You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
A beautiful piece of historical fiction echoing the good news of the Gospels.
Quo Vadis may have taken me longer to read than any other book. I don’t blame the quality of the work as it was excellent. Instead, it was the format I selected for this particular reading.
I downloaded this edition from Project Gutenberg and read it on an iPad. The Gutenberg file was poorly translated and contained a number of editorial and spelling errors. These slowed me down a bit. What had the greatest impact, however, was reading on the iPad. There are simply too many distractions, with e-mail coming in and a web browser just a click away, to allow for dedicated concentration.
All that said, I really enjoyed Quo Vadis. I had been wanting to read some Polish literature for a while and this was my first selection. The translator of this edition, Jeremiah Curtin, did an excellent job. The story flowed well and the language was still rich and descriptive. The only slightly annoying nuance was their use of “in a twinkle” to mean quickly when it was used in conjunction with some violent act.
The story was fairly complex but can be broken down into a few main components:
The love between Lygia (a Christian) and Vinicius (a Roman tribune)
The resilience of the early Christians
The conversion of Vinicius to Christianity
The brutality and insanity of Nero
Reading this novel, it was sometimes difficult to remember that this was fiction written centuries after the setting of the story. The characters are so well created and the plot finely detailed that it almost seems to be a first-hand account of the action. I suppose this is the mark of a fine author.
The brutality of Nero and the Romans against the early Christians is the subject of many works. Quo Vadis provides a rather bloody and detailed account to what may have happened to some of them during the regular spectacles provided for the benefit of the Roman people. The dignity and grace with which they died became their hallmark and instilled more fear of them within the Romans.
Overall, this may be one of my favorite books of all time. I will, however, likely stick to actual paper and ink in the future as the electronic media doesn’t work well for me.
I downloaded this edition from Project Gutenberg and read it on an iPad. The Gutenberg file was poorly translated and contained a number of editorial and spelling errors. These slowed me down a bit. What had the greatest impact, however, was reading on the iPad. There are simply too many distractions, with e-mail coming in and a web browser just a click away, to allow for dedicated concentration.
All that said, I really enjoyed Quo Vadis. I had been wanting to read some Polish literature for a while and this was my first selection. The translator of this edition, Jeremiah Curtin, did an excellent job. The story flowed well and the language was still rich and descriptive. The only slightly annoying nuance was their use of “in a twinkle” to mean quickly when it was used in conjunction with some violent act.
The story was fairly complex but can be broken down into a few main components:
The love between Lygia (a Christian) and Vinicius (a Roman tribune)
The resilience of the early Christians
The conversion of Vinicius to Christianity
The brutality and insanity of Nero
Reading this novel, it was sometimes difficult to remember that this was fiction written centuries after the setting of the story. The characters are so well created and the plot finely detailed that it almost seems to be a first-hand account of the action. I suppose this is the mark of a fine author.
The brutality of Nero and the Romans against the early Christians is the subject of many works. Quo Vadis provides a rather bloody and detailed account to what may have happened to some of them during the regular spectacles provided for the benefit of the Roman people. The dignity and grace with which they died became their hallmark and instilled more fear of them within the Romans.
Overall, this may be one of my favorite books of all time. I will, however, likely stick to actual paper and ink in the future as the electronic media doesn’t work well for me.
Fantástico. Un libro con una historia preciosa y original que se hace ameno de leer. Muy recomendable.
adventurous
dark
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I want to put this out there before reviewing - I don't think I'm the target audience for this book. Not likely something I would have picked up on my own but it was gifted to me by my mother in law who is a very lovely Polish woman. She's very proud of her country, and we share a common love of historical fiction, and with this being written by such a famous author from her country and it was highly acclaimed, she was very excited for me to read it. With all of that being said... This was a struggle to get through.
Part of the struggle was from I'm assuming the translation from Polish to English and then the use of the old English, it sometimes was not always easy and it took a few times rereading sections to grasp it.
The book itself at first was hard to stomach, gave me very.... Icky feelings. I didn't like the main guy. Actually, the whole book I'm never sympathetic towards him, just why I think he's the worst changes throughout the book.
This is a very pro Christianity book, after you get through the first 300 pages, it's the main plot line. Which, in and of itself is fine, but the main guy character... I have a hard time understanding how to be sympathetic towards him, it's very obvious he isn't true to his conversion, but time period this is and events is covering and how it's described makes it apparent that this is pro Christianity.
The most interesting part of the book is honestly the last 200 pages, where it mostly diverges from following the main characters. They are still there, still some plot for them, but there's more historical information through it and that's why I found it interesting.
Overall, not my cup of tea and for those of you who aren't super religious but like the historical fiction, this might be a skip for you. I wish I was fluent in Polish so I could read it and maybe it'd be better, I'm not sure if maybe things were lost in translation since it's impossible for a one to one translation from any language.
Part of the struggle was from I'm assuming the translation from Polish to English and then the use of the old English, it sometimes was not always easy and it took a few times rereading sections to grasp it.
The book itself at first was hard to stomach, gave me very.... Icky feelings. I didn't like the main guy. Actually, the whole book I'm never sympathetic towards him, just why I think he's the worst changes throughout the book.
This is a very pro Christianity book, after you get through the first 300 pages, it's the main plot line. Which, in and of itself is fine, but the main guy character... I have a hard time understanding how to be sympathetic towards him, it's very obvious he isn't true to his conversion, but time period this is and events is covering and how it's described makes it apparent that this is pro Christianity.
The most interesting part of the book is honestly the last 200 pages, where it mostly diverges from following the main characters. They are still there, still some plot for them, but there's more historical information through it and that's why I found it interesting.
Overall, not my cup of tea and for those of you who aren't super religious but like the historical fiction, this might be a skip for you. I wish I was fluent in Polish so I could read it and maybe it'd be better, I'm not sure if maybe things were lost in translation since it's impossible for a one to one translation from any language.
Leída edición Española de 1966.
Spanish edition from 1966 read.
Spanish edition from 1966 read.
Hmm. I nearly threw this one into the file 13. Set in the time of Nero, some of the descriptions of court orgies were quite a bit too descriptive for me. But I did end up getting drawn into the story of the two main characters, despite the pictured decadence and the clumsiness of the prose. I'm not sure whether that clumsiness was the result of the original text (in Polish) or this particular translation, but it bothered me some. Once drawn into the main story, though, I had to keep reading until I found out if Ligia got fed to the lions or not. Long and involving.
A classic, great book read in grade school the first time ... The turning of St. Peter and martyrdom was surpisingly late in the book and was minimal compared to the totallity. Still inspires me to do some more in this genre/time period/location (The Robe, The Silver Chalice) AND see all the movies (including Barabbus, Demetrius and the Gladiators, etc.). I believe, this concludes my reading of Sienkiewicz.
I was on a Roman history kick when I read this, having just watch the TV series "Rome" and read the novel "I, Claudius". This book has a lot more spiritual subject matter than previous Roman history books I've read, which is a nice change. Usually the authors just wave a hand and more or less say, "Oh yeah, and there's the Christians over there, we all know what they were up to". I'm glad someone took the trouble to write a novel on this subject.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes