Tadeusz Breza (1905–1970), once one of the most popular Polish writers of the twentieth century, is today one of the authors less and less read. On the other hand, his debut and arguably most outstanding novel, Adam Grywałd, has not lost its value. It has been treated as an achievement of psychologism, a testimony to his fascination with Proust,s work and a manifestation of homosexual themes. However, these are unsatisfactory interpretations and lead to the discovery of false mysteries. They obscure the psychological profiles of the individual characters. The real mystery perhaps concerns a frightening encounter with nothingness, death, destruction. Read in this way, the novel becomes a truly intriguing work.

From its beginnings – in Poland it was the second half of the 18th century – the novel, a genre that eluded the distinctions of traditional normative poetics, had to face all kinds of strictures, not only in the sphere of aesthetics. At the same time, due to its innovatory representation of reality and its effectiveness as a tool of persuasion, it aroused a genuine interest among the enlightened elites. This positive attitude appears to have been shared by Ignacy Krasicki, whose work (not excepting novels) was generally regarded as a model of unparalleled literary excellence. This article re-examines his achievement as a novelist and discusses at greater length his first novel Mikołaja Doświadczyńskiego przypadki. Published in 1776, it was the first Polish novel and the most interesting example of early realistic fiction until the appearance in 1815 of Dwaj panowie Sieciechowie by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz.