Pan Tadeusz, or the Last Foray in Lithuania: A Tale of the Polish Nobility in the Years 1811 and 1812 in Twelve Books
Academic Studies Press
“Truly a masterpiece! Christopher Adam Zakrzewski has accomplished the impossible: he has rendered in prose what seemed possible only in poetry. Poland’s great epic poem can now be read as a delightful historical tale replete with Romantic irony. Zakrzewski’s mastery of the English language is remarkable.” — Ewa Thompson, Rice University
“In this extraordinarily fine prose rendering, Christopher Adam Zakrzewski brings his own prodigious gifts as a poet and translator to one of the great classics of world literature. The fruit of Zakrzewski’s decades-long labors, this book is a treasure of immeasurable value. — Michael D. O’Brien, novelist, painter
“Perfectly smooth, highly expressive, subtly nuanced, Christopher Adam Zakrzewski’s translation does full justice to this brightest jewel in the crown of Polish literature.” — Kazimierz Braun, Polish author, scholar, theater artist
“Christopher Adam Zakrzewski’s English prose is marvelously, not to say magically consonant with the poetical richness of Mickiewicz’s great Polish national saga.” — Dr. Olga Glagoleva, Senior Associate, Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto
“Pan Tadeusz is a masterpiece of Romantic literature and a key to the heart, mind, and soul of the Polish people and nation. This new edition will, I hope, make a challenging text far more accessible to the broad audience that Adam Mickiewicz deserves.” — Professor George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies, Ethics and Public Policy Center
“Adam Mickiewicz was and is the dominant figure in Polish Romanticism and is seen as playing the same pivotal role in the Romantic movement in Poland as that played by Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, and Sir Walter Scott in the English-speaking world. As such, all lovers of the great books of western civilization will welcome this new translation of the Polish national epic, Pan Tadeusz.” — Joseph Pearce, Visiting Professor of Literature, Ave Maria University
Arguably the most authoritative English translation of Poland’s great national poem.
Sometimes called the “last epos in world literature,” Pan Tadeusz (first published in Paris in 1834) is a classic tale of romance, mystery, war, and patriotism set in the turbulent Napoleonic era. The old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lies dismembered and erased from the political map of Europe by the great powers of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. A brief ray of hope rekindles national aspirations when Napoleon Bonaparte establishes the Grand Duchy of Warsaw by the terms of the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) and sets the stage for his invasion of Russia.