The Wedding, in Noel Clark's faithful and skilled new translation, is a witty but ultimately tragic satire on Polish society at the turn of the century, after more than a century of oppressive rule by Russia, Prussia and Austria. In the haunted atmosphere of a country manor, peasants, gentry and phantoms of the past mingle uneasily at the wedding of a city-bred poet and a country girl. As night falls and the guests grow drowsy from drink and dancing, the Straw-man is invited in...