The Deluge (2 Volumes) [Hardcover]

Henryk Sienkiewicz (Author), W.S. Kuniczak (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1991

This is the second book of the Trilogy, Poland's national prose epic which has long been "lost" to the Western world. Written by the 1905 Nobel laureate, it is here translated directly into English for the first time and adapted for modern readers by W.S. Kuniczak. It is a panoramic novel of courage, love, faith, treason and redemption, recounting the struggles of Poland against invasions from Russia, Prussia and Sweden in the 17th century.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

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.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

A mere five years have passed since the knights of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth threw back the Cossack invasion from the East, yet a new and far more dangerous threat appears: Swedish troops are pouring across the northern border. Thus begins Sienkiewicz's sprawling epic sequel to With Fire and Sword ( LJ 3/15/91). As in the first novel, the text brings to life an entire 17th-century culture, unfolding like a richly adorned tapestry. Central to the story is Andrei Kmita, a young Lithuanian noble whose ruthlessness obscures his military sagacity and bravery, branding him an outlaw. But for the love of the beautiful Olenka, he undertakes to reshape his character in the forge of battle, and in so doing helps save king, country, and church from the heretic invaders. Beside him fight Volodyovski, Zagloba, and Skshetuski, the principal knights from With Fire and Sword . In many ways, the new saga in which they appear falls short of the high standard set by that magnificent predecessor. The characters are more stiffly predictable, the pace protracted, and the ending too abrupt. Nonetheless, its significance eclipses its flaws, making it essential in any collection.
-Paul E. Hutchison, Bellefonte, Pa.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1861 pages
• Publisher: Hippocrene Books; First Edition edition (October 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870520040
• ISBN-13: 978-0870520044
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 3.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #574,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Slavic

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lost in the Translation, June 9, 2002

By 

Douglas Merrill (Munich, Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Deluge: An Historical Novel of Poland, Sweden, and Russia, Vol. 1 (Paperback)

By all means, buy this edition if it is your only way to enter the marvelous world that Sienkiewicz has given to Poland and to posterity. Discover why the Trilogy has been a best-seller in its native land for more than a century. Epic adventure, star-crossed love, villains, heroes, treachery, heartbreak and humor. Sienkiewicz wrote to lift up the hearts of his people, and if he doesn't lift yours, see a cardiologist immediately.

But beg or borrow if you can, and steal if you must, the translation by W.S. Kuniczak that was published in the early 1990s. Discover what happens when a novelist translates. Kuniczak is true not just to the sentences, but to the spirit of the work. He blows the dust out of the century-old writing and lets it shine. And for readers not on intimate terms with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th Century (admit it), he effortlessly drops in helpful hints.

Here's how Curtin starts:

There was in Jmud a powerful family, the Billeviches, descended from Mendog, connected with many, and respected, beyond all, in the district of Rossyeni. ... Their native nest, existing to this day, was called Billeviche; ... In later times they branched out into a number of houses, the members of which lost sight of one another. They all assembled only when there was a census at Rossyeni of the general militia of Jmud on the plain of the invited Estates.

And Kuniczak:

In the part of the old Grand Duchy of Lithuania that was known as Zmudya, and which antedated the times of recorded history, there lived an ancient family named Billevitch, widely connected with many other houses of Lithuanian gentry, and respected more than any other in the Rosyen region. ... Their family seat, known as Billevitche ... so that in time they split into several branches that seldom saw each other. Some of them got together now and then when the Zmudyan gentry gathered for the annual military census near Rosyen on a plain called Stany...

Honestly, which version would you rather spend 1700 pages with? The native nest or the family seat?

(And just by the by, when will a smart publisher sell the Sienkiewicz Trilogy alongside Tolkien? Why do they squirrel it away with the Serious Literature in Translation that mostly gathers dust? There's millions and millions of dollars in these books, lying around, waiting for someone to market them properly.)

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eyes have not seen..., March 31, 2000

By 

Roberto T Helguera - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Deluge (2 Volumes) (Hardcover)

Nor ears heard what Sienkewicz has prepared for those who love his works! Number two in the trilogy on the history of Poland, this is the best I have read in a long, long time. It stands alone as a story, but many of its characters have been proven in war in other stories of Sienkiewicz. If for that alone, it is worth reading this book after "With Fire and Sword". It tells the love story of a man and a woman tragically separated by foolishness, pride, confusion and the Swedish invation of Poland in the 1500s which divided a nation against itself and drew the best and worst out of its citizens. Above all, this is a romantic novel, but with enough battles, action and virtues to outdo the Illiad. You will cry and laugh as you read it; you will hope against hope; you will feel in the middle of the battle; you will want to unsheath your sword and run after the neighbours... In sum, another Sienkiewicz masterpiece. Written from a Catholic perspective, this book summarizes well the soul of the Polish nation and its love for the Church.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Classic that doesn't bore the reader to tears., October 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Deluge (2 Volumes) (Hardcover)

It would be ideal to read "With Fire & Sword" before this book; though by itself, this book is an excellent story of a people united to liberate their country after they have been sold out by their self-serving leadership.