The author of this book travelled to Holland from his native Poland to explore the history of Dutch life in the 17th century. The 16 prose pieces that make up this book reveal the author's discriminating artistic eye and poetic sensibility, one that revels in irony, humour and a satirist's appreciation of the absurd. An inveterate museum-goer, he focuses on the art of the period, using it as a stepping-stone point for an individual examination of the foibles, genius and character of the Dutch people as a whole.