With Fire and Sword

Name: With Fire and Sword
Rating: 3.9 (233 reviews)

by Henryk Sienkiewicz Book 1 in the With Fire and Sword — Three-Volume Edition series.

First published 1884

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3.8(233)

In 1648 the Polish officer Jan Skrzetuski returns from a mission in the southern borderlands and unknowingly saves Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who is preparing a Cossack revolt against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. At Rozłogi, Skrzetuski falls in love with Helena Kurcewicz, but the Cossack commander Yurko Bohun also claims her and draws the divided Kurcewicz household into the approaching war. When Khmelnytsky’s alliance with the Crimean Tatars turns local rebellion into a major military crisis, Skrzetuski’s private hopes become inseparable from the collapse of order across Ukraine.

The first volume introduces the companions who will shape the wider story: the resourceful Zagłoba, the formidable swordsman Michał Wołodyjowski and the powerful magnate Jeremi Wiśniowiecki. Defeats at Żółte Wody and Korsuń spread panic through the Commonwealth, while Helena is forced into hiding and Skrzetuski is drawn deeper into military service. The novel presents the uprising largely through the viewpoint of Polish nobles, combining romance and adventure with a conflict that brought rebellion, reprisals and mass violence to many communities.