Richard Garnett

“ His copious invention is nevertheless combined with real truth to nature, especially evinced in the beautiful little story of Jermola the Potter (1857) , from which George Eliot appears to have derived the idea of Silas Marner, though she can only have known it at second hand. Compared with the exquisite art of Silas Marner, Jermola appears rude and unskilful, but it is not on this account the less touching in its fidelity to the tenderest elements of human nature. ”

“ To this period belong several political novels published under the pseudonym of Boleslawita, historical fictions such as Countess Cosel, and the “culture” romances Morituri (1874–1875) and Resurrecturi (1876) , by which he is perhaps best known out of his own country. In 1884 he was accused of plotting against the German government and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment in a fortress, but was released in 1886, and withdrew to Geneva, where he died on the 19th of March 1887. His remains were brought to Poland and interred at Cracow. Kraszewski was also a poet and dramatist ”