The stories were originally published in 1933, in an edition called Pamiętnik z okresu dojrzewania ("Memoirs from puberty" or lit.

"Lawyer Kraykowski's Dancer" (1926, "Tancerz mecenasa Kraykowskiego") "The Memoirs of Stefan Czarniecki" (1926, "Pamiętnik Stefana Czarnieckiego") "A Premeditated Crime" (1928, "Zbrodnia z premedytacją") "Dinner at Countess Pavahoke's" (1928, "Biesiada u hrabiny Kotłubaj") "Virginity" (1928, "Dziewictwo") "Adventures" (1930, "Przygody") "The Events on the Banbury" (1932, "Zdarzenia na brygu Banbury") Bakakaj edition only: "Philidor's Child Within" (1935, "Filidor podszyty dzieckiem") "Philibert's Child Within" (1935, "Filibert podszyty dzieckiem") "On the Kitchen Steps" (1929, "Na kuchennych schodach") "The Rat" (1937, "Szczur") "The Banquet" (1946, "Bankiet") The stories in the first edition were written from 1926 to 1932, and the second from 1935 to 1946.

He chose Bakakaj as the new title because it was the name of the street (Bacacay) where he lived during his stay in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

[2] Louis Begley reviewed the book in The Washington Post upon the American release in 2004, and called the stories "all highly accomplished".

Begley described Gombrowicz as an aesthete with an element of moralism, comparing "Dinner at Countess Pavahoke's" to Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, but wrote that "the effervescent and amusing stories in Bacacay should be read in the spirit of fun and not in search for an aesthetic system or clues to his psyche".