Quo Vadis
by Henryk Sienkiewicz
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Book Summary Information
Author: Henryk SienkiewiczBrand: Spring Arbor/Ingram
Translator: W. S. Kuniczak
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-05
ISBN: 0781805503
Number of pages: 589
Publisher: Hippocrene Books
Book Reviews of Quo Vadis
Book Review: A Book for Our Time and Place
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is a great, well organized, well directed and powerful work of art particularly relevant to life in the current social context of Post 9/11 and 21st Century America.
I read somewhere (Mortimer Adler, I think) that the pursuit of art is ultimately a search for significant aesthetic experience. By extension, we can remove much of the content bias in art (that which often allows sophists to say, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder") and focus on a set of artistic standards that allow us to evaluate art quality based on estimates of the likelihood, or probability, a given population of art consumers can identify a promising opportunity to share aesthetic experience.
Quo Vadis provides such an opportunity at this interesting time in our shared world and in that sense I believe the book should be read by anyone interested in enjoyment and personal growth from one book. If our time is not as unusual as other times, then the book will rise to universal greatness in my opinion. But, even so, it is a great book for our time regardless of how it is treated in the future.
Provisionally speaking, and for the purpose of my argument of the greatness of Quo Vadis, let me define a significant aesthetic experience as cognizable moment of overwhelmingly transformative confrontation between ourselves and the art we have chosen to explore. At the instant of this confrontation, we are touched by the art and enjoy a quantum change at the very core of the neural network defining our personal being. There is a distinct chemical and electrical reaction and, from that moment on we are comprehensively changed, renewed and set on a different course in our lives and in our thinking. At an instant in this fleeting confrontation we are aware that this work of art "echoes in eternity". It rattles the foundations of our very genetic structure.
An avid, chasseur de l'art, if we may coin such a phrase, will not consider such a definition strange. Rather, he or she will recognize it as more or less true and will acknowledge that it is the search for such moments that fuels the budget for the quest. The addiction is not a casual dilettante search for epicurean delight. It is blood sport. And, reflecting on my own lifelong search for such experience, I feel right in saying the reader I am speaking to will agree this can only occur in rare situations and at rare times. It does not happen out of the blue. The pump must be primed and the message must be clear.
The pain of defining my philosophy to this point is all about making the point that I am serious in my report that Quo Vadis provided for me a very significant aesthetic experience (which I rarely experience in literature as often as I do with painting, photography, music, opera, theater or cinema) and that I feel quite assured it will do so for most contemporary reader's of any degree of modern cultural awareness. Anyone can describe the book and its content. My goal is to indicate why it should be read and why it will be enjoyed. As such, but with a logical admission that such experiences could emerge in a random pattern as accidents of time and space, I have to recommend Quo Vadis as among the best and most enjoyable works of fiction I have ever encountered. I rate it on the same level as War and Peace, The Red and the Black, The Charterhouse of Parma and Moby Dick as a book that cannot and will not be put down once the wheels of the story are turning.
But, why is that so?
I think the answer is that at the time of reading this book in the last three years, I stood symbolically (as many modern people do) exactly at the point where Peter stands at the essential moment of the story of Quo Vadis. At just that moment Peter is fleeing the unbearable persecution of Rome with his Christian followers. But, his course is reversed at the instant of the famous vision of the spirit and image of Christ confronting Peter on the outskirts of Rome to lead them back to Rome to confront the secular forces opposed to their spiritual convictions. The moment culminates in the resoundingly famous phrase "quo vadis domini".
This great moment should strike a contemporary reader square between the eyes. The entire book is organized around and leads the reader to this moment with resounding effectiveness. The story is told with such skill and patience, that the reader is allowed the necessary time to reflect upon the events of the book and find the connections between his or her own life and the lives portrayed in the book. Once the empathy is in place, there is no way out of the story.
I am motivated to write this review now because I have taken some time away from work for reflection and I see in the world around us a similar, and perhaps equally profound, set of circumstances dividing the spiritual and secular worlds. Quo Vadis provides a useful and powerful insight into both the traditions of Christianity and secular Rome. But, through the recitation of conditions in Rome, at the time of biblical transformation, an allegory arises to the worldwide struggles we have today.
The secular and spiritual confrontations of our current world leave us all contemplating conditions rarely more obviously juxtaposed in these two dimensions, and rarely more focused on such a universal scale, as they are today in the post 9/11 American culture. This is why I believe this book had such a great impact on me and this is why I believe it will have a great impact on almost any reader. Like most Americans, I was raised in a Judeo/Christian tradition, but I rarely attend church. Likewise, as a modern American, I am very receptive to advances in my understanding of the "real politik" of our day that come from investigation of Roman secular history and institutions. In this respect, I am confident that I am not very different from most Americans and most reasonably successful business or professional people in the world today. By logical extension, this is why I strongly recommend the book. If it can give me a significant aesthetic experience, then it must certainly do the same for many other prospective readers.
Regardless of our political views and our reactions to organized religions, the lessons of this story seem quite helpful. We are all aware of the many dimensions in which the clash between the secular and spiritual worlds is engaged today. Whether we are secular in outlook or spiritual in orientation, the events of our daily discourse must cause us all concerns and worries. Most of us have been shaped by a modern blend of spiritual training, scientific education and secular tolerance. It should be very easy for all of us to place ourselves in the Rome depicted in this story. And, the story should teach us all a great deal about ourselves and the world we live in today.
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