The first volume of Stanisław Przybyszewski’s (1868–1927) Dzieła literackie (Literary works) opens an eleven-volume critical edition of works by one of the luminaries of Polish modernism—the author of the notorious Confiteor manifesto; a bilingual writer who has entered German literature in 1892, and who holds a distinguished position in this tradition as well.

The volume titled Proza poetycka (Lyrical prose) presents Przybyszewski’s early works, originally created in the German language between 1893 and 1898, and in Polish from 1898 to 1901, which comprised separate publications: Totenmese (1893) – Requiem aeternam (as a book in 1904); Vigilien (1895) – Z cyklu Wigilii (1899; From the Vigil cycle); De profundis (German edition in 1895, Polish edition in 1900); Androgyne (Polish edition 1900, German edition 1906); Nad morzem (1899; By the sea) – Epipsychidion (1900). The current volume is arranged according to the author’s intentions, as he has on numerous occasions expressed the will of publishing a pentalogy (in his Berlin phase he still used the term Pentateuch), that is a tome consisting of five works, encompassing De profundis alongside four volumes of lyrical prose. Though this plan was never realized during the author’s lifetime, the current edition finally fulfills his original intents.