Kosmos (novel)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kosmos is a 1965 novel by the Polish author Witold Gombrowicz. Gombrowicz' works are characterized by a tone that mixes comedy and the macabre. In this piece two young men seek the solitude of the country; their peace is disturbed when a set of random occurrences suggest to their susceptible minds a pattern with sinister meanings. The humor arises, as it often does in Gombrowicz' work, in the extremity of paranoia and confusion exhibited by the protagonist.

Themes appearing in this work that are also common in the author's oeuvre are the search for form and meaning in a chaotic existence, and the fragile nature of the human mind.

The novel was awarded the 1967 International Prize for Literature.

The 1967 English translation was from the French and German translations rather than the Polish original. In 2004 Danuta Borchardt received a National Endowment for the Arts grant to enable her to prepare a revised translation directly from the Polish. This has now been published.