused the editor of lacking the scientific methodology. The fourth edition of the novel was published in the series of “Złoty Liść” by the Nasza Księgarnia publishing house in 1980. The text was based on the Czytelnik edition, but enriched with footnotes explaining dialectal expressions or exotic geographical names, and including short biographical notes of the famous figures of literature, culture and natural science, mentioned in the text.