Memoirs of Count Jozef Boruwlaski
Jozef Boruwlaski
was born to a family of impoverished Polish gentry in 1739. From an early age
it was clear that he was going to be a dwarf, and as such a grim future as a
dependant or a circus freak could well have been his fate. Fortunately a local
noblewoman, the Starostin de Caorlix,
took him into her household and gave him an education, which included dancing
and playing the violin and guitar. When she married, another noblewoman, the Countess
Humiecka, took him under her protection and presented
him at court to the King of Poland, and later, to the Empress Maria Theresa and
to the King of France. It was fashionable for noblemen and royalty to have
court dwarfs, but often enough they were dull and ignorant folk. Jozef, by contrast, was polished and elegant, able to hold
an intelligent conversation, and an accomplished singer, violinist, and dancer.
It was no wonder that he was a great hit with the European nobility, and for
ten years or more he frequented the courts of the great. The King of
Instead of settling quietly in
This Ex-Classics edition of his memoirs is taken from the third
(1820) edition. The introduction, by Dr. Armand Leroi,
is taken from his remarkable book Mutants (Harper Collins,