This was such a fun, well-constructed and well-paced tale that subverts the Gothic novel by using all the tropes but then laughing at them. A young aspiring tennis coach travels to the Polish countryside to train the beautiful Maja Ocholowska. Inevitably more than a purely professional relationship develops between them and that leads to all sorts of adventures and misadventures, including a ruined castle with a haunted room, a mad prince, a conniving steward, and a very nasty dishcloth. Lots happens, there are various twists and turns and it all comes together very satisfactorily.

I will add an extract from this novel to my scheme of work when teaching gothic writing. This will give my pupils an excellent introduction to gothic motifs.

The Possessed – Witold Gombrowicz (translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones)

What, meanwhile, had been happening at the castle- that age-old giant of brick and stone whose swamp-skirted tower loomed formidably in the gathering dusk, and within whose proud and massive walls, guardians of bygone pomps and the traces of a vanished splendour, passion, fear, and madness held sway?

Thanks to @netgalley and @fitzcarraldoeditions for my ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Marian is an impoverished tennis coach who takes up a post at an isolated manor house that’s seen better days. He’s charged with working with Maja Ocholowska, a promising young player who soon forms a romantic attachment to her new coach. Problem is, Maja is already engaged to Henryk, secretary to an ailing Prince in a decrepit castle, and Henryk seems much more focused on securing his master’s estate than keeping up with Maja.

The plot that follows is weird to say the least – there’s a bizarre resemblance between Marian and Maja, a haunted towel, murder and intrigue, with several tropes of the Gothic novel subverted and played with. Unfortunately, none of these things particularly appealed to me. Maybe this was a case of “wrong book, wrong time”, but I just couldn’t connect with the style, the plot, or anything.

I think there’s probably a good book here, but it wasn’t for me. If you’ve read this, should I give it a second go?

I really enjoyed this! Written decades ago but retaining a freshness still relevant to today, and with much humour to boot. Summoning the melodrama of old school gothic fiction, it goes beyond this to cross borders in genre and within the plot itself, Appreciated the fun, compelling storytelling even as it brings the reader back to long-standing truths, that human miseries are oft of our own making,

The Possessed is an extremely intelligent and hilarious parody of the classic gothic novel, featuring a decrepit old castle inhabited by a mad prince and terrorised by a haunted towel. An obsessive and irregular romance blossoms between our main protagonist, a tennis coach, and his student, a young lady of high class despite her family's seeming fall from wealth. Factor in a jealous ex-fiance who happens to work as secretary at the castle and some witty and amusing side characters whose unusual behaviours keep the reader entertained as the major plot develops gradually and beautifully. The exploration of class is harshly derisive in its portrayal of the upper class and the lower, exposing all the flaws of the many characters of the story, so many of them hard to like for various subtle reasons. The tension builds throughout the book and at times this is truly chilling, and I love the element of the supernatural and how it so seamlessly ties in with realty. An incredibly clever novel i will be highly recommending this to my audience, thank you to Netgalley and Fitzcarraldo Editions for the ARC!

In a tale set against the backdrop of an isolated countryside, a young man named Walchak embarks on an intriguing journey working with Maya, a budding tennis player. The narrative unfolds in the shadow of a nearby 170-room castle, haunted by an insane prince, a devoted servant, and a diabolical secretary. As social classes clash, Maya and Walchak find themselves drawn to each other, discovering both their similarities and mutual dislikes.

The plot thickens with the revelation that the prince's insanity holds a clue hidden in the castle's haunted room. A shivering, moving towel discovered by Walchak becomes the key to unravelling the secretary's diabolical plot to seize control of the castle. The story takes unexpected turns, including trials, separations, a brief sojourn in Warsaw, and the assistance of a helpful clairvoyant who aids in solving the mystery.

The narrative builds towards a resolution, but not without encountering a murder along the way. This tale weaves elements of romance, mystery, and intrigue, creating a captivating story filled with twists and turns in the unique setting of an eerie countryside and a haunted castle.

The E-Book could be improved and more user-friendly, such as links to the chapters, no significant gaps between words and a cover for the book would be better. It is very document-like instead of a book. A star has been deducted because of this.

This is a first for me by the author and one I enjoyed and I would read more of their work. The book cover is eye-catching and appealing and would spark my interest if in a bookshop. Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this ARC.

3.5/5.

This was hugely enjoyable and a really playful use of the Gothic genre. At points it felt like a lost Agatha Christie spliced with Antal Szerb- the setting of the 1920s, the class consciousness and the manners of the characters as well as the irresistible attraction between the protagonists. The whole time though there is this grotesque sense of menace, like a morbid stench that haunts the characters, and just when you think you have got to grips with the type of novel that it is the genre changes again, becoming something arch and postmodern.
It was thoroughly gripping and seemed to be trying to make the reader aware of their own snobbish preconceptions about what is literary and 'worthy' fiction.

Thanks to Netgalley and Fitzcarraldo Editions for the ARC!

*3.5 stars

A castle being haunted by a dish cloth (really), a murder behind locked doors, a tennis coach with a strange likeness (despite looking nothing alike at the same time) to his trainee, an evil secretary, a terrified butler, a mad prince: it's all there in witold gombrowicz's the possessed. This is a twisty, slightly insane story of poland in the 1930s, a parody of the classic gothic novel. Funny, mysterious and insightful all at once. It did take me a while to get into it, and i think the ending would have been better if one of the characters playing a big part in the unveiling of the mystery had been introduced a bit earlier in the story.

This was an interesting read. The story set up was intriguing and mysterious, the characters were superbly written and the weird phenomena were described elegantly and were thus easy to imagine. Where the book stumbles is the ending, I found it to be a little unsatisfactory but other readers may not. A fun book, worth the read!

I'm always on the lookout for new books from Fitzcarraldo Editions as I have yet to read one that I have not enjoyed, and 'The Possessed' definitely lived up to my high expectations. Nestled in the Polish countryside and centered around an old castle, this book has all the elements for a perfectly offbeat Gothic novel. There's a mad prince, séances and mediums, and a surprisingly large part of the plot revolves around the mystery of a haunted towel. It's the ideal read to get into the spooky spirit.

The characters are wonderfully bizarre and incredibly deceitful. Everyone is hiding something from someone!

This marks my first time reading any of Witold Gombrowicz's works, and it's safe to say it won't be the last. His skill in crafting an eerie atmosphere is amazing. There's a scene in the first half of the book that I was reading before bedtime, and I had to set it aside because I knew it would give me nightmares.

Overall, I gave this 4/5! Perfect for Halloween! 🎃

The Possessed
by Witold Gombrowicz
Translated from the French translation of the Polish original by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
🇵🇱 🇵🇱 🇵🇱 🇵🇱 🇵🇱 🇵🇱 🇵🇱 🇵🇱 🇵🇱 🇵🇱 🇵🇱 🇵🇱 🇵🇱 🇵🇱

This "gothic novel", which originally appeared in a Polish newspaper in serialised form in 1939, opens promisingly with some interesting characters, on a train, heading towards a region with a creepy crumbling castle, inhabited by a mad hermetic prince who is apparently sitting on a fortune's with of art and antiquities.

Cue the Checovian carriage ride through atmospheric twilit forests and lake, wolves howling, bats flapping, secret passageways, a haunted towel...yes, a towel, that's haunted.

I thought I was in for a fabulous horror story just in time for Halloween, but sadly not.

It quickly becomes apparent that the episodic nature of this book's original form doesn't translate into a cohesive piece of storytelling. The gothic element is soon replaced by some slapstick comedy, some overwrought romance and a lot of gnashing of teeth. It is genuinely funny in parts, but I was unsure whether humour was intended, and the mystery elements, of which there are many, are all solved by a type of "by the way, have you heard that..." conversation in the epilogue.

Perhaps there is a deeply meaningful theme that completely went over my head, but, whilst I quite enjoyed the reading experience, I'm baffled about the meaning of it all.

Might make a good pantomime storyboard.

Publication date: 18th October 2023

Thanks to #NetGalley and #fitzcarraldoeditions for the ARC

#bookreview #irishbookstagram #thepossessed #witoldgombrowicz #polishliterature #intranslation #translatedliterature

A Gothic novel that will keep you on your toes. It has all the tropes, but it makes fun of all of them too.
An enjoyable read.

A glorious mishmash of genres and styles, Witold Gombrowicz wrote this in the late 1930s, it appeared in serial form in a Polish newspaper credited to a pseudonym, Zdzislaw Niewieski. Gombrowicz was fascinated by the notion of producing a deliberately “trashy novel,” that crisscrossed the boundaries between serious, highbrow fiction and the popular and commercial. He borrowed extensively from conventions of more melodramatic, nineteenth-century gothic novels like The Castle of Otranto but spliced in elements taken from Polish romance novels, served up with a generous topping of absurdist comedy.
Marian Walczak (later Leszczuk) an impoverished tennis coach takes up a post at Polyka, an isolated, rural manor house that’s seen better times. He’s engaged to work with Maja Ocholowska a promising player. Maja finds herself curiously attracted to Marian but she’s formally engaged to Henryk Cholawicki who works nearby. Cholawicki is secretary to an aging Prince, the last of his line, he resides in a dilapidated castle, and has a chequered family history. Cholawicki’s hopes are fixed on inheriting the Prince’s estate.

Gombrowicz’s bizarre plot features murder, mayhem, howling wolves, uncanny bats, rat-infested dungeons, and nefarious moonlight dealings raising question after question. Why are Marian and Maja so oddly similar? What is the significance of the quivering towel that hangs on the wall of the castle’s diabolically haunted room? A place that’s sent many to their doom. What is the Prince’s sinister secret? Why is his former housekeeper spotted gyrating and squirming?

Gombrowicz’s story’s weird and weirdly compelling but it also masks a more serious commentary on the Poland of his time, a place riddled with corruption and marred by excessive ambition. A fragmented country where classes continually clash. He contrasts the evils of the countryside with Warsaw where Maja travels in search of Marian, the city is filled with light and lavish sights but it too is a menacing place, a site of decadence and lurking depravity. It’s a very odd book but it's also impressively constructed, and often a lot of fun, once I’d adjusted to its rhythms I was completely caught up in it.

The Possessed | Witold Gombrowicz
translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Release date: 18 October 2023

Oh what a great feeling it is when you find a book that becomes one of your all-time favourite.

Leszczuk is a tennis coach who dreams of escaping his small town and travels to across the country to train Maja - a great tennis player from a middle class family. But very quickly people start to notice the unbelievable similarity between these two with a love-hate relationship developing between them. At the same time, unexplainable and spooky events start to happen, people seem to go mad and a crime takes place.

In this 400-pages long novel, Gombrowicz has created something that I could only describe as a masterpiece. A gothic novel, set in Poland, with some comic relief, a love-hate relationship and haunted dish rags.

I remember reading Ferdydurke by the same author when I was college, but this one was so much better! If I had to, I would compare this novel to Wuthering Heights (because of the hate-love theme and ridiculous comments), Dracula (extremely gothic setting with unsettling possessed characters) and Anna Karenina (ah the ball dance scene was everything), I can even throw in some Carrie Soto for the tennis aspect.

I couldn’t put it down, I was losing sleep over it, I was reading on my way home from the train station, at the ball dance scene?!?! OH MY!!

Honestly, it was a pleasure to read this book! It’s very much a classic but it’s so worth it! I cannot wait to get myself a copy in the original language, later this year.

I was anticipating this book ever since I first saw it being announced at some point in March, and I’d like to thank @fitzcarraldoeditions for sending me a proof of this book.

A very strange tale from Witold Gombrowicz. I, like many others, have a penchant for Fitzcarraldo publications because they are rarely boring. In Possessed we have another odd tale from Eastern Europe.

Walczak/Lesczuk (he changes his name few chapters in) has been employed as a tennis coach for rising young star, Maja Ocholowska. Unfortunately the two seem to have a very strange effect on each other from the first time they meet, much to the disgust of Maja's fiance, Cholawicki (secretary to the Prince of Myslocz Castle). The strange relationship continues as both Maja and Lesczuk are drawn to the strange happenings at the castle where the Prince is going mad and Cholawicki is making it worse.

As the story continues we discover that the prince's insanity began when his son, Franio, died in the old kitchen. This old kitchen is somewhere all fear to go because of the effects of the haunted dish towel. Yes, I said dish towel. I told you it was strange.

The story then follows the odd affair between Maja and Lesczuk who seem to both attract and repel each other equally. It is only on their return to the castle that the difficulties can be resolved. But are either of them brave enough to face the spooky tea towel.

Yes it is all very tongue in cheek. All the relationships are very peculiar but the book pulls you along I an almost hypnotic trance. You spend a lot of time wondering what it all means and who Franio really is and why the Prince is so crazy.

I thoroughly enjoyed the craziness and the writing is wonderful. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who is a Fitzcarraldo devotee or if you simply would like to read something that is way off the beaten track of normal literature.

Thanks to Netgalley and Fitzcarraldo for the advance copy.

This is the first time Witold's serialised story has been translated directly from Polish into English, and it had everything:

🖤 A mad prince

🖤 A Haunted dish rag

🖤 Secret tunnels

🖤 Lovers and lunacy

🖤 Séances

I'm not usually a classics reader and I did find the style a bit monotonous - it took me a week to read because I kept falling asleep, although I've also been ill to be fair! But the plot was so gripping I never wanted to quit, and there's so much deception that you can't skip a single paragraph or you'll be wildly confused!

This was a comfortable read for my inner goth - very Walpole-esque and quite, quite mad.

Thanks @fitzcarraldoeditions
for the e-ARC in exchange for this review. This one publishes on 18 October 2023 (we share a birthday 🎂)

Published 18 October 2023. This is translated from the Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones who also translated Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. This is a gothic read that has its tongue firmly in its cheek. We have a haunted castle, a mad prince, a murder - every trope that you expect to find in the genre. But there are so many layers that it is serious at times. Maja is a promising tennis player whose mother has been forced to take in lodgers. She hires Leszczuk to be her coach and forms an attachment with him that is at times full of hate. Her fiancé is the secretary to the mad prince in the haunted castle who is plotting against his employer. On the prince's side is his devoted man-servant and an art professor who believes that the castle is full of priceless art. And so the plot develops. And what is the castle haunted by? A towel in the kitchen! Add into this mix a clairvoyant and you have a read full of intrigue and madcap fun that is at times quite thrilling. An enjoyable read.

I actually enjoyed the humorous and very witty tone of this novel. But 400 pages is a bit too long for a humorous take an a gothic novel. It lost its steam for me after a while.

Thank you so much for the ARC, but unfortunately I simply wasn't able to like to this enough even though I really wanted to because I've heard great things about the writer before. I only liked it enough to finish the book, but sadly it just didn't leave much of an impression on me. The writing doesn't lack elegance or substance. It was very well-written, and I think I just didn't enjoy the story itself enough. I'm sure other readers will have a better experience with it.

This is brilliant I will be posting multiple youtube videos on this book from reading vlogs to my August wrap up for my subscribers to hear about this book. What a brilliant ride of a novel, great writing, love the work of Antonia as translator. I know her from Drive Your Plow. She has such a strong, identifiable voice that comes across in the writing. You can tell without being told that she translated this.