Eliza Orzeszkowa, a Polish novelist of the 19th and 20th centuries, created a grim portrayal of civil offcers as men who were deprived of personal development opportu-nities, a sense of purpose or hope. The author introduces readers to small attic rooms, daunting legal offces and people who lived in perpetual anxiety and abject poverty, and whose only reason for living was the illusory hope that their toil would contribute to the prosperity of the future generations. Their dreams were delusive because their educational status, which had been attained at considerable self-sacrifce, did not gu-arantee employment. In her work, Orzeszkowa made attempts to turn Polish readers’ attention to the tragic circumstances of the intelligentsia living in north-western go-vernorates of the Russian Empire.
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