Poland’s Finest Sternean: Izabela Czartoryska (1746-1835) as Reader and Promoter of Sterne

Despite the fact that the reception of Laurence Sterne in Poland has been given some critical attention in the last two decades, a definitive account of the phenomenon has yet to be written. As a result, the scholarly output devoted to Sterne in Poland reveals surprising gaps and omissions. One of these is the figure of Princess Izabela Czartoryska, the hostess of the celebrated Puławy circle and arguably the finest of Poland’s early Sterneans. Despite the fact that Czartoryska does appear in the studies of Sterne’s reception in Poland, her contribution has not yet been fully appraised. This article aims at a proper evaluation of Princess Izabela’s role in orienting Sterne readings in late eighteenth-century Poland, focusing on several unpublished manuscripts collected in the Czartoryski Library in Cracow: Extracts from Literature (Extraits), containing excerpts from Tristram Shandy; Catalogue of Souvenirs from the Gothic House in Puławy, including a Sternean quotation in a rather surprising context; as well as selected correspondence revolving around Sterne’s work.