The Deluge. A Historical Novel of Poland, Sweden, and Russia.
By Henryk Sienkiewicz. Translated from the Polish by Jeremiah Curtin. 2 vols. (Osgood, McIlvaine, and Co.)—It might have been well—in fact, it may be said without hesitation that it would have been well—if, when Mr. Curtin was preparing this historical romance for Eng'ish readers, he had added to the task of translation the task of abridgment That abridg- ments are, as a rule, hateful things, we freely admit, but all rules have their exceptions ; and an exception might surely have been made in the case of a work of fiction covering 1,258 very closely printed pages, and running, therefore, to considerably more than double the length of an ordinary three-volume novel. Quite apart from its mere length, the work would be improved artisti- cally by considerable compression. In the matter of knowledge of the wars in which the three countries of Poland, Sweden, and Russia were engaged during the latter half of the sixteenth century, Sienkiewicz is emphatically "a full man ; " but his very fullness operates against the attainment of due artistic proportion. The Deluge is less of a historical romance than of a history proper into which fictitious episodes have been interpolated ; and the reader often finds it difficult to see the wood of story for the trees of historical narration,—a difficulty which, in the case of the majority of English readers, will be increased by a lack of preliminary knowledge of the course of events which forms the groundwork of the book. Still, in spite of all defects of form, The Deluge is a work which is full of life, power, and picturesqueness. The hero, Pan Kmita, a man of inherently noble but altogether unregulated impulses, whose nature has to be purified of its dross by a long training of misfortune, is a most powerful and interest- ing creation ; and hie life of varied adventure is rich in stirring incidents which are admirably conceived, and are narrated with
a dash and vigour which carry the reader irresistibly along. Sienkiewicz has a true historical instinct, and the simplicity and
naiveté of his manner enable the reader to realise very distinctly the primitive character of the partially civilised and altogether uncomplicated natures with which he mainly deals. That The Deluge is altogether a success, cannot be affirmed ; but it contains passages which no European novelist need be ashamed to acknow- ledge.
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