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Quo Vadis #1 of 2

쿠오 바디스 1

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1905년 노벨 문학상을 수상한 <쿠오 바디스>가 수상 100주년을 기념하여 출간되었다. 고대 로마의 가치관과 새로운 기도교 사상의 갈등, 그 해소를 그려낸 역사소설이다. 폴란드어 원전에서 직접 번역한 최초의 한국어 판으로, 화가 얀 스티카사 <쿠오 바디스>를 주제로 그린 연작 화보가 수록되어 있다.

네로 시대 말기인 AD 63~68년 로마를 배경으로 하는 이 소설에는 역사적 플롯과 낭만적 플롯이 절묘하게 결합되어 있다. 몰락해 가는 구시대 로마의 세계관과 새롭게 부상하는 신흥 종교 사상인 기독교 사이의 팽팽한 갈등과 대립, 그리고 그 변화의 양상이 선명하게 드러난다.

사치와 향락으로 점철된 구(舊) 로마 문명을 대표하는 인물들과 이에 맞서 사랑과 자비, 고요한 신앙을 통해 새 세상을 꿈꾸며 기독교 사상을 전파하려고 애쓰는 인물들이 뚜렷한 대비를 이룬다. 기독교가 고대 문화로부터 탈피하여 새로운 가치관으로 정립되어 가는 과정, 그리고 숱한 박해와 수난에도 불구하고 결국 인류의 보편적 종교로 자리 잡는 이유가 설득력 있게 제시된다.

작가 헨릭 시엔키에비츠는 1905년 이 작품으로 폴란드인으로서는 최초로 노벨 문학상을 수상했다. 이미 작가 생전에 40여개 언어로 번역.출간되었고, 19세기 소설로는 가장 많이 팔린 베스트셀러로 기록되었다. 영화와 연극, 오페라 등 다양한 장르로 각색되어 대중적 인기를 누리기도 했다.

548 pages, Paperback

Published December 16, 2005

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About the author

Henryk Sienkiewicz

1,378 books714 followers
Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz (also known as "Litwos"; May 5, 1846–November 15, 1916) was a Polish journalist and Nobel Prize-winning novelist. He was one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905 for his "outstanding merits as an epic writer."

Born into an impoverished gentry family in the Podlasie village of Wola Okrzejska, in Russian-ruled Poland, Sienkiewicz wrote historical novels set during the Rzeczpospolita (Polish Republic, or Commonwealth). His works were noted for their negative portrayal of the Teutonic Order in The Teutonic Knights (Krzyżacy), which was remarkable as a significant portion of his readership lived under German rule. Many of his novels were first serialized in newspapers, and even today are still in print. In Poland, he is best known for his historical novels "With Fire and Sword", "The Deluge", and "Fire in the Steppe" (The Trilogy) set during the 17th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, while internationally he is best known for Quo Vadis, set in Nero's Rome. Quo Vadis has been filmed several times, most notably the 1951 version.

Sienkiewicz was meticulous in attempting to recreate the authenticity of historical language. In his Trilogy, for instance, he had his characters use the Polish language as he imagined it was spoken in the seventeenth century (in reality it was far more similar to 19th-century Polish than he imagined). In The Teutonic Knights, which relates to the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, he even had his characters speak a variety of medieval Polish which he recreated in part from archaic expressions then still common among the highlanders of Podhale.

In 1881, Sienkiewicz married Maria Szetkiewicz (1854-1885). They had two children, Henryk Józef (1882-1959) and Jadwiga Maria (1883–1969).

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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Profile Image for Maria Roxana.
592 reviews
April 8, 2020
”Să iubești nu e suficient, trebuie să știi să iubești și trebuie să știi să înveți pe altul arta dragostei. Plăcerea o simte și plebea, chiar și animalele. Omul adevărat, însă, tocmai prin asta se deosebește de animale. El transformă dragostea într-o artă nobilă și, bucurându-se de ea, e conștient de toată valoarea ei divină. Astfel nu-și satisface numai trupul, ci și sufletul.”
Profile Image for Stefi.
51 reviews1 follower
February 19, 2023
I'm not very fond of Sienkiewicz's writing. His works are either a hit or a miss. I have mixed feelings about this one, it was boring at the start, but after like chapter 7 it got more intresting. Still, I probably wouldn't have ever read this if it wasn't a school assigment. It wasn't the worst, but Sienkiewicz defenitely has some better works that are way more worth your time.
1 review
July 25, 2025
Tak szczerze to czytałam książkę o totalnie innej tematyce, ale nie ma jej na goodreads, więc uznałam, ze w zamian dodam jakąś lekturę szkolną.
Profile Image for duśka ♡.
95 reviews
August 4, 2022
super bylo polecam, ligia forever in my heart. jedyny minus, to za dlugie opisy przyrody, otoczenia etc, ale to sienkiewicz wiec czego mozna sie spodziewac. nie takie zle, przyjemnie sie czytalo nawet. petroniusz jest moim idolem pozdrawiam buziaki przesylam xx
Profile Image for Lena.
79 reviews1 follower
Read
September 29, 2022
Nie oceniam lektur, ale to było dziwne, ale fabuła ok
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews

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