[When Noce i dnie (Nights and Days) first appeared, the] public (and probably some critics as well) already were a little weary of [recent] experiments in novelistic structure. Accordingly it was with relief and joy that they greeted a book the essential trait of which was simplicity—simplicity in all its component elements: structure, language, characters and the type of life portrayed. With regard to the structure Dąbrowska reverted to an old novel form, which might be called that of a chronicle. Like a chronicle, such a novel 'begins at the beginning' with the genealogy of the characters; the narration of events then follows in chronological order and continues for a longer or shorter period of time; it could, for that matter, continue indefinitely, presenting the history of one, two, three or more generations. Such method brings the structure of the novel closer to the normal course...