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Presidential couple inaugurate 10th National Reading Day

Radek Pietruszka/PAP

President Andrzej Duda and his wife Agata Kornhauser-Duda opened the 10th National Reading Day on Saturday afternoon with a reading from “The Morality of Mrs Dulska,” written by Polish playwright Gabriela Zapolska in 1906.

“This is not a tragicomedy with a grand tale, and you won’t find any politics in it. It’s simply a story about people that describes various types of character traits in a very accurate manner,” said the president at the event held at the Saski Garden in central Warsaw.

In the play, Mrs. Dulska creates an idealised image of herself and her entire family which reveals her duplicity and hypocrisy.

“A lot of the things she does are done ‘for show.’ At times her acts turn into cruelty,” said Andrzej Duda.

Furthermore, the president pointed out that “The Morality of Mrs. Dulska” was the first Polish film with sound. Clips from the film, made in 1930, were presented at the reading. In this adaptation, the film is set in Warsaw in, among other sites, the Saski Garden and on the then Saski Square, in front of the Saski Palace, whose reconstruction has been initiated by the president.

“The Morality of Mrs Dulska” written by Gabriela Zapolska in 1906 presents a story which takes place in a bourgeois home at the turn of the 20th century. The name of the play’s heroine has found a permanent place in the Polish language – “dulszczyzna” is a term for pettiness, bourgeois hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness, combined with a high opinion of one’s own moral values.

The National Reading campaign, an initiative established in 2012, involves public readings of outstanding works of Polish literature.

The annual event is organised by various groups, including social organisations, local governments, as well as schools, libraries, and theatres. Its goal is to popularise the wealth of the Polish literary tradition, to promote reading and strengthen national identity.

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