Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz, Fiction, Classics, History, Christian

Quo Vadis tells a powerful tale of love and redemption in a time of ultimate danger -- for Christians and Romans alike. "Quo vadis Domine" is Latin for "Where are you going, Lord?" and alludes to the apocryphal Acts of Peter, in which Peter flees Rome but on his way meets Jesus and asks him why he is going to Rome. Jesus says, "I am going back to be crucified again", which makes Peter go back to Rome and accept martyrdom. It is a phrase of great meaning to Christians. The author of Quo Vadis, Henryk Sienkiewicz, was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1905, and the enduring popularity of Quo Vadis contributed greatly to the award. Set in Rome in the time of Nero, Quo Vadis tells the story of Roman tribune Marcus, who falls in love with a beautiful Christian girl, Ligia.

Henryk Adam Aleksander Pius Sienkiewicz (1846 - 1916) was a Polish journalist, novelist and the Nobel Prize laureate. He is best remembered for his historical novels, especially for his internationally known best-seller Quo Vadis (1896). Born into an impoverished Polish noble family in Russian-ruled Congress Poland, in the late 1860s Sienkiewicz began publishing journalistic and literary pieces. In the late 1870s he traveled to the United States, sending back travel essays that won him popularity with Polish readers. In the 1880s he began serializing novels that further increased his popularity. He soon became one of the most popular Polish writers at the turn of the 20th century and numerous translations gained him international renown, culminating in his receipt of the 1905 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "outstanding merits as an epic writer."