The author traces the stories of 19th century literary characters – inhabitants of villages or small towns – who dream about living in big, modern metropolises. Those journeys are quite often phantasmatic and never go beyond the sphere of desires (Emma Bovary). They prove, however, that the modern writers sharply distinguished the small town lives from the lives in big conurbations. Those differences were also stressed by the economists (Adam Smith) and sociologists (Georg Simmel) quoted by the author. Strong market, great capitals, abundance of ever changing excitements, volatility and superficiality of relationships, boredom or extravagancies are all products of big urban agglomerations which are hard to find in everyday life of small towns. This led to drawing sharp borderlines (mental rather than real) which separated 19th century small towns from cities. However the author suggests that the modern authors equally often stressed the differences and similarities between cities and small towns. This could be observed in Bolesław Prus’s novel Emancypantki (The New Woman) in which the phenomenon of gossip blurs the borderline between a small town Iksinów and the city of Warsaw.
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