ORZESZKO  or ORSZESZKO, ELIZA (1842– ),

Polish novelist, was born near Grodno, of the noble family of Pawlowski . In her sixteenth year she married Piotr Orzeszko, a Polish nobleman, who was exiled to Siberia after the insurrection of 1863 . She wrote a series of powerful novels and sketches, dealing with the social conditions of her country . Eli Makower (1875) describes the relations between the Jews and the Polish nobility, and Heir Ezofowicz (1878) the conflict between Jewish orthodoxy and modern liberalism . On the Niemen (1888), perhaps her best work, deals with the Polish aristocracy, and Lost Souls (1886) and Chain (1888) with rural life in White Russia . Her study on Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism appeared in 1880 . A uniform edition of her works appeared in Warsaw, 1884-1888 .