, 1785 Potocki's most famous work, originally written in
French, is
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (
Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse). It is a
frame tale. On account of its rich, interlocking structure, and telescoping story sequences, the novel has drawn comparisons to such celebrated works as the
Decameron and the
Arabian Nights. Soon after, the French officer is captured by the Spanish and stripped of his possessions; but a Spanish officer recognizes the manuscript's importance, and during the French officer's captivity the Spaniard translates it for him into French. The manuscript has been written by a young officer of the
Walloon Guards, Alphonse van Worden. In 1739, while
en route to Madrid to serve with the Spanish Army, he is diverted into Spain's rugged
Sierra Morena region. There, over a period of sixty-six days, he encounters a varied group of characters, including Muslim princesses,
Gypsies, outlaws, and
kabbalists, who tell him an intertwining series of bizarre, amusing, and fantastic tales which he records in his diary. The sixty-six stories cover a wide range of themes, subjects, and styles, including
gothic horror,
picaresque adventures, and comic,
erotic, and
moral tales. The stories reflect Potocki's interest in
secret societies, the
supernatural, and
oriental cultures, and they are illustrated with his detailed observations of 18th-century European manners and customs, particularly those of upper-class Spanish society. '', first Polish edition, 1847 Many of the locations described in the tales are real places and regions which Potocki would have visited during his travels, while others are fictionalized accounts of actual places. While there is still some dispute about the novel's authorship, it is now generally accepted to have indeed been written by Potocki. He began writing it in the 1790s and completed it in 1814, a year before his death, though the novel's structure is thought to have been fully mapped out by 1805. The novel was never published in its entirety during Potocki's lifetime. A proof edition of the first ten "days" was circulated in
Saint Petersburg in 1805, and a second extract was published in Paris in 1813, almost certainly with Potocki's permission. A third publication, combining both earlier extracts, was issued in 1814, but it appears that at the time of his death Potocki had not yet decided on the novel's final form. Potocki composed the book entirely in the French language. Sections of the original manuscripts were later lost, but have survived in a
Polish translation that was made in 1847 by
Edmund Chojecki from a complete French copy, now lost. == Travel memoirs ==