Summary: Forefathers' Eve [Dziady] is a four-part dramatic work begun circa 1820 and completed in 1832 - with Part I published only after the poet's death, in 1860. The drama's title refers to Dziady, an ancient Slavic and Lithuanian feast commemorating the dead. This is the grand work of Polish literature, and it is one that elevates Mickiewicz to a position among the "great Europeans" such as Dante and Goethe.
With its Christian background of the Communion of the Saints, revenant spirits, and the interpenetration of the worlds of time and eternity, Forefathers' Eve speaks to men and women of all times and places. While it is a truly Polish work - Polish actors covet the role of Gustaw/Konrad in the same way that Anglophone actors covet that of Hamlet - it is one of the most universal works of literature written during the nineteenth century. It has been compared to Goethe's Faust - and rightfully so. Forefathers' Eve initiated the great contribution of Poland to world theatre: Monumental Drama, which stretches from him through Stanis?aw Wyspia?ski to Tadeusz Kantor in our own day and age. About the Author: Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855) is the national poet of Poland. He was successful in every genre at which he tried his hand, setting the benchmark for excellence in poetry, prose and drama for all the writers that came after him. His lyric poems, collected in Ballads and Romances [Ballady i romanse, 1822], ushered in the Romantic Movement in Polish literature. His Erotic and Crimean Sonnets [Sonety mi?osne and Sonety krymskie, 1826] form one of the most accomplished cycles in that demanding form since Petrarch. His narrative poems, Konrad Wallenrod (1828) and Gra?yna (1823), reveal his sustained mastery with longer poetic genres. Mickiewicz's epic in twelve cantos, Pan Tadeusz (1834), is universally recognized as Poland's national epic, as well as the last Vergilian epic written in Europe.Videos