The Countess Cosel: A Romance of History of the Times of Augustus the Strong

Kraszewski, Józef Ignacy, 1812-1887Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.7
Word count
466K words
Chapters
47

Tags

English Originals Historical FictionForeign Literature Historical ReappraisalLegendary LivesPalace IntrigueLove EntanglementsPower GameSaxon Court

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Countess Cosel: A Romance of History of the Times of Augustus the StrongAuthor: Kraszewski, Józef Ignacy, 1812-1887,Language: English, Class: PG: Language and Literatures: Slavic (including Russian), Languages and Literature, Release Date: Oct 4, 2011

Editor's review

This novel comes from the pen of Kraszewski, a major Polish writer of historical fiction, and is set in the era of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, centering on the fate of Countess Cosel. Its value lies in weaving court intrigue, emotional entanglements, and period manners into an accessible historical romance: readers can follow the characters through dramatic turns of plot and also feel the luxury and jostling of the eighteenth-century Saxon court. As a public-domain ebook from Project Gutenberg, it is easy to search, cite, and read at any time, and is especially suited to readers interested in East European historical fiction, court settings, or the historical romance genre. It may best be treated as a side door: the story itself is engaging enough, but historical details and judgments of figures are shaped by fiction and should be checked against reliable sources. Overall, this is a fairly readable public-domain work in an older translation, suitable for reading in installments on a commute or in spare moments, and also as an introductory text for getting to know Kraszewski's narrative style.

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Reading tips

  1. Read the opening character introductions first and sort out Countess Cosel's relationships with the court figures before entering the main plot.
  2. After each chapter, note in a few sentences the time, place, and characters' motives to avoid confusion over court names.
  3. Where the historical background is unfamiliar, pause to check brief materials on Augustus II and the Saxon court.
  4. If the older English translation proves difficult, read a plot summary first, then return to key dialogue and scenes.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47

FAQ

Do I need to know the history of Augustus II before reading this book? You need not be an expert beforehand, but knowing that he was Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, famed for luxury and power, makes the court background easier to understand. The novel itself provides plot clues, and readers can fill in historical knowledge as they go without getting stuck on dates and details.
Is this a work of history or a novel? It is a historical romance, narrating in literary form against a background of real times and figures; it is not a strict work of historiography. It is suited to experiencing the atmosphere of the age and the fate of characters, but specific historical facts and judgments of figures should not be cited directly as historical sources.
What should I do if the old English translation is hard to read? Read the beginning and end of each chapter first to grasp the direction of the plot, then read key scenes closely. Long sentences can be broken into shorter units for understanding; there is no need to check every word. If you only want the story, you can read alongside a reliable Chinese summary.
Is it suitable as material for translation practice? It suits learners with some English foundation who are willing to handle older syntax. The text is in the public domain and easy to obtain and cite, but the translation is from an earlier period and some expressions are distant from modern English; in practice, focus on comprehension rather than imitating contemporary spoken usage.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Kraszewski, Józef Ignacy, 1812-1887 Author

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (1812–1887) was a Polish novelist of astonishing output, whose work spans historical fiction, social novels and political writing. Public information on the details of his life is limited, but the four works held here reveal the focus of his writing: The Jew and Iermola draw on the life of Jewish communities and local society in Poland and Eastern Europe, while The Countess Cosel: A Romance of History of the Times of Augustus the Strong and Count Brühl centre on the Saxon court politics and personal fortunes of the reigns of Augustus II and Augustus III. His historical novels are distinguished by solid historical detail and complex human relationships, weaving court intrigue together with everyday town life; his social fiction observes ethnic relations and the circumstances of ordinary people with a fine, close brush. His style is realist in inclination, with a leisurely narrative pace, and he had a lasting influence on the popularisation of the nineteenth-century Polish historical novel.