,,Many of the short stories contain entire passages from my lettersto Mr Władysław, which were especially convincing to him”.Was Wanda Toczyłowska Reymont’s egeria?

<ns3:p>The article concerns the alleged infl uence of Wanda Toczyłowska on Władysław Reymont’s workswritten in the years 1907–1908. She formulated a suggestion in a letter to Zenon Przesmycki in the1930s, when she intended to sell her correspondence with Reymont. She claimed that the writerused fragments from her letters in „a lot of his short stories”. She emphasized her role in Reymont’slife. The article examines the context of the relationship between Reymont and Toczyłowska,the history of their correspondence, and her attempts to sell it. The content of Reymont’s workscreated at this time, including his correspondence, on the one hand, and Toczyłowska’s stronglysubjective view of her relationship with Reymont, on the other, undermine her claim regardingher crucial inspirational infl uence on the writer. Possibly only the last three chapters of Wampir(The Vampire) and Senne dzieje (Onirical History) contain some allusions to this acquaintance.</ns3:p>