Sienkiewicz, Henryk
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== Biography == | == Biography == | ||
| − | Sienkiewicz was born in Wola Okrzejska, a village in Podlasie belonging to the writer's grandmother, into an impoverished gentry family, on his father’s side deriving from the [[Tartars]] who had settled in [[Lithuania]] in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. His family used the coat of arms Oszyk. | + | Henryk Sienkiewicz was born in Wola Okrzejska, a village in Podlasie belonging to the writer's grandmother, into an impoverished gentry family, on his father’s side deriving from the [[Tartars]] who had settled in [[Lithuania]] in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. His family used the coat of arms Oszyk. |
| − | + | He was baptized by his parents, Jozef Sienkiewicz (1813 – 1896) and Stefania (family name: Cieciszowska, 1820-1873) in the neighbouring village Okrzeja, in a church funded by his great-grandmother. In 1858 Sienkiewicz began secondary school in [[Warsaw]],where his family settled in 1861. In 1866 he received his secondary school diploma During that time he probably wrote his first novel – ''Ofiara'' ("Victim") and also worked on his publicized novel – Na marne (“In Vain”). Following his parents` wishes, he took and passed the examination to the medical department at [[Warsaw University]], but after some time he resigned and took up law studies. He eventually transferring to the Institute of Philology and History, where he immersed himself in the literature and [[Old Polish Language|Old Polish]]. | |
Over the next few years Sienkiewicz published sporadically as an essayist and reviewer In 1873 he begana column in ''Gazeta Polska'' (The Polish Gazette)and in 1875 authored a series called “Chwila obecna” ("The Present Moment"). He began the first of a series of novels in 1871, including ''Na marne'' ( “In Vain,” 1871), ''Humoreski z teki Woroszyłły,'' ''Stary Sługa'' ( "The Old Servant" , 1875), ''Hania'' (1876) and ''Selim Mirza'' (1877). The last three works have come to be known as the Little Trilogy. | Over the next few years Sienkiewicz published sporadically as an essayist and reviewer In 1873 he begana column in ''Gazeta Polska'' (The Polish Gazette)and in 1875 authored a series called “Chwila obecna” ("The Present Moment"). He began the first of a series of novels in 1871, including ''Na marne'' ( “In Vain,” 1871), ''Humoreski z teki Woroszyłły,'' ''Stary Sługa'' ( "The Old Servant" , 1875), ''Hania'' (1876) and ''Selim Mirza'' (1877). The last three works have come to be known as the Little Trilogy. | ||
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His stay in America and his reports published in Polish newspapers resulted in wide recognition and interest. The Polish novelist [[Bolesław Prus]] testified to the popularity of Sienkiewicz, writing, “As he was back from America, almost every lady took tall and handsome men for Sienkiewicz.(...) Finally, when I noticed that every man has got hair like Sienkiewicz and all of the young men, one by one, grow royal beard and try to have statuesque and swarthy face, I realised that I wanted to meet him personally. | His stay in America and his reports published in Polish newspapers resulted in wide recognition and interest. The Polish novelist [[Bolesław Prus]] testified to the popularity of Sienkiewicz, writing, “As he was back from America, almost every lady took tall and handsome men for Sienkiewicz.(...) Finally, when I noticed that every man has got hair like Sienkiewicz and all of the young men, one by one, grow royal beard and try to have statuesque and swarthy face, I realised that I wanted to meet him personally. | ||
| − | Sienkiewicz wed Maria Szetkiewiczwent on 18th of August 1881 in Vienna. They had two children, Henryk Józef and Jadwiga Maria, but the marriage did not last long because Maria died on 18th of August 1885. During this time, Sienkiewicz began work on what would become he greatest literary achievements. ''Ogniem i mieczem'' (With Fire and Sword) began serialization in a Warsaw newspaper on May 2, 1883, and almost overnight the obscure author achieved national celebrity. An epic recounting the war between the Commonwealth and a Prussian-Cossack alliance, the novel presented Polish history informed by Catholic faith in scenes of unexcelled heroism and fortitude. "Such was the readers' interest and enthusiasm for the work," wrote literary scholar Jerzy Krzyzanowski, "and such was its immediate literary reputation, that both the work and its author acquired almost mythological dimensions. In an enthusiasm that approached the Bible Sienkiewicz's Trilogy became a national bestseller which would stay at the top of the charts in Poland for the next 100 years." | + | Sienkiewicz wed Maria Szetkiewiczwent on 18th of August 1881 in Vienna. They had two children, Henryk Józef and Jadwiga Maria, but the marriage did not last long because Maria died on 18th of August 1885. During this time, Sienkiewicz began work on what would become he greatest literary achievements. ''Ogniem i mieczem'' (With Fire and Sword) began serialization in a Warsaw newspaper on May 2, 1883, and almost overnight the obscure author achieved national celebrity. An epic recounting the war between the Commonwealth and a Prussian-Cossack alliance, the novel presented Polish history deeply informed by Catholic faith in scenes of unexcelled heroism and fortitude. "Such was the readers' interest and enthusiasm for the work," wrote literary scholar Jerzy Krzyzanowski, "and such was its immediate literary reputation, that both the work and its author acquired almost mythological dimensions. In an enthusiasm that approached the Bible Sienkiewicz's Trilogy became a national bestseller which would stay at the top of the charts in Poland for the next 100 years." |
| − | The next two volumes of the Trilogy, | + | The next two volumes of the Trilogy, ''Potop '' ('The Deluge, 1886) and ''Pan Wolodyjowski'' (published in English as Fire in the Steppe, 1888) only added to Sienkiewicz' reputation. Many people were sending him letters asking about the next adventures of their favorite characters. |
The novel was also criticized. It was pointed out, not without a reason, that some of the historical facts and events were misrepresented and distorted. | The novel was also criticized. It was pointed out, not without a reason, that some of the historical facts and events were misrepresented and distorted. | ||
Revision as of 22:24, 31 August 2007
Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz (May 5, 1846 - November 15, 1916), a Nobel Prize-winning novelist and journalist, chronicled Polish history in a series of panoramic novels that won unprecedented popularity in his native country, awakening pride in Polish culture and history following a century of political and cultural subjugation by Russia, Prussia, and Austria. Sienkiewicz's massive novels combined spectacular scenes of warfare with vividly realized portrayals of heroism, honor, and patriotism, as well as cruelty, cunning, and duplicity.
He is best known internationally for Quo Vadis, a historical novel of of the early Church during the reign of the Emperor Nero, which at the time became the widest selling novel in history, selling more than a million copies just in the United States by 1900. His most important work, The Trilogy, is a prodigious (more than three thousand-page), three-volume historical reconstruction of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Poland's Golden Age. Written with the explicit intention "to uplift the heart," The Trilogy is the most revered work of literature in Poland.
Sienkiewicz did extensive research and was meticulous in preserving the authenticity of historical language. In writing Quo Vadis, Sienkiewicz relied on the Roman historians Tacitus and Suetonius but researched other primary sources as well. He visited Italy many times to learn about Roman customs, religious rites, dwellings, food, clothing, arts, superstitions, entertainments, and occupations. Sienkiewicz spent ten years researching and writing The Teutonic Knights, set in medieval Poland, even reproduced archaic expressions then still common among the highlanders of Podhale. "We know perfectly well what a Roman of the first century C.E. thought and felt," Sienkiewicz wrote; "but what did a Pole of Lithuania think during the reign of Prince Witold; this is a problem arousing thousands of doubts."
Like the fiction of Charles Dickens,many of his novels were first serialized in newspapers, and readers followed the fortunes of protagonists who became archetypal figures, whose trials and tribulations transcended the world of fiction to become part of Poland's national consciousness. With a worldwide reputation by the turn of the century, Sienkiewicz was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1905 "because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer."
Biography
Henryk Sienkiewicz was born in Wola Okrzejska, a village in Podlasie belonging to the writer's grandmother, into an impoverished gentry family, on his father’s side deriving from the Tartars who had settled in Lithuania in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. His family used the coat of arms Oszyk.
He was baptized by his parents, Jozef Sienkiewicz (1813 – 1896) and Stefania (family name: Cieciszowska, 1820-1873) in the neighbouring village Okrzeja, in a church funded by his great-grandmother. In 1858 Sienkiewicz began secondary school in Warsaw,where his family settled in 1861. In 1866 he received his secondary school diploma During that time he probably wrote his first novel – Ofiara ("Victim") and also worked on his publicized novel – Na marne (“In Vain”). Following his parents` wishes, he took and passed the examination to the medical department at Warsaw University, but after some time he resigned and took up law studies. He eventually transferring to the Institute of Philology and History, where he immersed himself in the literature and Old Polish.
Over the next few years Sienkiewicz published sporadically as an essayist and reviewer In 1873 he begana column in Gazeta Polska (The Polish Gazette)and in 1875 authored a series called “Chwila obecna” ("The Present Moment"). He began the first of a series of novels in 1871, including Na marne ( “In Vain,” 1871), Humoreski z teki Woroszyłły, Stary Sługa ( "The Old Servant" , 1875), Hania (1876) and Selim Mirza (1877). The last three works have come to be known as the Little Trilogy.
In 1876 he went to the United States with Helena Modrzejewska to report on American manners and customs for the newspaper Gazeta polska. Shocked at first by slums in New York "a hundred times dirtier" than those in London, Sienkiewicz gradually warmed to the asignment.
Traveling down the Mississippi, then crossing the continent by stagecoach to the Pacific, Sienkiewicz was impressed by the confident Americans, the landscapes, and most of all the amalgamating influence of democracy. "America with its institutions and customs is a very instructive country," he wrote admiringly. "After all, one enormous social problem has been solved here. Forty million people from various nations, often mutually hostile in Europe, live here in accordance with the law, in harmony and freedom."
The author's stay in America exerted a lasting impact both on his attitude toward his native Poland and his writing, turning his imagination to Poland's bitter national experience. In 1878 he returned to Europe, staying in London and then in Paris for a year where he encountered naturalism, a new trend in literature. In the article “Z Paryża” ( “From Paris” ), written in 1879, he wrote that, “ For a novel naturalism was in fact a brilliant, indispensable and perhaps the only step forward.” He later changed his mind and became more critical.
His stay in America and his reports published in Polish newspapers resulted in wide recognition and interest. The Polish novelist Bolesław Prus testified to the popularity of Sienkiewicz, writing, “As he was back from America, almost every lady took tall and handsome men for Sienkiewicz.(...) Finally, when I noticed that every man has got hair like Sienkiewicz and all of the young men, one by one, grow royal beard and try to have statuesque and swarthy face, I realised that I wanted to meet him personally.
Sienkiewicz wed Maria Szetkiewiczwent on 18th of August 1881 in Vienna. They had two children, Henryk Józef and Jadwiga Maria, but the marriage did not last long because Maria died on 18th of August 1885. During this time, Sienkiewicz began work on what would become he greatest literary achievements. Ogniem i mieczem (With Fire and Sword) began serialization in a Warsaw newspaper on May 2, 1883, and almost overnight the obscure author achieved national celebrity. An epic recounting the war between the Commonwealth and a Prussian-Cossack alliance, the novel presented Polish history deeply informed by Catholic faith in scenes of unexcelled heroism and fortitude. "Such was the readers' interest and enthusiasm for the work," wrote literary scholar Jerzy Krzyzanowski, "and such was its immediate literary reputation, that both the work and its author acquired almost mythological dimensions. In an enthusiasm that approached the Bible Sienkiewicz's Trilogy became a national bestseller which would stay at the top of the charts in Poland for the next 100 years."
The next two volumes of the Trilogy, Potop ('The Deluge, 1886) and Pan Wolodyjowski (published in English as Fire in the Steppe, 1888) only added to Sienkiewicz' reputation. Many people were sending him letters asking about the next adventures of their favorite characters. The novel was also criticized. It was pointed out, not without a reason, that some of the historical facts and events were misrepresented and distorted.
“The Deluge,” according to Sienkiewicz, was supposed to indicate the deluge of masses of people trying to stop the Swedish invasion. Printed in Słowo (from December 1884 to September 1886, the novel quickly became a bestseller. After Maria’s death Sienkiewicz went to Constantinople (through Bucharest and Varna) from where he was writing reports. After his return to Warsaw the third volume of the Trilogy, Pan Wolodyjowski ( “Fire in the Steppe” ) appeared. The novel was published in Słowo from May 1887 to May 1888.
The Trilogy made Henryk Sienkiewicz the most widely read and best-known Polish novelist. Stefan Zeromski wrote in his Diaries: “In Sandomierskiem I witnessed myself that everybody, even those who usually do not read, were asking about The Deluge.” Sienkiewicz was given 15 thousand roubles in recognition of his achievements from unknown fan who signed himself as Michal Wolodyjowski (the name of the character in the Trilogy).Sienkiewicz used this money to open the scholarship found (named after his wife) designed for artists endangered by tuberculosis.
In 1888 Sienkiewicz went to Spain. In 1890 he involved himself in organizing the Mickiewicz Year. At the end of 1890 he went to Africa what resulted in writing of Listy z Afryki ( “Letters from Africa” ). In 1891 a book edition of the novel Bez dogmatu ( “Without Dogma” ) was published. Earlier, from 1889 to 1890, the novel was printed in installments in Słowo. In 1892 Sienkiewicz signed an agreement for another novel - Rodzina Połanieckich ( “Children of the Soil” ), and the book came out in print in 1895. In the summer of 1894 in Zakopane Sienkiewicz introduced some fragments of his new novel Krzyżacy (“The Teutonic Knights,” or “The Knights of the Cross”).
In 1893 Sienkiewicz started preparatory work for his next novel Quo Vadis. The period at the turn of the 80’s and the 90’s was associated with intensive work on several novels.
Maria Romanowska, a step daughter of an odessian richman Wolodkowicz, entered into writer’s life. They got engaged in Odessa. The wedding took place on 11th November 1893, but the marriage did not last long because Maria left. Sienkiewicz obtained papal consent to the dissolution of marriage.
In February 1895 Sienkiewicz wrote the first chapters of Quo Vadis, for which he had been gathering materials since 1893. The novel started appearing in print in March 1895 in several polish newspapers: in Warsaw’s Gazeta Polska, Cracovian Czas and in Great Poland’s Dziennik Poznański. It stopped appearing at the end of February 1896. The book edition appeared very quickly. The novel gained recognition and became extremely popular all over Europe. Up to now the book is read with pleasure. It was translated into many languages, including such exotic ones like Arabic or Japanese. The popularity of Quo Vadis at that time was supported by the fact that the horses competing in Grand Prix de Paris were given names of the characters from the book. The novel was repeatedly adapted and put on the stage. There was also an opera made on the basis of the book. In 1913 Quo Vadis was screened. Later, the novel was filmed several times more.
In 1900 Sienkiewicz celebrated an anniversary of his artistic work. On that occasion the society endowed him with a property in Oblegork. He opened a school for children there. In the same year the Jagiellonian University awarded Sienkiewicz with a doctoral honorary degree.
Sienkiewicz involved himself in social matters. In 1901 he made an appeal in a cause of children in Wrzesnia. In 1906 he called on his fellow countrymen in USA to help starving people in the Kingdom of Poland.
In 1904 he got married to his cousin - Maria Babska.
In 1905 he won a Nobel Prize for lifetime achievement as an epic writer. In the acceptance speech Sienkiewicz said that this honour was particularly valuable for the son of Poland. She was pronounced dead - yet here is a proof that She lives on.” He also added, “She was pronounced defeated - and here is proof that She is victorious."
He wrote a novel entitled Na polu chwaly ( “On the Field of Glory” ) which was supposed to be the beginning of a trilogy. In 1910 his novel for youth entitled W pustynii i w puszczy ( “In Desert and Wilderness” ) appears in installments in Kurier Warszawski.
After the break of the war Sienkiewicz left to Switzerland. Together with Ignacy Jan Paderewski he established the Vevey Swiss General Committee for Help to the Victims of the War.
He died in Vevey on 15th November 1916 where he was buried. In 1924, when Poland gained its independence, writer’s ashes were placed in St. John’s Cathedral in Warsaw.
He was a knight of the Legion of Honour.
Chief novels:
- The Trilogy (Trylogia), comprising:
- With Fire and Sword (Ogniem i mieczem, 1884), which took place during the 17th century Cossack revolt known as the Chmielnicki Uprising; made into a movie with the same title;
- The Deluge (Potop, 1886), describing the Swedish invasion of Poland known as The Deluge; made into a movie with the same title;
- Fire in the Steppe (Pan Wołodyjowski, 1888), which took place during wars with the Ottoman Empire in the late 17th century; made into a film titled Colonel Wolodyjowski.
- The Teutonic Knights, also translated as The Knights of the Cross, ISBN 0-7818-0433-7 (Krzyżacy, 1900, relating to the Battle of Grunwald); made into a movie with the same title in 1960 by Aleksander Ford.
- Quo Vadis (1895).
- In Desert and Wilderness (W pustyni i w puszczy, 1912).
- The Polaniecki Family (Rodzina Połanieckich, 1894).
- Without Dogma (Bez dogmatu, 1891).
Note
- Many commentators erroneously state that Sienkiewicz received the Nobel Prize for Quo vadis. This is incorrect. He received it "because of his outstanding merits as an epic writer." Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, the Prize for Literature is not awarded for a specific achievement but rather for a total body of work. Sources: NobelPrize.org and [1] "Za co Sienkiewicz dostał Nobla" (a Polish newspaper article).
- Named after Sienkiewicz, in Poland, are Sienkiewicz Street in central Warsaw; Sienkiewicz Street in Kraków; Sienkiewicz Street in Poznań; Sienkiewicz Street in Kielce; Henryka Sienkiewicza in Długolęka; Osiedle Sienkiewicza, a district of the city of Białystok, Sienkiewicz Municipal Park in Wrocław and Henryk Sienkiewicz's Park in Łódź.
- Many of Sienkiewicz's works were translated into Hebrew and were popular in the 1940s among Mandatory Palestine's Jewish community, many of whom were immigrants and refugees from Poland, and also during Israel's early decades. Often parents who had in their youth liked the books in the original introduced the translations to their children who did not know Polish. However, in later generations the books' popularity in Israel has waned.
- He was a Polish noble of the Oszyk coat of arms.
External links
- Works by Henryk Sienkiewicz. Project Gutenberg Retrieved August 16, 2007.
- Biography at the Polish American Center
- Homepage of the Henryk Sienkiewicz Museum in Oblegorek
- The house of Henryk Sienkiewicz in Oblegorek
- Genealogia Dynastyczna Oszyk Coat of Arms (Łabędź odmieniony)
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1901: Sully Prudhomme | 1902: Theodor Mommsen | 1903: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson | 1904: Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray | 1905: Henryk Sienkiewicz | 1906: Giosuè Carducci | 1907: Rudyard Kipling | 1908: Rudolf Christoph Eucken | 1909: Selma Lagerlöf | 1910: Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse | 1911: Maurice Maeterlinck | 1912: Gerhart Hauptmann | 1913: Rabindranath Tagore | 1915: Romain Rolland | 1916: Verner von Heidenstam | 1917: Karl Adolph Gjellerup, Henrik Pontoppidan | 1919: Carl Spitteler | 1920: Knut Hamsun | 1921: Anatole France | 1922: Jacinto Benavente | 1923: William Butler Yeats | 1924: Władysław Reymont | 1925: George Bernard Shaw |
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