Film: dir. Konrad Tom, As-Film, 1939 (not finished).

Film: dir. Maria Kaniewska, Zespół Filmowy “Start”, 1960.

Film: dir. Kazimierz Tarnas, 2006.

Series (7 parts), dir. Kazimierz Tarnas, 2006.

French: Le satan de la classe de première, trans. Yolande Bernard, Paris: Acad. européenne du livre, 1992.

Hebrew: Ha-šed mi-kitah 7, trans. Sbiy Yašiyb, Tel-ʾAbiyb: ʿAmiyhay, 1964.

Slovak: Fiškus zo VII. triedy, trans. Peter Čačko, Bratislava: Mladé Letá, 1979.

Professor Gąsowski is shocked when he discovers that his students have known for a long time his scheme for questioning them during class. It turns out that it was deciphered by Adam Cisowski – a brilliant student with a special gift for solving puzzles. Moreover, Adam accepts the challenge issued by the professor – he will try to guess whom the teacher will select to answer his question during the next class, according to a new scheme. To the professor’s surprise Adam succeeds. Adam also unravels two other mysteries at school – he finds out who stole his colleague’s fountain pen and why a large sum of money is missing from the accounts of the school store. 

Delighted with Adam’s shrewdness Professor Gąsowski asks him for help – at his brother’s estate several doors have been stolen in mysterious circumstances and then found in the vicinity, with paint scrapped away. Adam gladly agrees to spend holidays there and try to solve the case, especially that he is impressed by the beauty of the professor’s niece, Wanda. Old diaries stored at the attic of the house, an inscription left on the door, as well as other clues hidden at the estate lead Adam to a solution of the mystery and to a treasure left there years ago by a Napoleonic soldier. Adam’s detective talents help him not only to find the treasure but also to catch the criminals who wanted to steal it from the family.

Kornel Makuszyński has written many popular novels for children and young adults, but Szatan z siódmej klasy is one of a kind. This detective novel for youth with action-packed plot, includes numerous riddles to solve and a treasure to find, has plenty of humor, which could make laugh also adult readers. The author saved for posterity a small, but very interesting part of daily life in the vicinity of Wilno, at that time a Polish city, two years before WW2 began. He introduces the reader to the Polish school reality, where in a male gymnasium, a young Adam Cisowski helps his colleagues solve many problems, including getting to the truth in case of a boy suspected of stealing class money. At the time of the publication, Latin was a compulsory subject in Polish secondary schools, so it is safe to assume that students had knowledge of ancient times. Classical themes appear in the novel constantly, as there are numerous references to Graeco-Roman mythology and history, e.g. Clio called “the staid Muse of history”; the stillness of the boat floating on the lake compared to that of Charon’s boat, or the complicated story of a mysterious letter found by Adam quipped with Habent sua fata epistolae! – a variation of Terentianus Maurus’ quote Habent sua fata libelli; when a boy is asked to deliver the letter to a man living nearby, he is called Mercury; in the final riddle that leads to the discovery of the treasure, the stork’s nest is described as the house whose owner has never eaten from a flat plate during a feast — an indirect reference to Aesop’s fable about the fox and the stork.  On the other hand, one of characters, the history teacher Professor Gąsowski, tells his students which ancient figures have his sympathy and which do not. Gąsowski adores Pericles, but Julius Caesar, Alcibiades and Hannibal are not his favorites. He also, like his brother, the math teacher, often quotes fake Latin expressions,  like “Fugas chrustas” (chapter one) or real ones like “Periculum in mora” (chapter eleven).

Possibly, Makuszyński’s book inspired another Polish author, Zbigniew Nienacki, to create twenty years later a series of popular detective novels Pan Samochodzik [Mister Little Car] about solving the mysteries and finding historical treasures, often with the help of young people. 

According to Regulation of Polish Ministry of National Education of December 23, 2008 (and then to Regulation of August 23, 2012) Szatan z siódmej klasy was on the list of primary school optional books for grades four to six from which the teacher could chose four titles a year. Since the new regulation of February 14, 2017, the novel has been removed from that list, but teacher can still decide to include it as additional reading.

Biernat, Ewa, Twórczość baśniowa Kornela Makuszyńskiego, Kraków: Oficyna Wydawnicza „Impuls”, 2001.

Kowalczykówna, Joanna, Z badań nad warsztatem literackim Kornela Makuszyńskiego jako autora powieści dla młodzieży, Piotrków Trybunalski: Wydawnictwo Filii Kieleckiej WSP, 1997. 

Piasecka, Dorota, Proza Kornela Makuszyńskiego dla młodego odbiorcy. Zarys problematyki, Warszawa–Wrocław: Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1984.

Entry prepared on edition: Kornel Makuszyński, Szatan z siódmej klasy. Warszawa: Nasza Księgarnia, 1989, 271 pp.