The Comédienne draws on Nobel Prize winner, Wladyslav Reymont's, own experiences as an actor in a struggling provincial theatre at the fin de siecle, at time of massive social upheaval in Europe. Reymont depicts, in a slow burning tragedy, a young provincial Janina, the comédienne of the title, who joins a Warsaw theatre company and struggles toward what was then a very modern notion of personal freedom. A 'Comédienne' also played drama and tragedy and the word in Polish had some connotation of a deceiver. As such, the title in Reymont's day would have implied a somewhat darker novel that we might unwittingly expect today. This edition has been completely re-edited and includes over 500 amendments, corrections and new translations to the orignal text. The introduction by Marianna Rychlowska includes; These unique insights provide the contemporary reader with much of the commonly understood historical context that was assumed of the original audience.

Fermenty continues the story of one of Reymont's most famous characters - Janka Orlowska, the protaganist of Komendiantka. The book takes place mostly in Bukowiec, the village where her father works as a station chief on the Warsaw-Vienna line.