Prus is best know for his novels , Lalka ( The Doll ) and the historical novel Faraon ( Pharaoh ) . He also wrote `` Anielka , '' PlacÃ wka ( The Outpost ) , Emancypantki ( The New Woman ) , and many other stories and novels . Eventually Prus would compose four novels on what he had referred to in an 1884 letter as `` great questions of our age '' : The Outpost ( PlacÃ wka , 1886 ) on the Polish peasant ; The Doll ( Lalka , 1889 ) on the aristocracy and townspeople and on idealists struggling to bring about social reforms ; The New Woman ( Emancypantki , 1893 ) on feminist concerns ; and his only historical novel , Pharaoh ( Faraon , 1895 ) , on mechanisms of political power .