Insatiability is one supreme novel. The time between the wars was an interesting one in Central Europe, and a great deal of truly great literature appeared or was conceived then. Broch and Musil reigned in Austria, writing their masterpieces which were virtually unknown. Celine wrote his monumental work in France. Doblin experimented in Germany and Poland had both Witkiewicz and Gombrowicz fashioning their fascinating work. Insatiability is, like Gombrowicz' 'Ferdydurke', Musil's 'The Man Without Qualities', Celine's 'Journey', Broch's towering 'The Sleepwalkers' and Mann's superior books, a philosophical novel of enormous dimensions and proportions. It is a fantastical novel, darkly utopian, in which Europe is under a fascistic regime while a Russian revolution dominates that country, and everyone is faced with a Chinese invasion. The leaders in a seemingly invincible Poland succumb to an unusual new drug religion, 'Murti Bing', and in the end surrender to the Chinese. The hero of the novel is Genezip Kapen. His adventures are in the main sexual and philosophical. Witkiewicz uses him to expound his own theories--serious and not so serious--and he goes far afield in doing so. Peopled with a vast assortment of unusual characters, the novel is always interesting, and generally engaging. Witkiewicz does not seem to take himself or his ideas all too seriously, and so in some senses this book is a tonic compared to the general 'novel of education' of the time. He paints and splatters a broad canvas in this novel that could as easily be termed 'dystopian science fiction' as well as a moral or philosophical reference. The philosophy is peculiar but certainly interesting (if only for its bizarreness). Witkiewicz, a talented artist who gave up painting, also argues about the impotence of language, the inadequacy of fiction, rejecting his undertaking while creating such a huge work. It is thoroughly entertaining, but it is an eccentric novel, from a different time and context. A true intellectual, Witkiewicz' thoughts on the many hundreds of subjects he raises are interesting and interestingly expressed. It is a bit of a grand labyrinth, and certainly will not be to everyone's taste, but I highly recommend it. It is an important novel, and an engaging one. It is worth the considerable effort required...

INSATIABILITY, a futuristic, expressionistic, demonomaniacal novel of extremes, records beneath an overwhelming avalanche of thrilling philosophical debate, the tortured comings-of-age of NOT just a young man beautifully blooming into bonafide manhood,( via initiatory sexual debauch, heady doses of ritual drug-use, and an above average nihilism )but charts in the midst of its explorations the becomings of an exemplary monstrous candidate capable of being a leader of men, yet equably capable of being an insane nobody, all the while constantly risking absurdity, and far be it from me to assault the possibilities of giving away the end of such a great work to those it will hold captive for its own. More than any novel (which its author,"WITKACY", has dubbed a "body-bag" he correspondingly fits the reader into with subtle skill) INSATIABILITY affected me to an alarming degree and, in a very definite sense has shaped the monstrous person I have become over the course of the past 10 years. Had I been granted foreknowledge the effect such a rare work of art would have had on me I cannot say with imputiny I'd have so willingly and Insatiably devoured it,(tearing myself out of the confines of the body-bag) as I have done so repeatedly since that first miraculous time I gave up my Literary virginity to its frightening wiles. And I am sure I will return to that accursed book forever with the dedication of a crushed and powerlessly fascinated lover for the rest of my life, even under the futile threat of adultery, so well has it taught me the INSATIABILITY of the human condition.

Let this confessionary review stand as a warning to young influential readers and as a testament to the undeniability of this novels strange powers which I've no doubt will work its fascinations on seekers of great and experimental literary works for centuries to come. How such an immense secret of a work as profound as Witkiewicz's INSATIABILITY has held its breath for so long can only give multiple births to conspiracy theories. When this novel breaks its silence it will be as if a ravenous serial-killer were loosed in your hometown.

I cannot recommend a greater novel in all literary history, of which I am an dedicated adventurous servitor; yet I do so warily, all too well aware of the repurcussions that may be heaped upon me for abandoning moral principles in spreading out the darkness so many have actually thought was the light.

One of the greatest exploratory novels ever written; far, far ahead of its time. Witkiewicz is one of the unknown geniuses of the modern novel and his life and work should serve as a model of inspiration and emulation by those seeking to further themselves creatively and philosphically in their own work

This is a treasure house, containing one of Witkacy's best short plays (The New Deliverance), one of his best long ones (Janulka, Daughter of Fizdejko), plus extracts from the novels, from critical and theoretical documents (notably on Pure Form, Bruno Schulz and the various drugs with which the author experimented); letters to his friend Malinowski; and the hilarious Rules of the S I Witkiewicz Portrait-Painting Firm, which constitute an object lesson for any artist wracked by the horrors of commercial compromise. The book is conveniently divided into segments according to the progress of Witkacy's career, and each segment has a good biographical chapter by the excellent Daniel Gerould, who seems to have done more to get Witkiewicz known and appreciated in the English-speaking world than most writers can manage to do for themselves. The Witkiewicz reader is both an ideal introduction and a great addition to this reviewer's still-too-small library of Witkacy-in-English. More, please...

The Witkiewicz Reader is an indispensable collection of plays, personal letters, critical writings, fragments, and biographical information from the life of Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz. It contains his darkly surreal plays; his touching letters to his friend Bronislaw Malinowski, the anthropologist; and his innovative critical writing regarding his Pure Form theory of art. This is a well-deserved tribute to a criminally under-appreciated genius whose tragic suicide as the Nazis invaded Poland took from the world a truly gifted playwright, painter, and philosopher.

Transposed to England, with a few specifically Polish references removed, this is one of Witkacy's easiest and most entertaining plays. Like most of his best work, it's a lunatic parody; unlike some, it parodies only one genre, the "country house" drama of conflicts and secrets within a well-to-do family. Thus much of the dialogue takes the form of debates, with the mother's ghost, over tea and toast, over who her various lovers were and what they and her husband may or may not have done to her. The Geroulds' translation is as fluent as always, and there is a long and very fine introduction. An extra and unexpected bonus in this edition is the inclusion of several of the author's paintings and drawings, quite a few in colour. Like the play (and like most of the rest of Witkacy's work), they are grotesque, downright peculiar, and well worth a look.

Not as thoroughly satisfying as Gerould's Madman And The Nun And Other Plays By Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, this books sandwiches the playwright's crowning achievement (The Water Hen) between his two most accessible works (Madman And The Nun and Crazy Locomotive). Nothing really new here, but since other English editions of Poland's greatest 20th century playwright are currently out of print, this slender volume should be considered indespensible. I just wish the publishers saw fit to include more. As for Gerould's translations, they are quite splendid, of course, as well they should be since they have occupied the greater part of this dramaturgical scholar's life.