Henryk Sienkiewicz

Polish writer, novelist, journalist, philanthropist and Nobel Prize laureate (1846-1916) · Poland · Writers · Died at 70

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He wrote Quo Vadis, the 1895 novel about Nero's Rome that became an international sensation and made a Polish writer into one of the most widely translated novelists of his era - enough to earn him the 1905 Nobel Prize.

Writers Writer / Author Fiction Screenwriting Journalism Literature 19th Century

A life in dates

1916Died15 November 19161905Nobel Prize in LiteratureAward1895“Pliny declares, as I hear, that he does not believe in the gods, but he believes in dreams; and perhaps he is right.”In their wordsPetronius, as depicted in the novel, speaking to Marcus Vinicius, in Ch. 1Read the whole statement

“Riches, glory, power are mere smoke, vanity!”In their wordsMarcus Vinicius to Lygia, in Ch. 2Read the whole statement

“Not Nero, but God, rules the world.”In their wordsLygia to Marcus Vinicius, in Ch. 2Read the whole statement

“Whoso loves beauty is unable for that very reason to love deformity. One may not believe in our gods, but it is possible to love them...”In their wordsPetronius, Ch. 72Read the whole statement

“Rome stuffs its ears when it hears thee; the world reviles thee. I can blush for thee no longer, and I have no wish to do so.”In their wordsLetter of Petronius to Nero, Ch. 73Read the whole statement

1891“My position is such that there is no necessity for me to enter into competition with struggling humanity.”In their words"Rome, 9 January"Read the whole statement

1846Born5 May 1846

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Henryk Sienkiewicz ca 1885 (45871548) (cropped)

AGAD Akt urodzenia-chrztu Henryka Sienkiewicza 1846-05-07 Wola Okrzejska

Bernhard Wahtl, Henryk Sienkiewicz, portret, MHF 48272 F (MuFo)

Czasopismo Postęp z 18 listopada 1916

Henryk Sienkiewicz-Nekrolog Kurier Warszawski

Kamionka by Antoni Kamieński

Karta z albumu z podziękowaniami od dzieci dla Henryka Sienkiewicza

Karta z dedykacją od Henryka Józefa Sienkiewicza dla Ignacego Mosia

In their own words 10

Henryk Sienkiewicz

10 statements, newest first

Pliny declares, as I hear, that he does not believe in the gods, but he believes in dreams; and perhaps he is right.
1895, Petronius, as depicted in the novel, speaking to Marcus Vinicius, in Ch. 1, Own words
Life deserves laughter, hence people laugh at it.
1895, Petronius, in Ch. 2, Own words
Riches, glory, power are mere smoke, vanity!
1895, Marcus Vinicius to Lygia, in Ch. 2, Own words

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Awards

Nobel Prize in Literature1905

Knight of the Legion of Honour

Family

Henryk Sienkiewicz

Partners

Child Jadwiga Korniłowiczowa

Sibling Aniela Sienkiewicz

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About this person

Born into an impoverished noble family in Russian-ruled Poland in 1846, Sienkiewicz started publishing journalism and fiction in the late 1860s. A trip to the United States in the late 1870s produced travel essays that made him popular at home, and in the 1880s he began serializing novels that turned him into one of Poland's most-read writers. His "Trilogy" - With Fire and Sword, The Deluge, and Sir Michael - chronicles the 17th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and remains canonical in Poland. But it was Quo Vadis, his 1895-96 epic set in Nero's Rome, that crossed borders: translated widely, it brought him the Nobel Prize in Literature a decade later "for his outstanding merits as an epic writer." He died in 1916, his novels still in print and repeatedly adapted to film, including Hollywood's 1951 Quo Vadis.

Country

Poland

In common with Henryk

Enrico GuazzoniAlso in Quo Vadis? (1913)

André CalmettesAlso in Au temps des premiers chrétiens (1910)

Amleto NovelliAlso in Quo Vadis? (1913)

Lilian GreuzeAlso in Au temps des premiers chrétiens (1910)

Gustavo SerenaAlso in Quo Vadis? (1913)

Writers from Poland 1

Adam Mickiewicz74.2

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