This premium quality large print edition includes the unabridged classic version of Quo Vadis in a large 7.44"x9.69" format, printed on heavy, bright white 60# paper with a fully laminated full-color cover featuring an original design. Set against the backdrop of the madness of the blood-soaked reign of Emperor Nero, Quo Vadis tells the story of the epic moral clash between the debauched paganism of the mighty Roman Empire and the austere piety of Christianity in its infancy. Quo Vadis is also the story of the personal philosophical journey of a small group of individuals seeking to find their way among the conflicting ideas in a time of upheaval which would, in the end, change the course of human history. Written by Polish novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz, recipient of the 1905 Nobel Prize for Literature, the novel was first serialized in Polish periodicals in 1895, with the novel version published in 1896 and subsequently translated into some fifty different languages. Jeremiah Curtain's 1897 English translation was a huge best-seller, putting U.S. publishe Little, Brown on firm financial footing. By far the most widely-read translation, it has long been the "standard" version. While some commenters have argued that Curtain's translation is "stilted" or "dated", Sienkiewicz himself, who read and spoke English, after reading Curtain's translations of his works wrote, in 1898, "I admire not only the sincere conscientiousness and accuracy, but also the skill, with which you did the work. Your countrymen will establish your merit better than I; as to me, I can only desire that you and no one else should translate all that I write. With respect and friendship, Henryk Sienkiewicz."