Author won Nobel Prize for literature in 1905
These three novellas depict with brutal satire Polish life at the close of the 19th century. In ``Bartek the Conqueror,'' the former village laughingstock returns from the Franco-Prussian War a decorated hero. Though now more German than Pole, he still manages to lose everything to the Germans resettling in his village. ``Charcoal Sketches'' has a similarly bleak ending, but here the agent of destruction is a corrupt local government and the poor peasant victim a woman fighting her husband's unjust conscription. Only the expatriate Polish gentry are thriving, and in ``On the Bright Shore'' they appear on the French Riviera wallowing in unrepentant decadence. While lacking the flash and powerful sweep of With Fire and Sword ( LJ 3/15/91), these novellas continue Sienkiewicz's close examination of Polish culture and history, providing a rich perspective for modern readers.-- Paul E. Hutchison, Pequea, Pa.
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