"Into thin air"

This is first Sienkiewicz's novel we know. It cost him much and when he finished it he said that it was the worst thing he had known and that it wasn't worth even fire.The novel shows Polish students' life in Kijow. They have many troubles and the most important is love. The relation to woman, complicated by the existence of rival and ethical problems connected with it all -these are the most important problems for main character in this book - Szwarc. In cotradistinction to other works Sienkiewicz criticises love experiences and the excess of love shows as a consequence of political captivity, which checked students' activity in other domains. Of course because of censorship he couldn't write it directly. The novel was printed in 1872 in "Wieniec" (Warsaw's newspaper) and after positive review of one of famous Polish writers - J.I.Kraszewski - it appeared in 1876 as a book. Today it's rather an interesting document of Sienkiewicz's opinions than a significant position in his attainments.