Zusammenfassung: | Father Jędrzej Kitowicz (1728–1804) bequeathed to posterity two major works, Opis obyczajów za panowania Augusta III (Description of Customs During the Reign of August III) and Pamiętniki czyli historia polska (Memoirs, or a History of Poland), the first being a colorful depiction of customs during the middle of the eighteenth century under the reign of the last elected Saxon king, August III (reigned 1734–1763). Despite his Description's indubitable literary merits, not to mention its sheer entertainment value, Kitowicz is barely known today except among Polish eighteenth-century historians and specialists in earlier Polish writing, and is rarely given more than a short paragraph or footnote in surveys of the country's literature and culture. After a brief recounting of Father Kitowicz's life, and a similarly brief literary appreciation of his work, three translated excerpts from the Description are appended, aimed at bringing this keen-eyed observer of his times, without a doubt one of eighteenth-century Poland's greatest humorists, to the notice of an English-speaking readership.
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