Janko Muzykant

[2] The story is representative of the positivism in Poland period in Polish literature, focusing on social injustice and the wasted life chances for peasant children.

[2][3][4][5][6] Other themes include the folk beliefs and superstitions of uneducated peasantry.

Janko is a peasant child with a talent for music who becomes fascinated by the fiddle he hears from a nearby noble manor.

He sneaks to the manor to touch them, is captured, sentenced to flagellation, and dies from injuries suffered.

[6] The story was well received in Poland, and was translated into a number of other languages, including English, Spanish and Russian.