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Henry(k) Sienkiewicz (1846-1916) - psydonym Litwos |
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Polish novelist, a storyteller, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905. Henryk Sienkiewicz's most famous novels include the widely translated and several times filmed Quo Vadis? (1896). His strongly Catholic worldview deeply marked his writing. Sienkiewicz's works have been published in 50 languages. "And Peter understood that neither Caesar nor all his legions could overcome the living truth,—that they could not overwhelm it with tears or blood, and that now its victory was beginning. He understood with equal force why the Lord had turned him back on the road. That city of pride, crime, wickedness, and power was beginning to be His city, and the double capital, from which would flow out upon the world government of souls and bodies." (from Quo Vadis?: A Narrative of the Time of Nero, translated from the Polish by Jeremiah Curtin, Thomas Nelson &Sons, 1925, p. 538) Henryk Sienkiewicz was born to a well-to-do family in Wola
Okrzejska, a town in Russian-ruled Poland. Because of economic
difficulties, the family sold their rural property and moved to Warsaw.
At the age of 12, Sienkiewicz entered Warsaw Gymnasium. While a student he started to write newspaper
columns under the pseudonym Litwos. Inspired by the novels of Sir Walter Scott and Alexandre
Dumas, Sienkiewicz composed his first historical story, Ofiara
(The Sacrifice), of which no manuscript is known to survive. Finding himself penniless, Sienkiewicz left the city without receiving a degree, and moved to the countryside, earning his living as a private teacher. Upon returnin to Warsaw, he attended the Polish University (Szkola Glowna), where studied law and medicine, and later history and literature. In the 1870s, he worked as a freelance journalist, and wrote short stories and novels.For a time he was a coeditor of the biweekly Niwa. Sienkiewicz's debut novel, Ma marne (1872), was set in the ancient city of Kieff and depicted student life. First printed in the magazine Wieniec, its publication in book form (1876) was delayed due to the failure of the Kraszewski publishing house. In 1876, Sienkiewicz went to the United States with the actress Helena
Mofjeska, who planned to establish in California a
settlement with his friends. This journey lasted three years. Sienkiewicz published
enthusiastic letters about American technical achievements, society and
the natural beauty of California in the newspaper Gazeta Polska. His stay in the USA also
inspired several short stories, among them 'Latarnik' (1882). At the end of 1879, Sienkiewicz returned to Warsaw. He became co-editor of the
conservative newspaper Slowo (1882-87), where he published his
early novels. He was a founding member of the Mianowski Foundation and
a co-founder and president of Literary Foundation (1899). In 1881 he
married Maria Szetkiewicz; she died in 1885 of tuberculosis after delivering two children, Henryk Józef and Jadwiga. Inspired by Walter Scott and French
historical novels Sienkiewicz started to work in 1882 on his own
trilogy of historical novels. Ogniem i mieczem (With Fire and
Sword) was published in 1884. It was followed by sequels Potop
(1886, The Deluge) and Pan Michael
(1888). All these works were
carefully researched and written in an exciting, fast-paced style.
Sienkiewicz showed his skills in creating colorful characters, which
also fascinated readers outside Poland. Speaking of his work,
Sienkiewicz
said that he wrote most of his novels day by day, sending off the
newly-written pages to the printer. Sienkiewicz's indifference to the ideological debate of the time angered some critics. The poet and dramatist Adam Asnyk (1838-1897) said he was "just an artist without any convictions." (Sienkiewicz’s Bodies: Studies of Gender and Violence by Ryszard Koziolek, translated by David Malcolm, Peter Lang, 2015, p. 18) Sienkiewicz remained silent during the smear campaign, but he was deeply hurt by it. Ogniem i mieczem was Sienkiewicz's first novel in a historical trilogy dealing with the period from 1648 to the time of King John III (John Sobieski) at the end of the 17th century. Following the example of Alexander Dumas père, Sienkiewicz added in the colorful narrative a patriotic message. The novel describes a series of wars Poland conducted in its defence over the course of the 17th century. The first part takes its subject from the war between Poland and the Ukraine, while its sequel, Potop deals with the Swedish invasion of the country. Pan Wołodyjowski concludes the story with the theme of a Polish-Turkish war. On the surface the work is an almost classical type of adventure novel, with an uplifting effect. There are invincible heroes, spectacular duels, everlasting friendships, and heroic deaths. Sienkiewicz tells about the nation's past glories and defeats in such manner that people can identify with the fictitious heroes, and believe in the resurrection of Poland. During World War II, when Germany was occupying Poland, a number of members of the resistance assumed their code names from the trilogy. Sienkiewicz traveled widely, spending time in Africa in 1891,
where he contracted malaria, and visiting Italy for his novel Quo
Vadis?
His marriage to
Maria Romanowska-Wołodkiewich in 1893 was annulled on technical ground
in 1896; she was 28 years his junior and left him soon after
the wedding. Later Sienkiewicz admitted his error in judgment. Quo
Vadis? depicts the persecution of the Christians in
first-century Rome during the reign of the Emperor Nero, but it can be
read as Sienkiewicz’s contribution to the struggle of the Polish people
against repression. The main plot is a love story of a Roman patrician,
Vinicius, and a Christian girl, Lygia, who is of royal descent. Nero
plays the role of sinister tyrant, personifying the decadence of the
Empire. In a crucial scene the Apostele Peter has a vision of Christ on the via Appia. He asks, Quo vadis, Domine?, and Christ replies, with a sad and sweet voice: "If thou desert my people, I am going to Rome to be crucified a second time." (Ibid., p. 537) And Peter returns to Rome, where he suffers martyrdom. Among the other real historical characters are the writers Petronius (d. 66), a rich aesthetician, and
Seneca (d. 65), who opposes Nero. Petronius meets Paul who tells him:
"The whole world is trembling before you, and ye are trembling before
your own slaves, for ye know that any hour may raise an awful war
against your oppression, such a war as has been raised more than once.
Though rich, thou art not sure that the command may not come to thee
to-morrow to leave thy wealth; thou art young, but to-morrow it may be
necessary for thee to die." (Ibid., pp. 314-315) Quo Vadis? conveys the message of faith and hope and was a huge success. It was one of the first novels adapted for the screen; this made it a part of popular culture. In the early 1900s two versions were produced, one French and one Italian. Jerzy Kawalerowicz's adaptation of 2001, supported by Pope John Paul II, was filmed in Tunisia, Poland and France. Along with Edward Bulwer Lytton's The Last Days of Pompeii (1834) and Lew Wallace's Ben Hur: A Tale of Christ (1880), Sienkiewicz's work has been among the most popular historical novels dealing with early Christianity. Sienkiewicz was
married three times. Already in 1888, he had promised to marry Maria
Babska,
his niece, who was 14 years younger than he. She spent years in a
monastery, but eventually the married in 1904. Maria became his partner
for the rest of his life. Krzyzacy (1900, The Teutonic Knights), Sienkiewicz's last important novel, was set in medieval Poland at the time of its conflict with the Teutonic Order. This work, which culminated in the Battle of Grunwald, where the Teutonic knights were defeated by the Polish-Lithuanian coalition, clearly referred to the policy of the then German state towards the Poles. While Sienkiewicz's heroes in Ogniem i mieczem affected the course of history, now the comradeship of the Poles play a major role. The protagonist is a young nobleman, Zbysko of Bogdaniec, who fights against the Order. Since 1918, the novel has been on the compulsory reading list of the elementary school curriculum. W pustyni i w puszczy (1911, In Desert and Wilderness), written for teenagers, was located in the deserts and savannas of Africa in the year of Mahdi's rebellion and the capture of Khartoum. Its lively details were partly based on the author's travels in Africa. Prusse et Pologne (1907) attacked the Prussian government's land policy in Prussian-occupied Poland. In 1900, Sienkiewicz was given an estate by the Polish
government at Oblegorek, near Kielce. With the outbreak of WW I, Sienkiewicz fled to Switzerland and settled in Vevey. He
was a member of the Swiss Relief Committee for the War Victims in
Poland. Sienkiewicz died of heart failure in Vevey on November 15,
1916. His body was returned to Poland eight years later. "To appraise
him objectively is quite a task," wrote the Polish Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz,
"for he combined a rare narrative gift with shortcomings that
are serious enough to disqualify him from the title of a truly great
writer." (The History of Polish Literature by Czesław Miłosz, second edition, University of California Press, 1983, p. 308) In his acceptance speech of the Nobel prize Sienkiewicz stated that
"it has been said that Poland is dead, exhausted, enslaved; but here is
the proof of her life and triumph." (Nobel Lectures: Literature, 1901-1967, edited by Horst Frenz, World Scientific, 1999, p. 45) Although Sienkiewicz has been
criticized for lack of philosophical depth, he is generally regarded as
a serious and important novelist. However, Stanislaw Brzozowski
(1878-1911), the leading critic of early modernism, attacked him
fiercely; his treatise on the author appeared in 1903. The best-known
pioneer of modernist Polish fiction, Witold Gombrowicz, called
Sienkiewicz "the first-rate secondary writer" but nevertheless
recognized the magic of his narrative skill. Films and TV serials based
on Sienkiewicz's books have been very popular in Poland. For further reading: The Patriot Novelist of Poland Henryk Sienkiewicz by Monica Gardner (1926); Henryk Sienkiewicz. Kalendarz zycia i tworczoski by Julian Krzyzanowski (1956); Henryk Sienkiewicz: A Retrospective Synthesis by Waclaw Lednicki (1960); Un "best-seller" 1900: "Quo Vadis?" by Marja Kosko (1960); Henryk Sienkiewicz: A Biography by Mieczyslaw Giergielewicz (1968); Henryk Sienkiewicz, edited by K. Wyka and A Piorunova (1968); Trylogia Sienkiewicza by Z. Szweykowski (1973); Twórczosc Henryka Sienkiewicza by J. Krzyzanowski (1976); The History of Polish Literature by Czesław Miłosz (1969, 2nd edition 1983); A History of Polish Literature by Julian Krzyzanowski (1978); The Trilogy Companion by Jerzy Krzyzanowski (1991); Sienkiewicza "Powiesci z lat dawnych by Tadeusz Bujnicki (1996); Sienkiewicz's Bodies: Studies of Gender and Violence by Ryszard Koziołek (2014); Henryk Sienkiewicz i chrześcijaństwo: idee--obrazy--konteksty = Henryk Sienkiewicz and Christianity: ideas--debate--contexts, redakcja naukowa Anna Janicka i Łukasz Zabielski (2017); Henryk Sienkiewicz: język, semantyka, pod redakcją Magdaleny Pietrzak i Agaty Zalewskiej (2019); The Novel of Neronian Rome and Its Multimedial Transformations: Sienkiewicz's Quo vadis, edited by Monika Woźniak and Maria Wyke (2022);"Bez dogmatu" Henryka Sienkiewicza: konteksty powieści, pod redakcją Tadeusza Bujnickiego i Agaty Zalewskiej (2022) Selected works:
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