her deathbed she makes him swear that he will never sell their land. The book's somber picture is relieved by the author's humour and warmth. The local Catholic priest, habitué of dinners and hunting parties at local manors, is not entirely devoid of Christian virtues. Two of the village's humbler denizens turn out to be exemplars of selflessness. Ślimak's half-wit farm hand, on finding an abandoned baby, takes it home to care for it. After Mrs. Ślimak dies and the widower's farm burns down, he is befriended by a poor, empathetic Jewish peddler who comes to his aid and, in the manner of a deus ex machina, saves the day and the farm. Influences The Outpost (1886), according to critics, is not Bolesław Prus' highest achievement as a novelist. It does not show the full psychological depth of his other novels such as The Doll (1889) or the conceptual sweep of Pharaoh (1895). The Outpost's "happy ending" has a somewhat contrived quality. Still, the book is a respectable achievement in the European tradition of the realistic novel. Despite Prus' reservations about Émile Zola's naturalism, the Polish writer took some inspirations from the French novelist. Prus' Outpost (1885–86) in turn influenced the Polish Nobel Prize-winning novelist Władysław Reymont's treatment, two decades later, of rural life in The Peasants (1904–9). In 1979, The Outpost was produced as a Polish feature film (Placówka) directed by Zygmunt Skonieczny. See also "Mold of the Earth" (an 1884 thematically-related micro-story by Bolesław Prus). Social novel Notes References 1886 novels Novels by Bolesław Prus Novels first published in serial form Polish novels Works originally published in Polish magazines Novels set in Poland 19th-century Polish novels Polish-language novels