Nikolay Karamzin’s 'Conversation about happiness' and its Polish translation

Abstract

The paper consists of two parts: 1. A presentation of the sketch Conversation about happiness. Philalet and Melodor (Moscow 1797) in the context of Nikolay Karamzin’s journalistic work, prose and poetry (the sketches Melodor to Philalet and Philalet to Melodor, On the happiest lifetime, The letters of the Russian voyager, To Dmitryev...) and the reception of the West-European literature in Russia; 2. An analysis of the Polish translation of the Conversation about happiness (an annex to Some thoughts on the human iniquities... by Sylwester Wężyk Groza, Vilnius 1840) from a literary and historical perspective. The Conversation about happiness is a philosophical work and it serves a moralizing function in Groza’s publication.