Eliza Orzeszko was a 19th century Polish writer. At sixteen she married a nobleman and was exiled to Siberia after the 1863 Uprising. Her works describe the social conditions in her country. The Argunauts was published in 1899. From the introduction "The winning of money on an immense scale to the neglect of all other objects, to the neglect even of the nearest duties, is the sin of one Argonaut; the utter neglect of money and the proper means of living is the ruin of the other.' An excerpt from the book reads, "He was forced to be absent from his family for long months, sometimes for whole years, and even when living under the same roof with the members of it he was a rare guest, never a real confiding companion. For permanence, intimacy, tender feeling in relations, with even those who were nearest him, Darvid had not the time, just as he had not the time to concentrate his thoughts on any subject whatever unless it was connected with his lines, dates, and figures, or with the meshes of that net in which he enclosed his thoughts and his iron labor."