Customer Reviews

The Deluge (2 Volumes)

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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.)

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.

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.

This book, the second in the famous Sienkiewicz Trilogy, is not a two-volume set for show. The book is 1700+ pages long! As usual with Sienkiewicz, however, the pages are required to tell the story. This novel brings back the main characters from "With Fire And Sword" though they play a somewhat smaller role, especially Pan Yan and Helen. Two new main characters take center stage.

Andrei is a wild knight whose thoughtless, self-absorption mirrors the attitudes of the ruling class in Poland at the time. His attitude leads him down a terrible road and then forces him to make the hard, arduous climb back from nothing once he realizes his error. The skill with which Sienkiewicz intertwines Andrei's descent and redemption with the greater struggle of Poland against Sweden is brilliant! On the other hand, there's Olenka who is loved by Andrei. She seems to represent Poland itself and the ethics which are required to preserve something worth fighting for. She is the moral center of the novel even when she's not in the foreground of the action.

Their love story plays out in the midst of a tale of war that involves the invasion of Poland from three countries at the same time (the 'deluge' of the title). We meet the Kings of two countries, the nobles under them with their own agendas, and the soldiers fighting on as power shifts from one side to the other in an international game where the winners get crowns and the losers lose everything.

Just a sample of a few threads in the story: the siege of a holy shrine, a knight leading a small band of raiders against an army, a woman taken captive by a warlord and makes him regret iit, a country defeated not by the army of its enemies but by something more deadly from within, the plots of a noble family to rip apart an entire nation solely to rule a part of it themselves, the attempt to return an exiled King to his country through wild mountains full of enemy soldiers. This is just a sample! The scope of this novel is absolutely unsurpassed and, best of all, Sienkiewicz has the imagination, characters and events to keep it interesting for over 1,700 pages! You really do feel as though you've lived the two years that are encompassed by this novel. So much happens.

In less capable hands, "The Deluge" could have been just a boring history lesson. Sienkiewicz weaves all the history and political figures of the time with his own characters to crystallize a crucial point in a nation's history. In addition, he crafts a story that is unbelievably complex and yet thouroughly entertaining from first page to last.

And hats off to the translator! How many people would have the talent and stamina to translate something this long and do such a consistent and beautiful job? Not many, I imagine.

The DEluge as with the rest of SIenkiewicz's works is literature of the highest quality. It summarizes the heart and soul of a nation and few other nations can claim to have such an outstanding piece of literature that touches the nations souls as does SIenkiewicz. The DEluge is thelargest of the three books of the Trilogy butlike the others you will simply not be able to put it down. The character development is so real - it is as if you know these people in your personal life - the plots - the action - the human drama - the history - it is simply outstanding. I do not understand why a mini series has not been made out of these novels - It is work of the highest quality which seems to have laid undiscoverd for nealy a century now!

The DEluge centers about Swedens march into POland. POland initially accepted their incursion, however, as the situation worsens the POles srrike back. The Swedish war machine was beleived to be unstoppable throguhout Europe and they did march through Poland but they made a mistake - attacking the town of Czestochowa (pronounced Ches toe hova) which had significant religous importance to the POles. The POles were rallied by a Bishop who held out against the Swedes under great odds and touched the soul of Poland. It is something we need to learn in our country - that we must put country above our personal needs to exist and win in the world. Sienkiewicz brings this point home again and again throughout the novel. Mike Niziol

The Deluge, known as "Potop" to the people of Poland, is set in the wild frontiers of war torn Poland during the seventeenth century. An epic tale of faith, selfishness, sacrifice and heroic valor is retold in this love story that is virtually unknown outside of its native country. This vivid tale comes alive as it sweeps you across the plains and the forests of Poland and Lithuania and is set against the bloody background of the Swedish Invasion of 1655-1697

The Deluge is the second of three novels written by the famous and much loved author Henryk Sienkiewicz. Like the other two parts of the Sienkiewicz Trilogy, "The Deluge" not only depicts vital historical events but also mirrors a people soul. It is a masterful blend of history and imagination that shows whole nations as well as individuals caught up in earthshaking events, fighting for their lives and rediscovering themselves through their own commitments.

Much better than "With Fire and Sword" with its more complicated plot and wonderously contradictory hero, Andrei Kmita. If you want to know what great adventure writing with a genuine message is all about, this is it. I can't wait to start "Fire in the Steppe" the concluding novel of the Trilogy.

Anyone I have ever met from Poland has read this book. It is a national treasure. The main character fights insurmountable odds to redeem himself in the eyes of his King, lady and peers. It is everything you have ever wanted in a good historical fiction novel. If you have ever read it and know of a better book please let me know

and that never happened before. I will confess I picked up this book because of the cover. I was waiting for a study group at the main library at Boston College. It was a new release and had on the cover a beatiful painting of charging polish hussars. I said to myself this looks real cool. I read the first chapter standing at the lobby because my stupid study group was late. I was instantly addicted. I borrowed and finished it in less than a week and then borrowed that second volume.

It was such a moving experience. Pan Andy, Fat Zagloba, and Mikey just leapt from the pages and off I went on a high adventure with these guys. This is better than Tolkien or any fantasy adventure ever written. I really felt like I was with these guys trying to free their country from oblivion.

I own a ninety year old translation of With Fire and Sword. The translation is a bit stilted (as was our English back then),but the cover is falling off from my avid reading. When I found the Kuniczak translation of The Deluge, I couldn't wait to read more, and this does not disappoint. The fresh idiomatic English is mostly smooth, (although a few expressions stand out as more modern slang). Once again, Pan Zagloba roars across the pages and the "little colonel" Wolodyovski does his best defending the Motherland, and at the same time, to catch the eye of pretty girls. The drama and characters of 17th century Poland and Lithuania cannot help to inspire an interest in this area. I was amazed when I read the true story of the politics and shifting alliances of the region, and to imagine a powerful SWEDISH army (oxymoron these days). A true classic that never gets old.