Zaduch, wonie i powietrze, czyli jak pachnie w świecie Elizy Orzeszkowej
Stuffiness, Odours and Air, or, the Scents of Eliza Orzeszkowa’s World

Summary/Abstract: It was with her great sensitivity that Eliza Orzeszkowa felt, differentiated, named, interpreted, and valorised various scents – good fragrances and bad smells alike. In her output, olfactory impressions and associations play an important part in creation of the world depicted: they complement the characters’ portraits, contribute to the scenery’s ambience, affect the attraction or dislike relations, thus indirectly shaping a novelistic piece’s axiology. The scents emphasise this author’s and its characters’ negative attitude toward certain circles of space (city; salons), while reinforcing their ties with the space of nature. The air-related metaphors she uses are also meant to suggest a certain social-political situation as well as to indicate some perilous, to her mind, tendencies, along with ideological/ethical changes of the new time.

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