The Issa Valley by Czesław Miłosz

First published:Dolina Issy, 1955 (English translation, 1981)

Type of work: Initiation

Time of work: 1904-1918

Locale: Poland

Principal Characters:

• Thomas Dilbin, the protagonist of the novel, who matures in a rural valley
• Grandfather Surkont, Thomas’ teacher and guide while his parents are absent
• Romuald Bukowski, the hunter who initiates Thomas into his world

The Novel

The Issa Valley is the tale of a rural boyhood from the turn of the century to World War I. The place is Poland, but the part of Poland that was formerly the nation of Lithuania. The Issa Valley may be secluded, but there are conflicts between those who wish to restore Lithuania and those who support Poland. The main character of the story is Thomas Dilbin; he is living with his Grandfather and Grandmother Surkont, members of the landed gentry, while his father and mother are away. The novel follows Thomas from his earliest years to the age of fourteen. During those years, Thomas is initiated into the larger world and comes to terms with the historical situation and the diverse characters who surround him.

The setting of the novel is a combination of the pastoral and the rural; there are idyllic descriptions of the forest, the lakes, and the river, but there are real peasants in that forest with their folklore and tales of demons. Thomas is influenced by the pastoral and rural elements as well as the social, religious, and political environment. Some of the conflicts between these aspects can be seen when Thomas has to curtail his visits to a peasant family and the fishing expeditions and adventures because of his studies. The political and nationalistic conflicts are apparent when Thomas is sent to learn to write Polish from Joseph, a peasant who is an ardent Lithuanian nationalist. Another conflict can be seen in his friendship with a poor boy, Dominic Malanowski. Dominic is a free spirit and shocks Thomas by slicing a Host he received at Mass; Thomas is shocked not only by the sacrilege but also by a revelation that his own existence is transitory. As a result, Thomas, for the first time, wonders about his curious state with his mother and father absent and the former solidity of his world threatened.

In contrast to the threat to Thomas’ sense of self, there are chapters in the novel that describe and discuss his ancestors and their world, especially the heretic Hieronymous Surkont. Surkont denies the Trinity in favor of the one God of the Bible and joins the Swedish king in an attempt to reestablish the nation of Lithuania. Obviously, he represents both independence of thought and something of the absurdity of betraying his country, Poland, in order to bring back his ancient Lithuanian heritage. Many of the characters in the novel are faced with similar absurd choices.

Living characters also influence Thomas’ view of the world. For example, Romuald Bukowski introduces him to the world of hunting in the forest. Thomas had earlier wandered about the woods as an observer, naming trees and birds, but now he is an active pursuer. He hunts adders, deer, and ducks with the gun that Romuald has given him. There are, however, both contrasts and conflicts caused by this relationship with Romuald. His grandfather, for example, brings Thomas back to the world of books by giving him The History of Lithuania. Furthermore, Thomas is both a reluctant and an inefficient killer in the forest.

A historical conflict between classes also appears in the novel; Thomas’ grandfather is a large landowner and is subject to the division of the large estates to give the peasants their own land. Grandfather Surkont tries to avoid that appropriation of land by placing his daughter Helen into the cottage of the forester Balthazar; by doing this, he will be able to hold on to twice as much property. This, however, leads to a conflict with Balthazar, who has been paranoid since an encounter with a German soldier. Balthazar, in an attempt to hold on to what he has, ends up burning his place down and killing a villager, ultimately being killed himself.

Death brings about the most important changes in Thomas. First, the death of his Grandmother Dilbin makes him question the nature of death; was it inevitable? Why did people accept it as a necessity and not fight against it? He begins to see: “What looked so simple could not be so simple.” Death in the forest also affects Thomas. He is an eager killer at first, but the touch of the first duck he kills surprises him. He is angry when he panics when the birds are flushed, but when he shoots a squirrel he begins to question his earlier values. He regrets killing the animal, and the world of the forest that had seemed to be his preserve is now “gutted.” Later, he has a chance to kill a buck and refuses; he even forgets about his gun.

The novel ends with other changes in Thomas. He begins to judge his elders rather than merely accept them. He wonders whether Grandmother Surkont’s self-containment and aloofness are proper, and he is shocked to find that his mother, Tekla, has not fulfilled a vow because it is inconvenient. He even begins to perceive his possible vocation when he tentatively tells the elders that he may become a priest. The final movement of the novel is a departure from the Edenic land of the Issa Valley to the city. The last view the reader has of Thomas is sitting in a wagon bound for the city to an unknown future: “Your future can only be guessed, for no one can predict how you will be shaped by the world that awaits you.”

The Characters

One of the most important aspects of Czesław Miłosz’s method of characterization is that Thomas is the only character who really changes or develops. This, however, does not mean that the characterization is not successful. His portrayal of Grandfather Surkont is masterful; Miłosz uses physical characteristics and sounds to portray him. The two grandmothers are also impressively and differently characterized. Grandmother Surkont is indifferent to everything but herself and her immediate comforts, while Grandmother Dilbin seems to be involved in everything.

Balthazar is the most important and interesting of the peasant characters. He actively feels the presence of the demons as they take over and control his actions. He is not a typical peasant but a complicated and divided character who cannot decide whether to follow the traditional ways or rebel and preserve his land and cottage. This division destroys him. Romuald Bukowski is a typical character; he is the independent male who cares for such masculine pursuits as hunting and fishing. Yet Miłosz does reveal other aspects of Romuald’s character; he is very gentle when he teaches Thomas how to hunt, and he is understanding when Thomas fails. He also shows that he is not a prisoner of his class when he marries a poor woman, although the motivating factor in his decision is that the new wife will allow him to continue his male pursuits and comforts.

Critical Context

The Issa Valley, hailed as a masterpiece, has been compared by critics to works by Ivan Turgenev and to Leo Tolstoy’s Detstvo (1852; Childhood, 1862) and Otrochestvo (1854; Boyhood, 1886). It has a simplicity and power that is rare in this postmodern age, and Michael Irwin in The Times Literary Supplement has compared it to such great nineteenth century works as Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield (1849-1850) and George Eliot’s The Mill on the Floss (1860). Thus, not only is Miłosz’s novel an exceptional work, but it is also not a representative late twentieth century novel. Paul Zweig, in one of the few negative reviews of the book, touches on this aspect of the novel; he finds the book to be ahistorical, since “history prowls helplessly at the edges of the timeless valley.” Yet while Miłosz’s novel is not postmodernist or even modernist, it certainly does not exclude history but instead presents it as a force that drives and alters the characters and world of the Issa Valley. The absence of Thomas’ parents, the division of the land, and the unsettled situation of Lithuania are all aspects of this historical force that is at the heart of the novel.

Miłosz, a Nobel Prize-winning poet, wrote The Issa Valley, one of his few prose works, in a lyrical style which evokes unforgettably the natural setting. The novel has been justly praised by John Bayley in The New York Review of Books for its “solidity” and its concentration on “things” rather than “consciousness.” A companion book to The Issa Valley is Miłosz’s Rodzinna Europa (1958; Native Realm: A Search for Self-Definition, 1968), which gives a factual but no less interesting description and history of Polish Lithuania and discusses such topics as “The City of My Youth,” “Catholic Education,” “Marxism,” and “Russia.” It is clear from Native Realm that The Issa Valley is at least partially autobiographical. The chapter “The City of My Youth” deals with urban Wilno and not the Issa Valley; it also deals with a later stage in Miłosz’s life and is much more objective and detached than this intimate and compelling novel.

Bibliography

The Atlantic Monthly. CCXLVIII, July, 1981, p. 88.

Bayley, John. “Return of the Native,” in The New York Review of Books. XXVIII (June 25, 1981), pp. 29-31.

Christian Science Monitor. LXXIII, June 8, 1981, p. 21.

Irwin, Michael. “Across the Dark Era,” in The Times Literary Supplement. July 24, 1981, p. 827.

Library Journal. CVI, August, 1981, p. 1567.

Miłosz, Czesław. Native Realm: A Search for Self-Definition, 1980.

Miłosz, Czesław. “The Nobel Lecture, 1980,” in The New York Review of Books. XXVIII (March 5, 1981), pp. 11-15.

The Nation. CCXXXII, June 13, 1981, p. 737.

New Statesman. CII, July 24, 1981, p. 19.

Newsweek. XCVII, June 15, 1981, p. 95.

Saturday Review. VIII, June, 1981, p. 52.

Stone, Judy. “Interview with Czesław Miłosz,” in The New York Times Book Review. LXXXVII (June 27, 1981), pp. 7, 16, 17.

Zweig, Paul. “Czesław Miłosz, Child and Man,” in The New York Times Book Review. LXXXVII (June 27, 1981), pp. 7, 29.