Passion: L'appassionata

In June 1927, the supreme Polish fantastist, Stefan Grabinski (1887-1936), took a rare excursion outside of his country in a planned Italian itinerary that was to include Rome, Naples, Capri and even Sicily. The first stop on his trip was Venice. Here he met a fellow Pole, Stefania Kalinowska. Little is known about his relationship with Kalinowska, but what is known is that Grabinski returned to Venice, after stopping in Rome, and spent the rest of his vacation with her in the city of canals, foot bridges and ornate architecture. Grabinski did admit to certain autobiographical features in Passion, which he began and finished in Venice, and it’s very probable that he saw, and investigated, someone who was the basis for one of his most memorable characters, Gina Vamparone. As to the romantic entanglements found in the story, it is up to the reader to imagine what the reality may have been in Grabinski’s life. Freed by the beautiful and languid atmosphere of Venice, Passion became Grabinski’s longest short prose work. The novelette would become the lead story in his Passion collection of five stories, published three years later and centered around theme of obsessive love. As is typical in Grabinski’s stories, strange elements enter into the lives of his characters, and Passion is no exception, making the story one of his most intriguing and haunting works. Born in London, translator Miroslaw Lipinski currently resides in New York City, where he is working on a massive edition of Grabinski’s stories for Centipede Press’ Masters of the Weird Tale series. His Grabinski translations have appeared in the collections: The Dark Domain, The Motion Demon, and On the Hill of Roses.