Pages 141 Preceded by Steps Followed by The devil tree Adaptations Being There (1979) | Publication date 1970 ISBN 0-370-01453-7 Originally published 1970 Page count 141 Publisher Harcourt | |
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Being There is a satirical novel by the Polish-born writer Jerzy Kosinski, first published in 1970. Set in America, the story concerns Chance, a simple gardener who unwittingly becomes a much sought-after political pundit and commentator on the vagaries of the modern world.
A film based on the book was made in 1979; Kosinski co-wrote the film's screenplay with Robert C. Jones.
Background
When Jerzy Kosinski published Being There – wrote historian Monika Adamczyk-Garbowska – "most Polish critics immediately recognized [his book] as a version of Kariera Nikodema Dyzmy (Nikodem Dyzma's Career) by Tadeusz Dolega-Mostowicz, a very popular novel from the interwar period, and Kosinki was again accused of plagiarism."
The authorship controversy was a repetition of an earlier case, concerning Kosinski's first novel, The Painted Bird published in 1965, which was plagiarized from a book published in the Second Polish Republic by the Polish ethnographer Henryk Biegeleisen.