Józef Ignacy Kraszewski[a] (28 July 1812 – 19 March 1887) was a Polish novelist, journalist, historian, publisher, painter, and musician.

Born in Warsaw into a noble family, he spent much of his youth with his maternal grandparents in Romanów and completed his education in various cities, including Vilna.

Józef Ignacy Kraszewski was born in Warsaw on 28 July 1812 to a family of Polish nobility (szlachta[b]) bearing the Jastrzębiec coat of arms.

[7] His most significant trip occurred in 1858, when he travelled to Western Europe, visiting Austria, Belgium, Italy, Germany, and France.

[3]: 222 [5]: 259 As a result, in February 1860 he moved to Warsaw to take up the editorship of Gazeta Polska [pl], a position he had accepted the previous year,[1][3]: 223  leaving his family in Zhytomyr.

For his criticism of censorship in December 1862, the Russian authorities forced him to resign his editorship of Gazeta Polska [pl] and ordered him to leave Congress Poland.

[11][5]: 260  From 1870 to mid-1871, with his own funds, he published a weekly, Tydzień Polityczny, Naukowy, Literacki i Artystyczny, but eventually gave up on the endeavour due to financial difficulties.

[3]: 225  He was again considered but rejected for professorships of Polish literature, at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics in 1865 and the Jagiellonian University in 1867.

[3]: 225  In 1871 he briefly campaigned to be elected a deputy from the Poznań region, but withdrew facing a strong opposition from the Polish conservative-clergy circles that he opposed in his newspaper polemics.

Due to poor health, high profile of the case covered in European press, and requests from clemency from Kraszewski's influential friends (such as prince Antoni Wilhelm Radziwiłł and king of Italy, Umberto I), he was released on bail after a year and a half in 1885.

[5]: 260  His remains were transferred to Kraków, and after a large funeral on 18 April 1887 he was interred at "Skałka" Basilica, in the Crypt of Merit [pl].

[8]: 256  Miłosz further wrote that in Polish literature, Kraszewski founded the "new genre of fiction based upon documents and other sources where the faithful presentation of a given epoch is the main goal, and plot and characters are used simply as a bait for the readers".

[3]: 223 [8]: 256–257 [12]: 17 [11] His historical novels (94 total[3]: 227 ) include the epic series on the history of Poland, comprising twenty-nine historical novels in seventy-nine parts, covering the period of Polish prehistory (chronologically beginning with Stara Baśń, An Ancient Tale, 1876) to Kraszewski's era of partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (Saskie ostatki [pl] - Saxon Remnants, 1890).

[3]: 223  That series includes nine novels, out of which the most important are Historia Sawki (The Story of Sawka, 1842), Ulana [pl] (1843), Ostap Bondarczuk (1847), Chata za Wsią (The Cottage Beyond the Village, 1854), Jermoła: obrazki wiejskie (Jermoła: Pictures from a Village, 1857) and Historja kołka w płocie (The Story of a Peg in a Fence, 1860).

[3]: 224  Ulana in turn has been praised for its "bold and innovative analysis of the experiences of a peasant woman wronged by her lord".

He cited Latarnia czarnoksięska [pl] (Magical Lighthouse, 1843–1844), Interesa familijne (Family Business, 1853), Złote Jabłko (Golden Apple, 1853), and Dwa światy (Two Worlds, 1855) as the most important novels with that theme.

[3]: 224 Examples of his works about the life of artists and the place of art in the wider society include Poeta i świat [pl] (The Poet and the World, 1839),[14][15] Sfinks (Sphinx, 1842), Pamiętniki nieznajomego (Diaries of the Unknown, 1846), and Powieść bez tytułu (Novel without a Title, 1855).

[3]: 227–228 From the technical perspective, Danek noted that Kraszewski novels introduced elements of common speech to Polish literary language.

[3]: 228 Alongside novels, Kraszewski also wrote poetry, collected in Poezje (Poems, two volumes in 1838 and 1843), and Hymny boleści (Hymns of sorrow, 1857), as well as the lengthy poem-trilogy Anafielas [pl] (1843–1846).

He also penned dramas, most notably the comedies Miód kasztelański [pl] (The Castellan's Honey, 1853) and Panie Kochanku (Mr.

[3]: 227 [5]: 260 While his works of fiction are the most enduring, his scholarly endeavours, primarily in the fields of history (particularly the history of Lithuania, and art history) and literary criticism, produced not only journal articles but a number of monogaphs (Wilno od początków jego do roku 1750, 1840–42; Litwa, starożytne dzieje, ustway, język, wiara, obyczaje, pieśni, 1848; Litwa starożytna, 1850; Dante, 1869; Polska w czasie trzech rozbiorów, 1873–1875; Krasicki, 1879); collected volumes of his articles (Studia literackie, 1842; Nowe studia literackie, 1843; Gawędy o literaturze i sztuce, 1857); and collections of primary materials (Pamiętniki Stanisława Augusta Poniatowskiego, 1870; Listy Jana Śniadeckiego, 1878; Listy Zygmunta Krasickiego, 1882–83).

He was also an editor, supervising publication of works by Kazimierz Brodziński (Pisma, 1872–1874) and translations of Shakespeare (Dzieła dramatyczne, 1875–1877).

[3]: 228 He was also a collector, amassing a substantial collection of Polish drawings and etchings, which he sold in 1869 due to financial difficulties.

[3]: 227–228 Kraszewski's early works describe the lives of ordinary people, and are thus a proto-Positivist critique of romantic traditions that focused on heroic individuals.

[6][3]: 222  : 226 [11] Danek attributes his focus on reality to inspirations with classic novelists such as Charles Dickens, Honoré de Balzac and Nikolai Gogol.

[3]: 223, 228 A significant theme in his works was the criticism of feudal relationships, and a number of his novels featured peasant and female heroes.

[3]: 223, 225–226, 228 [5]: 259 In the realm of politics, he supported the cause of Polish independence, but opposed armed struggle, which in his literary works he depicted as unlikely to succeed.

[5]: 260 [19] He also criticized Russian ideology of panslavism, aiming at unifying all Slavic lands, and supported self-determination for Belorussians and Ukrainians.

[20][3]: 228  Twenty years later, in East Germany, the DEFA presented a six-part television series, the Saxon Trilogy [de], including a new version of Gräfin Cosel, directed by Hans-Joachim Kasprzik.