With Fire and Sword
Polish: Ogniem i mieczem) is a book by the Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz, published in 1884, made into a movie in 1999. It is a first part of a trilogy, known in Poland as The Trilogy. The sequels are The Deluge (Potop, 1886) and Pan Michael (Pan Wołodyjowski, 1888).
With Fire and Sword is an action/historical fiction novel set in the 17th century, in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, during the Chmielnicki uprising. It first appeared in several Polish newspapers with chapters published every week. It gained enormous popularity in Poland and by the beginning of 20th century it became one of the most popular Polish books ever. Its lecture is obligatory in Polish schools and the book was translated to most of European languages.
Book
Although the plot is mostly fictious, it was based on real personalities of the epoch. Sienkiewicz and his colleagues researched various memoirs and chronicles in search for details of the life in Poland in 17th century. The book was written with an aim to uphold the patriotic spirit of the Polish nation during the partition era. Thus it often favors epic plots and heroic scenes over historical accuracy. Also, Sienkiewicz himslef has never been to Ukraine and he wrote large parts of his trilogy while in the USA. It is often underlined that he modelled the Ukrainian steppes after American prairie and the Cossacks after American Indians.
Full text of the book (in Polish) is available .
Film
At the time of the movie release (1999), Izabella Scorupco as Helena Kurcewiczówna
- Michał Żebrowski as Jan Skrzetuski
- Aleksandr Domogarov as Jurko Bohun
- Krzysztof Kowalewski as Jan Onufry Zagłoba
- Bogdan Stupka as Bohdan Chmielnicki and others
