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The Library Journal on "With Fire and Sword"
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth still controlled eastern Europe in 1647, but during that year
everything changed. The first sparks appeared in the Ukraine, where a domestic dispute between Bohdan Hmyelnitzki and his neighbor mushroomed into a full-blown Cossack rebellion against the gentry. Long-smoldering resentments
flashed into a wildfire of rape, pillage, and murder as the peasants joined the Cossack army and fought their way toward Warsaw, bringing with them the dreaded hordes of Tartars from the east. Fighting in this epic conflict,
Yan Skshetuski, commander of armored knights in the prince's army, falls in love with the beautiful Helen, only to have her stolen by the Cossacks. Thus, the string of ensuing battles becomes not just a struggle for
Poland's survival but a search by Skshetuski and his fellow knights for Helen, the symbol of all Poland was and now stands to lose. With Fire and Sword , the first installment of Sienkiewicz's "Trilogy," will
take its place beside such works as the Iliad as one of the great pieces of epic literature. The Polish author, winner of the 1905 Nobel Prize for Literature, captures the historical essence of a culture in eclipse, expressing
it through characters at once larger than life and engagingly human. While his Quo Vadis? is widely known, until now the "Trilogy" has been virtually unread outside Poland because it lacked a readable translation and
was suppressed by Poland's Communist government. However, Kuniczak's magnificent rendition now offers this literary gem to a wide audience. As the next two volumes appear, the applause will surely grow. Most highly
recommended.
Publishers Weekly on "The Deluge"
Surrounding himself with murderous libertines and wastrels, wild young Polish soldier Andrei Kmita is misled into treason. But his pure love for
spirited Olenka (Aleksandra Billevich) eventually sets him on track and inspires his single-minded mission, the defense of his motherland. It's the middle of the 17th century, and the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth is
crushed in a vise of rebellion and bloody onslaughts by Swedes and Russians. Around the constants of love and war, Polish novelist Sienkiewicz (1846-1916) weaves a fugue of betrayal, redemption, faith and passion. An underlying
theme questions whether people can rise above their time and circumstances. In his massive novel, with its eerie foreshadowing of modern Poland's overthrow of the Soviet yoke, Sienkiewicz ( Quo Vadis? ) gives a resounding
answer. His rounded characters represent all sectors of society in this, the second volume of a trilogy begun in With Fire and Sword. The convincing translation by Polish-born American novelist Kuniczak adds luster to a robust
populist epic.
Publishers Weekly on "Fire in the Steppe"
First published in 1887, this lengthy saga completes Sienkiewicz's populist trilogy (after With Fire and Sword and The Deluge ), which
Kuniczak's convincing translation brings to life for the contemporary reader. The Polish people's struggle against Cossacks, Tartars and Turks in the 1670s prefigures modern Poland's quest for nationhood in this
installment of the rousing epic of love, war, adventure and madness. Basia, the gutsy, bright, determined heroine, who chases bandits on horseback, riding a man's saddle, almost steals the show from her Hamlet-like husband,
Col. Pan Volodyovski. A master of robust, old-fashioned realism, Sienkiewicz mixes fictional characters, like his boisterous villain, the shrewd old knight Pan Zagloba, with historical figures like Jan Sobieski, the careworn
Grand Hetman of Poland, nemesis of the Turks and savior of Christendom at Vienna. Sienkiewicz's fierce, larger-than-life characters unself-consciously stride across the stage of history. His portrayal of the Polish
Commonwealth averting anarchy and pulling together holds a timeless message of hope.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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