Diary (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

This has become my bedside book, it's brilliant: Gombrowicz is quick-witted, profound, hilarious, merciless when it comes to mediocrity. His meditations and quick remarks are genius.When it comes to the edition, it's obviously not the anniversary pop-up Little Prince edition. I won't call it toilet paper though, as somebody else did. In fact, for a book of this size, the paper is exactly what was called for. The book is very thick but still compact. The print is clear, the pages don't fall apart.

Pithy and bitchy, and does not bite his tongue in his observations on Polish culture, or Argentina, or anything else.

i found this book at the bookstore and figured i would see if i get could it online for less.very glad i waited !

Best book ever!!!

The retired literature professor who recommended the Diaries to me commented that they may be superior to any of Gombrowicz' fictional accomplishments. Certainly it's hard to imagine a novel or play of equal scope, or more provocative than these ruminations on culture, society, art, existence, and history, to name some principal themes. I confess I'm only halfway through Volume I and have found it so dense, provocative and wise that if the rest were total bilge I would consider it a wonderful find.To call Gombrowicz' observations and reflections "ruminations" is to reflect their seeming off-handedness but not their cogency or profundity. I have encountered no other writer of equal penetration, eloquence or insight on these subjects; in fact, in my experience, no one writer has Gombrowicz' compass. One would have to tether together Santayana, George Steiner, William Irwin Thompson, Aldous Huxley, Ad Reinhardt, Wallace Stevens, Agnes Martin and any number of other diarists and intellectuals to create even a straw man for comparison. This is dense thought, beautifully expressed (even in what is supposedly a bad translation!), but never so abstract as to lose the personality of the author. I confess I've underlined or flagged three or four passages on practically every page, remarkable enthusiasm in a student but even moreso in a sixty-something artist like myself.Gombrowicz is equally effective describing his life in exile in Argentina, the Argentines, the cities and countryside, and sprinkles observations on the minutæ of his everyday life that are equally winning. When he reviews the work of a fellow Pole or discusses the literary politics of Polish exiles, his insights are accessible and worthwhile even to those of us a hemisphere and half-century away. It seems criminal that this singular work was out of print so long, when Volumes II and III of the Diary were all but unobtainable, but Gombrowicz himself foresaw this when he noted the publishers who view books as "product" that need "promotion" to affect the "bottom line." Our current, benighted scene would sadden but not surprise him.While most of the above notes were written when I was reading Volume 1, the encomiums also apply to Volumes 2 and 3. Volume 3 is perhaps even better for its stylistic flights of fancy. A fascinating visit inside the head of a major 20th century modernist and intellectual and one of the most remarkable of its kind I've ever read.Ruth Franklin of the July 30, 2012 New Yorker features a long introduction to Gombricz for those unfamiliar with him, on the occasion of the publication of the complete Diaries by Yale University Press (same Vallee translation). At last he shall have the larger Western readership he so richly deserves.

The diary is a matchless work. Absolutely classic! Not to be missed.

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