A Polish Short Story of a Pastor’s Mission to a Factory Owner
A Short Story by Bolesław Prus
The Returning Wave (Polish: Powracająca fala) is a short story by the Polish writer Bolesław Prus, the pen name of Aleksander Głowacki. It is written in Polish and belongs to the genre of short fiction.
The Pastor’s Errand
The story opens on a July afternoon with Pastor Boehme, a benevolent German clergyman, traveling by pony cart to visit Gottlieb Adler, the owner of a cotton mill. The pastor’s purpose is twofold: to inform Adler that his son Ferdinand has run into debt abroad, and then to encourage the father to forgive his prodigal son. The narrative frames this as one of the pastor’s minor spiritual duties—an errand that involves first causing distress and then offering consolation.
The Industrial Landscape
As the pastor makes his way along the road connecting the mill with the railway station, the story describes the surrounding environment: a small country town on one side and the factory on the other, with workmen’s cottages nestled among plane trees, limes, and poplars. The factory itself is a large four-story building shaped like a horseshoe, and nearby stands Adler’s elegant villa, surrounded by a garden and farm buildings. The red-brick chimney sends up smoke, and the scene is bathed in golden sunlight. The pastor is portrayed as a well-liked figure, a “worthy German” whom people greet respectfully regardless of religious differences.
A Tone of Gentle Irony
The opening pages are marked by a light, humorous touch. The narrator remarks that if the pastor’s worthiness could be weighed, he would have to travel on a goods truck rather than his small britzka. His fat pony is more interested in flies and the dusty road than in his master’s virtues, and the pastor carries a whip only to avoid ridicule, never using it. These details establish a tone of affectionate irony and close observation, built on everyday particulars rather than grand events.
The Returning Wave was first published in 1880. In 1916 it appeared in English in More Tales by Polish Authors, translated by Else C. M. Benecke and Marie Busch and published at Oxford by B. H. Blackwell. The volume’s contents list “The returning wave. By Boleslaw Prus [pseud.]” together with “Maciej the Mazur” and “Two Prayers” by Adam Szymański, “The Trial” by W. St. Reymont, “The Stronger Sex” by Stefan Żeromski, and “The Chukchee” by W. Sieroszewski. A 2022 book edition, Powracająca fala =: The returning wave, names Prus as main author, gives Las Vegas, NV, as the place of publication, records the publisher as “[wydawca nieznany],” and dates the edition 19 April 2022; the record identifies the original language as Polish and the form/genre as “Opowiadania i nowele.”
The Pastor’s Doze
The opening text explains that the constant attention needed to prevent the pony from stumbling at last wore out the pastor. Trusting to the mercy of Him who delivered Daniel from the lions’ den and Jonah from the whale’s belly, he tied the reins to the back of the seat and folded his hands as in prayer. The text adds that Boehme loved to dream, and that a gentle doze helped.
The Author’s Early Life and Career
Aleksander Głowacki was born on 20 August 1847 in Hrubieszów, then in the Russian-controlled sector of partitioned Poland known as the “Congress Kingdom,” near the present-day border with Ukraine. He was the younger son of Antoni Głowacki, an estate steward at the village of Żabcze in Hrubieszów County, and Apolonia Głowacka (née Trembińska). His mother died in 1850, when he was three; he was placed in the care of his maternal grandmother, Marcjanna Trembińska of Puławy, and four years later in the care of his aunt, Domicela Olszewska of Lublin. His father died in 1856, and at age nine he began attending a Lublin primary school. At fifteen he joined the Polish 1863 Uprising against Imperial Russia. On 1 September 1863, twelve days after his sixteenth birthday, he took part in a battle at Białka, four kilometers south of Siedlce; he suffered contusions to the neck and gunpowder injuries to his eyes, and was captured unconscious on the battlefield. In early February 1864 he was arrested and imprisoned at Lublin Castle; in April a military court sentenced him to forfeiture of his nobleman’s status and resettlement on imperial lands, but on 30 April the Lublin District military head credited his time under arrest and placed him in the custody of his uncle Klemens Olszewski; he was released on 7 May. In 1872, aged 25, he settled in Warsaw into a forty-year journalistic career focused on science, technology, education, and economic and cultural development. He took the pen name “Prus” from the appellation of his family’s coat-of-arms. Between 1884 and 1895 he completed four major novels: The Outpost, The Doll, The New Woman, and Pharaoh. Pharaoh, his only historical novel, is a study of politics set in ancient Egypt at the fall of its 20th Dynasty and New Kingdom.
