"A Study in Emerald" is a short story written by British fantasy and graphic novel author Neil Gaiman. The story is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche transferred to the Cthulhu Mythos universe of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. It won the 2004 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
Like any Sienkiewicz work, "Pan Michael" is a wonderful read due to its prose, his wonderful characterization and due to his ability to bring color to his works. It rounds out the Trilogy that has bridged stylistic centuries and proven there is an ageless recipe for plot, drama, character and objective. NO reader, regardless of ethnic background can fail to feel for the incredibly detailed main characters in this novel, such as Pan Michael or the daring woman, Basha. Action is not stinted and combines with the other elements in this colorful and sweeping epic to demonstrate history in one of the least well-documented areas of 17th century Europe. In Poland and Lithuania, where the edges of three great religions, and dozens of ethnic groups ebbed and flowed over the multicolored plains in endless kaleidescopes of struggle, Sienkiewicz paints a vast landscape of dramatic and epic action. Written by the novelist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905.
This is a two-volume work, the sequel to "With Fire and Sword," a massive book called one of the greatest in European literature. "The Deluge" continues the sweeping saga of war and rebellion that threatened the kingdom of Poland and changed the face of Eastern Europe in the 17th Century. This historical novel of Poland, Sweden and Russia, is a masterful blend of history and imagination, filled with nonstop action and adventure. Sienkiewicz's work is the sweeping saga of a nation caught in the throes of a civil war, of a people struggling for survival, and of events that forever changed the face of Eastern Europe. Number two in his trilogy on the history of Poland, it tells the love story of a man and a woman tragically separated by foolishness, pride, confusion and the Swedish invasion of Poland in the 1600s which divided a nation against itself and drew the best and worst out of its citizens. Written by the novelist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905.
The period embraced in this set is "one of the most dramatic and fruitful of results in European Annals - remarkable for work and endeavor, especially in the Slav world," the author writes. Among Western Slavs, the great events were the Hussite Wars and the union of Lithuania and Poland. The Hussite Wars were caused by ideas of race and religion (born in Bohemia.) The period of Bohemian activity began in 1403 and ended in 1434, with the battle of Lipan. Known for their great narrative power and contain vivid characterizations, Sienkiewicz' work includes the great trilogy of historical novels began to appear in 1883. It is composed of With Fire and Sword (1884), The Deluge (1886), and Pan Michael (1887-88). Set in the later 17th century, the trilogy describes Poland's struggles against Cossacks, Tatars, Swedes, and Turks, stressing Polish heroism in a vivid style of epic clarity and simplicity. Henryk (Adam Alexander Pius) Sienkiewicz (1846-1916) was a novelist, born in Wola Okrzejska, Poland. He studied at Warsaw, traveled in the USA, and in the 1870s began to write articles, short stories, and novels. His major work was a war trilogy about 17th-c Poland, beginning with Ogniem i mieczem (1884, With Fire and Sword), but his most widely known book is the story of Rome under Nero, Quo Vadis? (1896), several times filmed, notably in 1951 by Mervyn Le Roy (1900-87). He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1905.
