Henryk Sienkiewicz Is Awarded the Nobel Prize, 1905

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Henryk Sienkiewicz Is Awarded the Nobel Prize,
September 9, 1905

little over a century ago, Polish novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz (pronounced sane-KAY-vitch) stood apart as an international literary phenomenon when he accepted his Nobel Prize for Literature on September 9, 1905. He was trained in both law and medicine, was a respected historian, a sought-after critic and editor, a compelling lecturer and a wildly popular novelist who bent the fictional genre to potently plead his own deeply held convictions. Combining pathos, accuracy and Christian doctrine, he stood almost alone in his field by sentencing tyrants, past and present, to the yoke of Christ in his writings. He often demonstrated that not a single government on earth has been able to create a godless society that does not, in due time, worship the state rather than the Creator. Such expressions were not greatly popular even a century ago, and the award of the Nobel Prize was an unlikely destiny for a passionately ethnic writer hailing from isolated, backward and agrarian Poland.

The Nobel Prize

Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846-1916)

Born in 1846, Sienkiewicz lived during one of the most tumultuous periods of Central European history, witnessing the numerous ideological revolutions that followed in the wake of Napoleon’s crumbling regime, the infection of Marxism across the working class, and the rise of Stalin and Hitler amongst their respective downtrodden populace. His own nation of Poland—ancient bastion of Christianity against the Turks and the barbarian Hordes—had been cruelly and bitterly divided between the martial ambitions of the Prussian Kaiser and the Russian Tzar in the late 18th century; its kingdom ceased to exist for 123 years after they partitioned it. The once sprawling borders of its commonwealth were curtailed, its proud cultural and national inheritance was practically snuffed out altogether, all the distinctive aspects of Polish culture were outlawed and even its language was fiercely suppressed.

Sienkiewicz Birthplace and Museum in his native village of Wola Okrzejska, Poland

With such dire oppression as his daily environment, Sienkiewicz became a leader of an underground movement to recover the Polish arts—their music, poetry, journalism, history, and literature. To quote Dr. George Grant:

“He used the backdrop of the social, cultural, and political chaos to reflect both the tragedy of his people and the ultimate hope that lay in their glorious tenacity. He was thus, a true traditionalist at a time when traditionalism had been thoroughly and systematically discredited the world over—the only notable exceptions being in the American South and the Dutch Netherlands. As a result, his distinctive voice rang out in stark contrast to the din of vogue conformity. Thus, his novels not only introduced the world to Poland, they offered a stern anti-revolutionary rebuke in the face of Modernity’s smothering political correctness.”

The village of Valea Adîncă (in what is now Moldova) was one landscape which inspired Sienkiewicz in his writings, particularly for scenes set in With Fire and Sword

In both his journalism and his art he defied every fashionable ideology springing up around him in the West as the dawning of the 20th century came into view. As Professor Maciej Gloger of Kazimierz Wielki University put it:

“Sienkiewicz countered all the pretense of the modern mind with his oeuvre and his ideological stance. He refuted the looming Communism by writing Whirlpools (Wiry) and national socialism by creating The Teutonic Knights (Krzyżacy), while his journalism accurately diagnosed the Prussian (later German) political system as one that could give rise to Nazism. Sienkiewicz incurred the anger of Polish positivists by writing the Trilogy, which negated Polish positivist utilitarianism and pointed to another identity source: Christian heroism.”

Despite tutoring, lecturing and traveling extensively on his own dime, it was not until the publishing of his renowned historical fiction epic Trilogy—published in separate parts between 1884 and 1887—that he gained the worldwide notoriety and prestige that gave him a bully pulpit from which to maintain and promote his beliefs. Trilogy was a monumental achievement of prose mastery, conveying the essence of culture on the canvas of a delightfully readable adventure story. When they were first released in the United States, the books became instant best-sellers. They made Sienkiewicz a household name, so much so that Mark Twain could assert that Sienkiewicz was the first serious, international writer to become an American literary celebrity. In his native Poland, readers loved and believed his works to so great a degree that when Sienkiewicz killed off a fan favorite character in his newest novel, With Fire and Sword, there was nationwide mourning and requests for requiem masses to be held.

Sienkiewicz in safari outfit, 1890s

Even so, the Trilogy did not achieve for him even a fraction of the acclaim that came his way with his next work, a heart-wrenching epic centered around the Christian church in the time of Nero. He named it Quo Vadis? meaning, “Wither do you go?”.

Its sweeping plot includes the mercurial machinations of Nero’s court, the rising tide of persecutions against the fledgling Christian community, the movements of the Germanic tribes along the Roman frontier, and in keeping with the nature of its author, features the Polish Ligians. It portrays in tender detail the ministries of the Apostles Peter and Paul and their last years spent nourishing the church in the moral cesspool of Rome. Sienkiewicz drew the name of his book from an old Christian legend, one that tells of Peter fleeing the Emperor’s persecutions when he had a vision of Christ along the Appian Way. Awestruck, the Apostle addressed the Lord, asking, “Quo vadis?” or “Wither do you go?”. Jesus answered him, “To Rome, to be crucified anew, inasmuch as you have abandoned my sheep”. Fully comprehending the rebuke, Peter is said to have returned to the city to face his inevitable martyrdom. Sienkiewicz’s ability in this book to stir a heartfelt loyalty in his readers is notable, and his faithfulness to the straightforward Gospel message of the early church is inspiring. But his ability to mirror the struggle of the first generation Christians against the juggernaut of absolute Caesarism with that of the struggle of modern believers against Messianic Statism was considered nothing less than brilliant.

An illustration from Quo Vadis?, 1913

“I have repeatedly sought to explain why it is that transgression—no matter how powerful or secure the transgressor, as for instance Caesar—invariably tries to justify itself by law, justice and virtue. Why take this trouble? In my opinion to slay a brother, a mother or a wife, is an act worthy only of a petty man—not of a Roman Caesar. But had I done any of these crimes I should not write letters of justification to the Senate. And yet Nero writes such letters. He strives daily to justify his crimes because he is a coward. On the other hand Tiberius too, who was no coward, always strove to justify himself. Why is this? How strange and spontaneous is this homage of Vice to Virtue! And do you know what I think? I think it is because it is written on our hearts that transgression is ugly, and virtue beautiful.”—Quo Vadis

Not surprising then that, Quo Vadis? became a model for aspiring writers and gained laud from a vast variety of contemporaries—even modernist literary staples such as Hemingway and Faulkner both argued that it was the finest historical novel ever written. And it won this unashamedly Christian author the Nobel Prize for his “astounding achievement” as an epic writer. Unable to be present to accept the award in person, his speech was read by Mrs. Danuta Wałęsa, and in it he said of his native country, which did not so much as appear on a world map at the time:

“She was pronounced dead—yet here is a proof that She lives on; She was declared incapable to think and to work—and here is proof to the contrary; She was pronounced defeated—and here is proof that She is victorious.”

Sienkiewicz in 1905, the year he received his Nobel Prize

Vevey, Switzerland, on Lake Geneva

Upon the outbreak of World War I, Poland would suffer once again in her role as the war-ravaged battleground upon which her two imperial neighbors, Germany and Russia, fought for total domination. It was a terrible state of the world, and one that Sienkiewicz had miserably anticipated. He moved his family to neutral Switzerland and remained there during the conflict, passing away in Vevey in the year 1916, with the First World War only halfway over. When Poland gained its independence in 1924, the writer’s ashes were placed in St. John’s Cathedral in Warsaw in a tomb befitting his position as a knight of the Legion of Honor.

Sienkiewicz’s Tomb, St. John’s Cathedral, Warsaw, Poland

Back in the year 1900, a national subscription of his avid readers raised enough funds to buy for him the castle in which his ancestors had once lived. It operates today as a literary museum, commemorating both the man’s own contributions and the rich cultural heritage of his native land. His works still hold their captivating appeal and more importantly, cast light on truths that are as immortal as they are hated by the modern world. And within their pages is the church’s ancient refrain, a prayer for strength and for mercy:

“I call not to they whose mortal temples are burning, but to Thee! Thou hast known suffering! Thou alone are merciful! Thou alone among gods can understand human suffering! Thou that come into the world to teach mercy to man—show mercy now!”

Henryk Sienkiewicz Chateau in Oblęgorek, Poland