Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of Quo Vadis?

Quo Vadis?
Quo Vadis?
Author: Henryk Sienkiewicz
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Hardcover
amerigo avatar reviewed on


'Quo Vadis?:A Narrative of the Time of Nero' is a love story of Marcus Vinicius, a passionate young Roman tribune, and of Lygia Callina, a beautiful and gentle maiden of royal Lygian descent and a former hostage of Rome, now a foster child of a noble Roman household. She is also a Christian.

At first Marcus, a typical aristocratic Roman libertine of his time, has no notion of love and merely desires Lygia. Through political machinations of the elegant Petronius he contrives to have her taken by force from her foster home and into the decadent and terrible splendor of the court of Ceasar, setting in motion a course of events that culminate in his own spiritual redemption.

Intricately researched, populated with vibrant historical figures, and gorgeous period detail, bloody spectacle and intimate beauty, this is an epic tapestry of the triumph of love, faith, and sacrifice.

**************

The setting of the narrative was prepared with utmost care. Henryk Sienkiewicz visited the Roman settings many times and was thoroughly educated in the historical background. As an attempt to create the spirit of antiquity, the novel met with unanimous acclaim, which earned the Nobel Prize in literature for the author in 1905. As a vision of ancient Rome and early Christianity it has not yet been surpassed, almost a century later."--BOOK JACKET.