Opis
Anti-Trilogy. Fanning the Flames by Wojciech Górski is a two-volume historical drama exploring the crisis of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the mid-seventeenth century.
Drawing extensively on contemporary accounts, the work brings together 333 historical figures across 15 acts and 541 scenes. Its two volumes, Blowing into the Fire and Into the Abyss, trace the political intrigues, personal conflicts and decisions that helped turn one of Europe’s great powers into a state increasingly vulnerable to its neighbours.
Górski challenges the heroic narrative popularised by Henryk Sienkiewicz’s Trilogy and invites readers to reconsider familiar judgements about “heroes” and “traitors”. In the author’s interpretation, the Commonwealth’s crisis cannot be explained by foreign aggression alone: dynastic ambitions, private interests, manipulation and failures of public responsibility played a decisive role in weakening the state.
The author presents the mid-seventeenth-century crisis as a decisive stage in the Commonwealth’s decline — a process that would culminate in its partition by neighbouring powers in the late eighteenth century. Poland would disappear from the political map of Europe as a sovereign state for more than a century.
At the centre of the drama stands the enigmatic figure known as INCOGNITO, whose hidden influence shapes the decisions of the ruling elites. Through this figure, the work explores the concealed mechanisms of political intrigue and their consequences.
The narrative culminates in the capture of Vilnius and the massacre of its inhabitants in August 1655. Its portrayal of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania broadens the perspective beyond a predominantly Polish account of the period.
Anti-Trilogy aims to reveal the mechanisms of political power and to show how the decisions and actions of individuals can shape the fate of an entire state. It invites readers to examine the people behind the events — and to judge their choices for themselves. Reading the book may also help illuminate the world today, as the motives behind political decisions and the exercise of power remain recognisable across the centuries.
Historia magistra vitae.
— Cicero
Table of contents – ANTI-TRILOGY. FANNING THE FLAMES
PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION
Excerpts from Descriptions and Reviews of the Polish Edition
Historical figures featured in ANTI-TRILOGY. FANNING THE FLAMES by Wojciech Górski (PDF)
