ABOUT ALEKSANDER FREDRO
Polish poet, playwright, and author active during Polish Romanticism and known for writing in octosyllabic verse (Zemsta) and in prose (Damy i Huzary) as well as fables. Two of his fables, The Monkey in the Bath (Małpa w kąpieli) and Paul and Gawel (Paweł i Gaweł), are some of Poland's most popular children's stories.
He was educated at home and entered the Polish army at age 16. He saw action in the Napoleonic wars as well as the Moscow campaign.
He wrote social comedies about the lifestyle of the Polish nobility. Some of his contemporaries harshly criticized him which led to his years of literary silence. Many of his works were published and popularized after his death and his best-known works have been translated into several different languages.
His father was a landowner. His grandson was the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky.
In 2002, his best-known comedy, Zemsta (The Revenge), was adapted for the screen by film director Andrzej Wajda and starred Roman Polanski .
