Quo Vadis

Quo Vadis #1 of 2

by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Quo Vadis is a Latin phrase meaning where are you going? A love story between a young Christian woman and a Roman officer has been beautifully captured by the author. The male protagonist converts to Chrisinaity after meeting the love of his life. Author uses the plot to examine the differences between worldly sumptuousness enjoyed by Roman elites and spiritual power of Christians.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

333 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2011

About the author

Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz (also known as "Litwos"; May 5, 1846–November 15, 1916) was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. He was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his "outstanding merits as an epic writer."

Born into an impoverished gentry family in the Podlasie village of Wola Okrzejska, in Russian-ruled Poland, Sienkiewicz wrote historical novels set during the Rzeczpospolita (Polish Republic, or Commonwealth). His works were noted for their negative portrayal of the Teutonic Order in The Teutonic Knights (Krzyżacy), which was remarkable as a significant portion of his readership lived under German rule. Many of his novels were first serialized in newspapers, and even today are still in print. In Poland, he is best known for his historical novels "With Fire and Sword", "The Deluge", and "Fire in the Steppe" (The Trilogy) set during the 17th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, while internationally he is best known for Quo Vadis, set in Nero's Rome. Quo Vadis has been filmed several times, most notably the 1951 version.

Sienkiewicz was meticulous in attempting to recreate the authenticity of historical language. In his Trilogy, for instance, he had his characters use the Polish language as he imagined it was spoken in the seventeenth century (in reality it was far more similar to 19th-century Polish than he imagined). In The Teutonic Knights, which relates to the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, he even had his characters speak a variety of medieval Polish which he recreated in part from archaic expressions then still common among the highlanders of Podhale.

In 1881, Sienkiewicz married Maria Szetkiewicz (1854-1885). They had two children, Henryk Józef (1882-1959) and Jadwiga Maria (1883–1969).

Reviews

[Maria Roxana · Rating 5 out of 5]

”Să iubești nu e suficient, trebuie să știi să iubești și trebuie să știi să înveți pe altul arta dragostei. Plăcerea o simte și plebea, chiar și animalele. Omul adevărat, însă, tocmai prin asta se deosebește de animale. El transformă dragostea într-o artă nobilă și, bucurându-se de ea, e conștient de toată valoarea ei divină. Astfel nu-și satisface numai trupul, ci și sufletul.”

[Xan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Stefi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not very fond of Sienkiewicz's writing. His works are either a hit or a miss. I have mixed feelings about this one, it was boring at the start, but after like chapter 7 it got more intresting. Still, I probably wouldn't have ever read this if it wasn't a school assigment. It wasn't the worst, but Sienkiewicz defenitely has some better works that are way more worth your time.

[Zosia Wolowska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tak szczerze to czytałam książkę o totalnie innej tematyce, ale nie ma jej na goodreads, więc uznałam, ze w zamian dodam jakąś lekturę szkolną.

[duśka ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

super bylo polecam, ligia forever in my heart. jedyny minus, to za dlugie opisy przyrody, otoczenia etc, ale to sienkiewicz wiec czego mozna sie spodziewac. nie takie zle, przyjemnie sie czytalo nawet. petroniusz jest moim idolem pozdrawiam buziaki przesylam xx

[mmkowska · Rating 3 out of 5]

w sumie nie było takie złe, całkiem ciekawe

[Lena]

Nie oceniam lektur, ale to było dziwne, ale fabuła ok