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Rating: 
Summary: Disappointingly thin
Review: Henryk Sienkiewicz's trilogy can be difficult to get through without a good grasp of Polish history, which, to be truthful, is hard to come by here in the States. I therefore recommend this guide to all those who want to really understand the books instead of just taking them for face value. I think that having this guide really involved me in the books and gave me something extra that the average reader would leave the book lacking.
Rating: 
Summary: A good aide to reading the trilogy
Review: Henryk Sienkiewicz's trilogy can be difficult to get through without a good grasp of Polish history, which, to be truthful, is hard to come by here in the States. I therefore recommend this guide to all those who want to really understand the books instead of just taking them for face value. I think that having this guide really involved me in the books and gave me something extra that the average reader would leave the book lacking.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointingly thin
Review: I was hoping that this book would provide details of the historical background of the trilogy, and place the literature in the context of the events it represents. Instead, the historical information is about what one would find in a typical encyclopedia article on Poland. The rest of the book consists introductions originally written for the three volumes of the trilogy in the Kuniczak translation, but no longer published with them, and some discussion on the history and problems of translating Sienkiewicz. These latter seem intended to glorify the Kuniczak translation, but I for one was not convinced by the examples provided. I read With Fire and Sword in the Curtin translation and The Deluge in the Kuniczak, and I was put off by the modernisms and obvious inserted connective material that appears in the latter. On the other hand, it was fun to read about how Sienkiewicz produced his work, and his relationship with his contemporary translators.
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