The Virginian

A friend of mine wrote "it would be a crime for an American to go through life without ever reading this book." I think he is right. The Virginian is the original western, and the character of the Virginian is the very definition of Western masculinity. This story of his friendship with a visiting New Yorker, and his love affair with a school teacher from New England, is a masterpiece.

Prince Otto

Prince Otto is at risk of losing both his middle-European principality and his wife, and is not sure if he cares enough to keep either. The enjoyable story keeps you hanging until the end, as to which he gets to keep, if any.

Pan Michal

Pan Michal, a secondary if delightful character in With Fire and Sword, and one of the main characters in Deluge, is now the protagonist of this, the final novel of Sienkiewicz's trilogy. Apparently Sienkiewicz was affected by the criticism of his earlier novels as being too (now unfashionably) romantic (in other words having happy endings) and so he wrote Pan Michael to be a much darker novel, with a not so happy ending. But he would only go so far to satisfy the critics--he added a chapter-long postscript describing the historic battle of Chochim, in which we get a happy ending after all. (But if you're reading Kuniczak's newer translation, beware, he leaves this postscript out. I didn't realize this until I finished the book, and had to go and buy another copy, with Jeremiah's older translation, to get the postscript).

The Deluge

Part two of Sienkiewicz's Polish trilogy. In this volume, several of the characters from the first return, including the lovable Zagloba and the stellar swordsman Michal. The hero of the novel is a new character, Andrei Kmicec, who goes through enormous trials, including the siege of Czestochowa, to overcome a grave mistake he makes early in the novel.

With Fire and Sword

Have you ever read a novel and loved it so much, you wished it would never end? Well, Sienkiewicz's Trilogy, of which With Fire and Sword is the first volume, comes as close to that as is possible in a finite world--it's that good, and that long. This first volume is about 800 pages in length (the second is twice that), and is a magnificent tale of four friends, fighting for Poland during the Cossack uprising of 1648. The hero's fiancee is kidnapped by a fierce and charismatic Cossack leader, and his friends go through many battles and adventures to rescue her.

The second volume is The Deluge.

The Talisman

The action in this book takes place a few years before Ivanhoe, with Richard the Lionheart still fighting in the Crusades in Palestine. There are two heroes in this novel, and neither is Richard. The first is a mysterious and apparently poor knight, in love with a ward of Richard, and the second is an even more mysterious Arabian warrior who is a great fighter, a master of the healing arts, and a great leader.

Rob Roy

If you can work your way through the Scotch (language, not drink), you will find this to be a very powerful and satisfying tale of love and treachery in the Highlands.