HENRIK SIENKIEWICZ (1846-1916)
Keywords:
Henrik Sienkiewicz, inspiration, Warsaw, the newspaper “Soz”Abstract
The presented article, for the first time in Azerbaijani literary studies, the work of Polish writer, Nobel laureate Henrik Sienkiewicz is analyzed. The creator, Henrik Sienkiewicz, was the first Polish writer to be recognized worldwide and to receive the Nobel Prize. He is a writer with a rare talent for writing stories. He was born in Wola Oksheyska in Podlesie. He finished high school in Warsaw.
He was thirty years old when he started working as a journalist at Gazeta Polska. The editors sent him to Philadelphia, America, for the centenary exhibition in 1876. Sienkiewicz became famous thanks to the publications “Listy z Ameryki” – “Letters from America”, which are still relevant and valuable today. The articles describe New York, the era of the Bullowa struggle, hunting in Wyoming, and above all California. The life of the first Polish immigrant in America, the segregation of Indians is also described in the articles. The first story “Szkice węglem” – “Charcoal Sketches” was written in Los Angeles.
The stories have nothing to do with America, for the first time a poor Polish village is described here, called “Barania Głowa” – “Sheep’s Head”. The main character is a local official, the only literate person in Oslovice – Donkey region. He is a kind of local Don Juan, a small tyrant, a creature who decides the fate of the unfortunate peasants. “Letters from America” is incredibly sentimental.
Senkevich strongly believed that the main mission of literature is to provide moral support to people, to provide the reader with the kind of literature they desire. The writer's famous trilogy “Ogniem i mieczem” – “With fire and sword” (1884), “Potop” – “Flood” (1886) and “Pan Volodyovsky” – “Pan Volodyovsky” (1887-1888) appeared. All who could read had these books in Poland. The trilogy was translated into many foreign languages, gaining great popularity, especially in Slavic countries.
Sienkiewicz fulfilled his duty by conveying to the readers the history of the glorious struggle of the Polish people for freedom and independence.
