Henryk Sienkiewicz

Life

Henryk Sienkiewicz was born on 5 May 1846 in the village of Wola Okrzejska near Łuków, on the estate of his maternal grandmother. His father, Józef, was a landowner of modest means; his mother, Stefania, came from the Cieciszowski family of Podlasie¹. From 1858 he attended secondary schools (gymnasia) in Warsaw, and in 1866, after passing the school-leaving examination (matura) as an external candidate, he enrolled at the Main School (Szkoła Główna)¹. He made his debut as an author with a theatre review published on 18 April 1869 in Przegląd Tygodniowy¹.

In February 1876 he left for the United States. He sailed from America on 24 March 1878 and returned to Warsaw on 7 November 1879. He published his reports from the journey as Listy Litwosa z podróży (Litwos's Letters from His Travels)¹. On 18 August 1881 he married Maria Szetkiewiczówna in Warsaw, and at the end of that year he became editor-in-chief of the new daily Słowo¹. Maria died of tuberculosis on 19 October 1885, while The Deluge (Potop) was appearing in the press¹.

After the Trilogy he wrote, among other works, Quo Vadis (serialised in 1895–1896) and The Knights of the Cross (Krzyżacy; 1897–1900)¹. In 1900 he received the estate of Oblęgorek near Kielce as a gift from the public¹. During the First World War he settled in Vevey in Switzerland and headed the committee for aid to victims of the war in Poland, founded on 9 January 1915¹. He died in Vevey on 15 November 1916. In 1924 his coffin was brought to Warsaw and placed in the crypt of St John's Cathedral¹.

The Trilogy

From 1883 Sienkiewicz concentrated on historical novels¹. The three parts of the Trilogy were first printed in instalments in daily papers, and the book editions appeared in Warsaw¹:

• With Fire and Sword (Ogniem i mieczem) – in Słowo and Czas from May 1883 to early March 1884; book edition 1884;
• The Deluge – in Słowo, Czas and Kurier Poznański from Christmas 1884 to September 1886; book edition 1886 (see The Deluge: the novel);
• Pan Wołodyjowski – in the same dailies from June 1887 to May 1888; book edition 1888.

According to Markiewicz, Sienkiewicz began printing With Fire and Sword with only part of the work ready. After that he wrote from one instalment to the next, which caused minor inconsistencies and breaks in publication¹. The first part of the Trilogy was an enormous success with readers. Critics, among them Prus and Chmielowski, praised his gift for engaging storytelling but pointed out a one-sided treatment of the historical background and mistakes in period detail. Zygmunt Kaczkowski and Aleksander Świętochowski judged the novel particularly harshly¹.

„Dla pokrzepienia serc” ("To fortify hearts")

The Trilogy closes with the last sentence of Pan Wołodyjowski, after the description of the victory at Chocim:

Na tym kończy się ten szereg książek pisanych w ciągu kilku lat i w niemałym trudzie – dla pokrzepienia serc.

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Pan Wołodyjowski²

(Our translation: "Here ends this series of books, written over several years and with no small toil – to fortify hearts.")

The sentence reads the same in the quotation in the PSB (Polski Słownik Biograficzny) entry¹. In common usage the variant „ku pokrzepieniu serc”, with the same meaning, has become established. It is used, for example, by the Wolne Lektury note on The Deluge, which speaks of the „pisanej ku pokrzepieniu serc Trylogii” ("the Trilogy, written to fortify hearts")³, and by the description of Hoffman's film in the filmpolski.pl database⁴. In the edition we cite, however, the text reads „dla pokrzepienia serc”.

Sienkiewicz expressed a similar thought a few years later in Listy o Zoli (Letters on Zola; Słowo, 1893). He wrote that the aim of the novel is „krzepić życie, nie zaś podkopywać, uszlachetniać je, nie zaś plugawić” ("to fortify life, not to undermine it; to ennoble it, not to defile it")¹.

Nobel Prize

In 1905 Sienkiewicz received the Nobel Prize in Literature "because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer"⁵¹. The prize was presented on 10 December 1905 in Stockholm; the speech in honour of the laureate was given by the Secretary of the Swedish Academy, C. D. af Wirsén¹. According to the PSB, Sienkiewicz stressed in his address that the honour was precious to him above all as a recognition that Poland is alive and is capable of creative work¹.