Henryk Sienkiewicz

Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz (pronounce: ) (May 5 1846 - November 15 1916) was a Polish novelist, one of the outstanding writers of the second half of the 19th century. Sienkiewicz was born to a well-to-do family in Wola Okrzejska, a town in Russian-ruled Poland. A Polish patriot to the core, Sienkiewicz created historical novels that extolled the valiant men and brave deeds of the former Rzeczpospolita. Serializing his novels in newspapers, he became immensely popular and beloved in his time and, over a century later, is still highly valued by readers of prose. In Poland he is best known for his colorful historical novels (The Trilogy) depicting the derring-do of Polish heroes in the 17th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; abroad—for his novel, Quo Vadis, set in the reign of the Roman emperor Nero.

Works

His most important novels were:

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• The Trilogy (Trylogia), comprising:
• With Fire and Sword (Ogniem i mieczem, 1884, relating to the great seventeenth century Cossack revolt know as the Chmielnicki Uprising);
• The Deluge (Potop, 1886, relating to the Swedish invasion of Poland know as The Deluge);
• Pan Michael (Pan Wo?odyjowski, 1888, relating to a tale of the wars with the Moslem Ottomans) aka Fire in the Steppe.
• The Teutonic Knights, ISBN 0781804337 (Krzy?acy, 1900, relating to the Battle of Grunwald).
• Quo Vadis (1895).
• In Desert and Wilderness (W pustyni i w puszczy, 1912).
• The Polaniecki Family (Rodzina Po?anieckich, 1894).
• Without Dogma (Bez dogmatu, 1891).