At Work and Play

Referring to the work of the Polish novelist Witold Gombrowicz, the French critic Michel Mohrt, a member of the panel of judges the year Gombrowicz''s novel Cosmos was nominated for the prestigious International Prize, states: "I would like to get to know him . . . There is some sort of secret in the work of this writer." Wilkinson''s study examines the function of philosophy and parody in the novels and pseudo-autobiographical writings, in translation, of Gombrowicz, and also attempts to "situate" the author within the paradigm of the 20th-century novel. It is intended not as an introduction, but as an analysis and explication to readers already familiar with Gombrowicz''s work.