Joe Alex (Maciej Słomczyński) and His "Czarne okręty" (Black Ships)
Joe Alex (Maciej Słomczyński) and His "Czarne okręty" (Black Ships)

A History of a Trojan Boy in Times of the Minoan Thalassocrasy

Author(s): Robert A. Sucharski
Subject(s): Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919), Interwar Period (1920 - 1939), WW II and following years (1940 - 1949), Post-War period (1950 - 1989), Transformation Period (1990 - 2010)
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Joe Alex; Maciej Słomczyński; Czarne okręty; Minoan Thalassocrasy; Bildungsroman
Summary/Abstract: Maciej Słomczyński, writer, poet and playwright, a prominent translator of English literature and the author of the acclaimed crime fiction stories, published under the pseudonym Joe Alex, is also the author of the historical-adventure novel for youth "Czarne okręty" [Black Ships]. Originally published in parts as a series, the novel follows the adventures of a Trojan boy, entangled in the intrigues of Egyptian priests and conspiracies of the rulers of Minoan Crete, and finally going for a quest to the Far North in search of the mythical land of amber. The quest, resembling – due to its exoticism – the Expedition of the Argonauts, despite ostensible success ends in fact in a disaster, and the novel itself can be used as an example of a specific type of Bildungsroman dressed in ancient robes.

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