Suddenly we've a surfeit of riches and some catching up to do. New translations of other works followed, then a terrific film version of In Desert and Wilderness, and a massive Polish television adaptation of the Trilogy. Kuniczak, and these eminently readable versions won Sienkiewicz a modern audience. But then, fittingly as the Iron Curtain was crumbling, Hippocrene Books commissioned a new translation of his greatest works, The Trilogy and Quo Vadis?, by the highly-regarded Polish novelist W. Add in the fact that neither the Nazis nor the Communists had much interest in fostering Polish patriotism and you've the recipe for lost classics. When his books were first published - mostly late in the 19th Century - the English translations were done by Teddy Roosevelt's friend Jeremiah Curtin and, whether they were adequate for their time, they are are terribly dated now and have served to put off potential readers. Sienkiewicz is the great author of Poland-indeed, to some extent his works are said to have created and helped to maintain the strong Polish identity that prevailed through the troubled 20th Century. But Henryk Sienkiewicz has made something of a comeback and it could not be more welcome. All the more remarkable then that one of the great adventure authors of all time actually won a Nobel and somewhat tragic that so few have read him in recent decades. ask again and you'll find almost no one whose heard of half the Nobel Laureates in Literature, fewer who've read them, and none enjoyed many of them.
![henryk sienkiewicz with fire and sword henryk sienkiewicz with fire and sword](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1560766996l/52753285._SX318_SY475_.jpg)
Ask around a bit and you'll find no shortage of folks, men in particular, who became readers via their encounters in youth with class adventure tales: The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, Ivanhoe, the Lord of the Rings, etc.