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Quo Vadis
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August {2019} Discussion -- QUO VADIS by Henryk Sienkiewicz
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Aug 15, 2019 10:12AM
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I'm excited to read this, but I've got a couple books to finish first. I found a beautiful old blue 2 volume edition of this book on eBay!
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As it turned out, I needn't have worried. While it was definitely written in a way that villainized the Roman way of life and exalted living a life bathed in Christ's love, it was not overly preachy.
I found the subject matter to be very interesting. Being raised a Christian and having been subjected to all the New Testament stories, it was interesting to see it from a Roman's perspective. Growing up, I never really understood the importance of Rome in the Jerusalem area. Over the years, I started to understand how Rome expanded and then it all made sense, but reading this book put that even more into prospective. Also, knowing that Rome now is the Catholic HQ made this even more interesting contemplating all the changes that this city of antiquity has gone through.
It's definitely a love story wrapped up in historical fiction. Not just love between people, but love in general. Love was a central theme that needed to grow from almost nothing. At least the kind of love that was needed to save humanity from ruin.
I have to say though, that the history was my favorite part. I love a good historical fiction. I love to try to put myself into the era and imagine how things were. That was the part of this book that had the most appeal to me.
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I also had concerns that it was written with an agenda of proselytizing Christianity, but I did not find it to do so in an aggressive way at all.
I certainly learned more about the Roman empire and the early years of Christianity. I recently read Memoirs of Hadrian and it was a very good complement to that- I enjoyed reading Quo Vadis more.
I listened to the audiobook of this one on librivox recently, and like other people, despite not being religious myself I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved that even though the main characters were fictional, the plot is heavily steeped in historical events from the reign of Nero (including the burning of Rome, Nero's suicide, the death of Petronius etc), and early Christian doctrine. I was also impressed with the level of research the author did into ancient Roman society- like his descriptions of the specifics of the Gladiatorial games for example.
There were still a couple things that were ahistorical (I mean, it is historical fiction, so no big deal), but overall I thought it was a great window into understanding a turning point in European history.
I also like that George made the connection to Memoirs of Hadrian- which I also loved. Though I will admit I actually favored that one to this one a little bit- perhaps because I've just had a long standing interest in Hadrian as a figure. The other list book that this one reminded me the most of was Ben-Hur, which I also really liked despite a lack of interest in Christian preaching.
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I thought frequently about Ben-Hur and that time period while reading this book. I have to admit to never having read Ben-Hur nor even ever seeing that movie. I only found out recently that it was heavy in Christian preaching. It was only after that when I realized that, yes, Ben-Hur IS played heavily during the Easter season.... who knew? Everybody apparently! Ha!
I am looking forward to both of those other books now.
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George P. wrote: "I forgot to comment in my note of yesterday about the extreme violence in the later part of Quo Vadis. As they say here in Utah, "OH MY HECK!" It's as extreme as a lot of novels and memoirs about w..."That's very true...the last third of the book was VERY graphic and gruesome. I wasn't angry about it and thought it was appropriate given the theme, but given the tone of the book until the martyrdom section, I wasn't -as we millennials say- "expecting it to go that hard".
I just finished this book yesterday and as someone who grew up as Christian and who no longer is spiritual or goes to church, I did feel the last third of the book was a little preachy (and very graphic which I was not expecting!) but overall, the story itself was interesting and I do love reading about Roman history (even if Nero burned down the neighborhood).
I thought Quo Vadis? was an excellent book. I learned a lot about the time but especially the sufferings and faith of the early Christians. Again, I was reminded of Nero's demonic insanity (for lack of better words) and the fact that absolute power corrupts absolutely (a quote from Einstein, I believe). I grew up a Christian, went through a period in my young adulthood where I doubted deeply, but found the faith to be true. I have been a Baptist minister now since 1979.
Elizabeth wrote: "I found it curious that there are several copies of this book at my local library but then as I opened the cover and started to read I discovered it must be a book on Christian book club and school..."Thanks for those suggestions. I love Roman/Greek history so I will check out Great Courses and the BBC series.
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Actually an older quotation, from the 19th century British politician Lord Acton. If he hadn't said it probably someone would have eventually, seems to be a lot of truth to it. Hadrian was a fairly benevolent Roman emperor though.
I am about a quarter of the way through this. I had recently listened to 'The Medieval World" by Great Courses on Audible. The professor discussed a bit about the decline of the Roman Empire, so I'm finding this really interesting so far.
O.M.G.I loved the book and that ending (before the epilogue) was perfect! Although I REALLY would have loved to read of Nero's reaction to that letter. Really a pleasure to read once the story got going. I'm an atheist but still found this really interesting.
Also, I didn't really find this to be preachy at all in my opinion. It definitely didn't make me want to go out and get baptized. Lol
