"The Diary" by the world-renowned prose writer and playwright Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969) is an outstanding work of 20th-century Polish literature. Gombrowicz is both the author and the protagonist of "The Diary": he battles with his personal issues as if they were global problems. He is a philosophizing Ego, defining his place among other "selves." He is a physical being immersed in the world of things, enduring pain and consumed by passions.

How can one preserve the creator within, the likeness of God, while avoiding the trap of forms prepared by society? How can one remain true to oneself in a situation that demands service to "principles" (faiths, kings, homelands, worldly truths)?

"The Diary" by W. Gombrowicz is a must-have book for the European intellectual. In Russia, during times of significant change, even small excerpts from it were sought after by literary magazines as a kind of catalyst that accelerates thought.

"I became bold because I had absolutely nothing to lose—no honors, no earnings, no friends. I had to find myself and rely on myself because I could rely on no one else. My form is my solitude."