Quo Vadis: Library Edition

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Summary: Underappreciated Greatness
Review: Quo Vadis has impacted my life greatly. I have never seen a book that explores the Christian view on romance and early Christianity so clearly. It was nourishing and exciting. This is a character-driven story, and I don't see how anyone could put it down. The verisimilitude of Rome was astonishing! Hey, high school students, this is a great way to get a grip on how things worked in early A.D. Rome. Nero, Lydia, Marcus, and Petronius were unforgetable characters. This is love at its greatest! Romance the way it should be, unselfish and pure. The transformation we see of Marcus motives of love is the most piercing literature I've ever read. It has been a year since I've read it and I'm still raving about it! Hey, guys, this is a cool book for men to learn about love. I'm telling you, it is worth it!

Rating:
Summary: Quo Vadis
Review: Quo Vadis is a meaty novel that touches many levels. The binding thread of its many themes is the passionate struggle of Marcus Vinicius and Callina Lygia to love one another amid the opposing forces of Nero's Rome and Christianity. To this thread, a running commentary on the philosophy of the times is elegantly and lightly attached using the characters, Caius Petronius and the apostles, Peter and John. The detail throughout Quo Vadis illuminates ancient Roman culture with scholarly diligence. Seinkewicz especially manages to present a balanced Judeo-Christian viewpoint that takes both the positive and negative aspects of pagan Rome into account. The historical accuracy combines with a vivid presentation of such life and magic that it inhales the reader. Through images of lust, vice, and violence blended with faith, peace, and daring, the thread of Vinicius and Lygia's love unfolds in triumphant conversions, tragic peril, and victory. To read Quo Vadis is to breathe in a pageantry of life at every human level

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Summary: One of the greatest epic novels of all time!
Review: QUO VADIS is a must-read for all those who love epic novels! Set in ancient Rome, the story involves the love between a pagan soldier and a Christian slave against the background of Nero's ruthless empire. It is a sweeping vision of the past with rich characters and dramatic events. I have been fascinated by this book ever since I first read it in high school. (Also view the lavish and engaging l951 MGM spectacle film version of the same title with Sir Peter Untinov as Nero!)

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, thought-provoking and historical
Review: Quo Vadis is one of my favorite all-time novels. Quo Vadis is interesting and worthwhile for many reasons - in describing the activities and lives of early Christians, in detailing the gradual conversion of a Roman patrician to Christianity (and, thus, describing plainly some of the principles important to Christians), in illustrating the history, activities and "mindset" of Rome and her citizens during the reign of Nero and in describing the upbringing and reign of Nero himself. It is beautifully and clearly written. I sought out this book after reading about it in Ayn Rand's "The Art of Fiction" in which she says "...I consider "Quo Vadis", technically, <to be> one of the best-constructed novels ever written..." (p. 16). I agree with her short analysis of this book: It was easy to follow the plot and all of the many details as they were being built while, at the same time, not appearing "simplistic".

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, thought-provoking and historical
Review: Quo Vadis is one of my favorite all-time novels. Quo Vadis is interesting and worthwhile for many reasons - in describing the activities and lives of early Christians, in detailing the gradual conversion of a Roman patrician to Christianity (and, thus, describing plainly some of the principles important to Christians), in illustrating the history, activities and "mindset" of Rome and her citizens during the reign of Nero and in describing the upbringing and reign of Nero himself. It is beautifully and clearly written. I sought out this book after reading about it in Ayn Rand's "The Art of Fiction" in which she says "...I consider "Quo Vadis", technically, one of the best-constructed novels ever written..." (p. 16). I agree with her short analysis of this book: It was easy to follow the plot and all of the many details as they were being built while, at the same time, not appearing "simplistic".

Rating:
Summary: Quo Vadis: A magnificent novel
Review: Quo Vadis is one of the greatest novels of all time. Sienkiewicz deserved the Nobel Prize he received in 1905. This book is very religiously symbolic. This story takes place in Rome during the reign of the crazy Nero and the growing Christian faith. "QUO VADIS" which means 'where are you going' is symbolic and it is asking, if you will go to the Christian side or stay with the Roman faith. Quo Vadis is a story of a Roman man who over time realizes the truth and changes to Christianity after falling in love with a beautiful Christian girl.

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Summary: A Classic of Historical Novels.
Review: Saying this book is nothing but Religious Propaganda, as one reviewer put it before, is ludicrous. It's like saying that Gone With the Wind is southern propaganda. Just because this book narrates the persecution of the early christians in Rome doesn't mean Sienkewitz is a newborn Christian (he wrote it in in the late 1800's! ) he is just basing himself in the known history of Rome at the time, plus probably visited some of the many cathacombs that served as hiding places for early christians and that can be found all over Europe and even Asia... It's a fictional novel that doesn't pretend to be a historical document, just to tell great adventure with a fantastic backround .. This book is up there with I, Claudius, Sinuhe The Egyptian, and the Name of The Rose as my top favorite Historical Novels.

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Summary: Great Christian Fiction
Review: Sienkeiwicz weaves a masterful tale of early Christian experience during the reign of the Emperor Nero. While the facts relating to this novel are wrapped around a love story, this novel is really a witness to the power of conversion to Christ; particularly when such a conversion could easily meet with death.

Sts. Peter and Paul appear as characters in this novel. The author's attention to detail is obvious from the very beginning. He makes the depravity of Nero come to life without making an obvious gross caricature of the man. I found the author's portrayal of the Augustan court in a time when Rome is ruled by a tyrant who has obvious self-control and self-esteem issues quite fascinating.

In sum, this novel is a great bit of historical fiction. The story flows quite naturally and does not diverge into several "hard to follow" story lines. Rather, Sienkiewicz keeps the reader enthralled from beginning to end with this witness to Christian faith. This novel is, in short, inspiring.

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Summary: Vivid portrayal of Early Christian Persecution
Review: Sienkiewicz writes amazingly descriptive literature. Those readers partial to the speedy "assembly-line novel', will no doubt find it somewhat challenging to get involved with the story. But Sienkiewicz's ability to bring his readers close to the story's characters will richly reward the reading experience of the persistant reader. I loved the novel. If at all possible I highly recommend the original Polish version. Sienkiewicz has masterfully described the struggles of early Christian life in Rome as well as the Romans hedonistic lifestyle.

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Summary: Why I think Quo Vadis is the best novel of the 19th century.
Review: The battle between good and evil underlies the stories of the greatest works of world literature. This conflict is implicit, if not explicit, in almost every literary work of considerable merit. While in Goethe's "Faust", the two opposing forces are represented through Mephistophiles and God Himself, in "The Brothers Karamazov" by Dostoevesky, the conflict takes place within the soul of Ivan Karamazov. However the central theme of neither is the conflict between good and evil itself. Of the novels of the 19th century, the one which deals with this conflict itself as its main concern is "Quo Vadis". It is a novel set in the reign of the Roman emperor Nero-the period which marked the begining of the decadence & fall of the Roman empire. However, "Quo Vadis" is not just a historical novel depicting the tortured rise of Christianity and the staggering decadence of the Romans. To understand a novel, it must be judged in terms of its abstract meaning - the aspect of universality, the metaphysical value judgements it propounds; the timeless and fundamental problems of human existence it deals with. If a novel projects a certain fundamental view of man and of life; concerns itself with human values, purposes, goals, passions and emotions (which are changeless) it can never become outdated. It is from this point of view that "Quo Vadis" has been and shall remain relevant for all ages to come. In purely abstract terms its theme is, 'the conflict between good and evil', presented in terms of the following questions: which is more powerful?, which shall ultimately triumph? The crux of the novel lies in the dilemma of Peter: Why did Jesus choose Rome - the centre of wealth, power and corruption, drowned in debauchery and immorality - as the place to lay the foundation of the Christian faith? "Quo Vadis" tells us:- 1. Integrity-unflinching devotion to one's ideal-will ultimately reap its fruits. The good, in itself, is indestructible. 2. The evil, in itself is impotent; it shall ultimately perish. 3. Immoral means can never achieve a moral end. 4. By pandering to evil, the essentially noble soul only makes itself a victim of evil, not a winner over it. These value judgements, clearly apply to all men, at all times, all over the world. In a world where the evil seems to be pulverising the good, this novel claims: "The Good shall prevail". At a concrete level, the theme is: "The tortured but exalted rise of Christianity in the decadent and evil world of Rome". The plot-theme is :"The agonized spiritual journey of a typical Roman towards the understanding, acceptance and internalization of Christianity." The Christians represent the Good-an entirely new moral order that seeks to change the world; the Romans represent the Evil-unconcerned with morality. As a part of the background Nero symbolizes evil, Peter symbolizes the good, while the battleground of good and evil is Rome itself. As a part of the central plot, Ligia symbolizes the Christian virtues, Petronius symbolizes the Roman decadence, while the battleground of good(the Christian attitude) and evil(the Roman attitude) is the soul of the hero, Vinicius. The central plot moves and is moved by the background in a manner rarely matched in world literature-the integration of plot and theme is simply perfect. Every action of every character, and every event follows from the characters' values(or moral premises)or quest for values or moral conflicts; dramatizes it and furthers it towards the achievement of those values or resolution of those conflicts, forming a logically determined plot structure. Every event dramatises the spiritual state or development of the characters and every step in the spiritual development of the characters is dramatised. There is a direct analogy between the trials and tribulations of the Christian faith and the complete internalisation of the Christian faith by Vinicius and his quest for attaining Ligia. Another striking feature of the novel is the way in which Sienkiewicz has portrayed an era 2000 years old. One would think - "He must've seen all this with his own eyes!!" The vividness of his descriptions matches (perhaps surpasses, in terms of colour and vitality) the level of Tolstoy in "War and Peace". I suppose Kuniczak's brilliant translation has enhanced this aspect significantly. There is, however, a minor flaw - many readers may find the first half of the novel rather slow, since it over-elaborately concentrates on Vinicius' psychological development. At the end one is awestruck by the overwhelming merits of the novel - a superlative sense of drama; a wonderfully handled plot structure; the fact that that the power to chose one's actions in full focus of ones values has been given to man; that integrity, endurance and moral courage have been glorified; that love has been projected as a response to another's moral values and virtues, integrating the soul and the body; the fact that the basic premise is that the world is a place where the good shall ultimately triumph over the evil and the fact that man has been projected as being capable of achieving supreme joy and spiritual fulfilment. The above view has been given in reference to the hardcover version of W. S. Kuniczak's translation of "Quo Vadis?"

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