Lalka with delivery to Ireland

“Lalka” by Bolesław Prus is one of the most important Polish novels about love, ambition and a society standing on the threshold of modernity. Wokulski, both a positivist and a romantic, tries to break down class barriers and win the heart of the aristocrat Izabela Łęcka, coming up against the hypocrisy of the salons, the poverty of the streets and his own illusions. Izabela herself, entangled in convention and raised in a world of appearances and social expectations, becomes both the object of his dreams and a symbol of a world that denies her true freedom of choice. It is an outstanding panorama of 19th-century Warsaw that unfolds as a story about the price of social advancement, unfulfilled desires and human longings. “Lalka" shows nineteenth-century realism at its finest.” — Czesław Miłosz Prus’s novel can be read throughout one’s whole life, and each time you can discover a different “Lalka” between its covers. — Olga Wróbel