Between 2nd May 1883 and 1st March 1884 ‘Słowo’ review, where With Fire and Sword was printed, received a great number of letters with prayers addressed to the author and expressing the readers’ hopes that Sienkiewicz wouldn't kill any of the main characters. When Longinus Podbipięta died at the hands of Tatar troops, the entire country mourned his tragic death. No episode came out without a national response. Stanisław Tarnowski, a historian of literature from the times of Sienkiewicz, wrote that each and every conversation at the time began with a discussion about the novel, whereas the characters were treated as real-life people.
The readers followed the story of love between the young officer Jan Skrzetuski and the beautiful Helena Kurcewiczówna against the Polish-Cossack fight during the Khmelnytsky (in Polish Chmielnicki) Uprising. At first the romantic thread was meant to be the axle of the story, but shortly episodic battles and the romanticism of the steppe, borderland life with knighthood and patriotism took the novel over. With Fire and Sword begins with a seemingly noble incident: in the winter of 1647 Jan Skrzetuski, a lieutenant of the armoured regiment of Prince Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, helps a lone stranger. As we quickly realize, it is Chmielnicki who was helped. He plans a national uprising, and only a spark was needed to inflame the war. It was finally won by the Republic of Poland – the novel closes with the crucial battle of 1651.
Not many readers realize that the author changed the ending of the second edition of the novel. The fast pace of creation forced Sienkiewicz to only mention the fact of the marriage between Skrzetuski and Helena and the battle between the Polish and the Tatar-Cossack forces. The reviewers led by Wojciech Dzieduszycki lamented over the resolution, hence the author added several scenes: a welcome between the knights and the kniaziówna, the arrival of the knights in Toporowo and the three-day-long battle. A completely different opinion also occurred: Józef Ignacy Kraszewski advised the author of With Fire and Sword to shorten the first edition of the novel.
Seemingly, the author of An Ancient Tale exhausted the historical novel genre. Alexandre Dumas had transformed it into popular literature, usually occupied by second-class writers. Sienkiewicz, consciously or not, accepted this and made use of it. The action of With Fire and Sword has the pace of an adventure novel: two men are fighting for a girl in a story full of kidnappings, escapes, and chases. The protagonists are reminiscent of mythical heroes (combative and strong) or medieval knights (courageous, proud and honourable), their righteous acts are contrasted with the enemies' misdeeds. The four musketeers: the handsome Skrzetuski, the lion-hearted Wołodyjowski, the giant Podbipięta, and the portly Zagłoba are a companiable group where each member is prepared to give his life for his comrades and country.
The adventurous threads of the novel are in a large part created by Zagłoba – a colourful and humorous character who embodies all the worst attributes of the 17th-century peerage (intemperance and talkativeness); according to Bolesław Prus an embodiment of the Shakespearean Falstaff and the Homeric Ulysses (Odyssey). The character is brought into the foreground and is also the one that Sienkiewicz dedicated the greatest attention to in The Trilogy. It is especially interesting given the fact that the writer confessed in an interview in 1913 that he included Zagłoba into With Fire and Sword only to ‘brighten the story’ (quote after: 100lattemu.pl).
Despite the fact that the plot of the story contains elements of fairy tales: the witch Horpyna, who hides the kidnapped Helena in a mysterious place; Podbipięta as a fairy-tale giant; and finally a classical motive of good triumphing over evil, it is history that drives the story. Sienkiewicz skilfully describes the military operations of the first part of the uprising. He concentrates on the great moments of the Republic of Poland by getting rid of the unfavourable events and emphasizing the less important achievements.
Authorities on literature from the time of the writer (Prus, Kaczkowski, Jeż, Świętochowski) criticized Sienkiewicz for making up facts, leaving out an outline of the period and its social world, and an idealization of the real characters (especially of Jeremiah Wiśniowiecki). These charges were repeated by historians of the interwar period and in the times of the Communist rule. Some other critics like Juliusz Kleiner and Zygmunt Szweykowski talked about the fairy-tale aspects, Kazimierz Wyka underlined the novel’s similarity with the western genre, whereas Julian Krzyżanowski concentrated on it as a folk novel. The author of The Doll wrote:
(…) some find in Sienkiewicz’s novel a finished masterpiece that will be praised by the consecutive centuries (…) some others believe that the novel has a value of a fashionable textile that will give away to some other seasonal articles.
Regardless of the critical approaches, With Fire and Sword reached such a popularity among the readers that Sienkiewicz did not have a choice – he had to write a continuation.
Henryk Sienkiewicz
With Fire and Sword
Published in installments between 2nd May 1883 and 1st March 1884
The first book edition: 1884
Translated by: Jeremiah Curtin (1890), Samuel A. Binion (1897), W. S. Kuniczak (1991)
Author: Agnieszka Warnke, translated by Antoni Wiśniewski, March 2016