Francesca Peacock

Satirical pulp: The Possessed, by Witold Gombrowicz, reviewed

The 1939 Gothic pastiche which the author was at pains to distance himself from is now considered a delightfully devious work of Polish modernism

Witold Gombrowicz finally admitted on his deathbed to writing The Possessed – but the ‘potboiler’ turns out to be a delightfully devious work of Polish modernism. [Getty Images]

On 1 September 1939 Germany invaded Poland. It’s hardly an event which needs its significance re-stating, but there was one outcome which has received rather less attention than the impending crisis in Europe. After the first instalments – serialised in newspapers in the summer of that year – a bizarre, flamboyant, mock-gothic novel by an unknown writer, ‘Z.

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