Henryk K Sienkiewicz

Without Dogma: A Novel of Modern Poland Henryk K Sienkiewicz

Readers of Henryk Sienkiewicz who have known him only through Mr. Curtin's fine, strong translations, will be surprised to meet with a production so unlike - Fire and Sword, and The Deluge, that on first reading one can scarcely believe it to be from the pen of the great novelist.

Fire and Sword, The Deluge, and Pan Michael form, so to speak, a Polish trilogy. They are, first and last, Polish in sentiment, nationality, and patriotism. What Wagner did for Germany in music, what Dumas did for France, Scott for all English speaking people, the great Pole has achieved for his own country in literature. Even to those most unfamiliar with her history, it grows life-like and real as it speaks to us from the pages of these historical romances. Only a very great genius can unearth the dusty chronicles of past centuries, and make its men and women live and breathe, and speak to us. These historical characters are not mere shadows, puppets, or nullities, but very real men and women, our own flesh and blood.

In Without Dogma is presented quite another theme, treated in a fashion strikingly different. In the historical novels the stage is crowed with personages. In Without Dogma the chief interest centers in a single character. This is not a battle between contending armies, but the greater conflict that goes on in silence - the battle of a man for his own soul.