Everything About Bolesław Prus’s The Doll
On 16 September, a new series based on Bolesław Prus’s The Doll will become available on Netflix, while a new film adaptation is due to reach cinemas at the end of September. To mark the occasion, the National Library of Poland recommends a selection of materials related to the novel and its author – from the first edition of The Doll published in 1890 and free audiobooks to manuscripts and other items connected with one of Poland’s most important writers.
Readers can return to Prus’s novel in print, digital or audio form, and discover the wealth of materials connected with the writer that are preserved and made available by the National Library of Poland.
The first edition of The Doll, published in 1890, can be viewed in the Polona digital library. The novel appeared in three volumes:
It is also worth recalling that on 29 September 1887, the daily newspaper Kurier Codzienny began publishing The Doll in instalments, with the first episode appearing in its morning supplement. The digitised first instalment can be viewed in the Polona digital library, while subsequent instalments can be found in the newspaper collections available on the website.
The National Library of Poland has also made free audiobooks of the novel available. We invite you to listen to:
We also recommend the digital collection devoted to Bolesław Prus. It includes the first edition of The Doll bearing the author’s bookplate, as well as the manuscript of Pharaoh – normally on public display as part of the permanent exhibition at the Palace of the Commonwealth – collections of short stories previously published in the press, popular-science writings, and even the writer’s will. The collection is complemented by photographs and portraits of Prus, as well as later editions of his best-known works.
Bolesław Prus’s writing continues to provide a starting point for discussions of issues that remain highly relevant today: technology and progress, urban life, money, interpersonal relationships and women’s emancipation, as well as the hopes and disappointments associated with social change.
Prus was also the central figure of this year’s Jan Kochanowski Name Day, the National Library’s annual literary picnic, held on 27 June in the Krasiński Garden and the Palace of the Commonwealth. See the report and photographs from the event.
On 19 May 2026, the anniversary of the writer’s death, the National Library opened an exhibition devoted to Bolesław Prus. One of the display cases featured the first edition of The Doll. The exhibition, which remained open until 5 July, attracted many admirers of the writer’s work.
The Manuscripts Department of the National Library of Poland holds manuscripts of many works by Bolesław Prus, including The Returning Wave, Antek, and his Weekly Chronicles, which were published in Niwa, Ateneum, Nowiny Literackie, Tygodnik Ilustrowany and Kurier Warszawski.
The National Library’s collections also include letters addressed to Prus by, among others, Stefan Żeromski and Julian Ochorowicz – philosopher, psychologist and theorist of Positivism – as well as letters written by Prus to Oktawia Rodkiewicz, née Radziwiłłowicz, the wife of Stefan Żeromski, and to Witold Chodźko, a psychiatrist and neurologist.