The Deluge (Polish: Potop) is a historical novel by the Polish author Henryk Sienkiewicz, published in 1886. It is the second volume of a three-volume series known to Poles as "the Trilogy," having been preceded by With Fire and Sword (Ogniem i mieczem, 1884) and followed by Fire in the Steppe (Pan Wołodyjowski, 1886). The novel tells a story of a fictional Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth soldier and noble Andrzej Kmicic and shows a panorama of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Swedish invasion of Poland known in the Polish tradtion as „Potop” (hence the title). Kmita is a patriot who, nevertheless, unexpectedly and unwittingly finds himself on the wrong side of the conflict as a new war starts to ravage the already weakened Commonwealth. This decision costs him dearly as his beloved Olenka now sees him as a traitor. This is an epic panorama of a country that is torn not only by a war with the external enemy, but also by a struggle with unscrupulous nobles who use their country's plight as an opportunity to magnify their power and zone of influence even if that means siding with the enemy. On the other hand we also see valiant soldiers, who, both with their swords and their wits, fight to expel the invading army. - Summary by Wikipedia and Piotr Nater