The Knout

The Knout: A Tale of Poland reached English readers in the 1850s through Mrs. J. Sadlier (1820-1903), the pen name of Mary Anne Sadlier, an Irish-born Catholic novelist and translator who settled in Montreal and produced roughly sixty books for the Irish immigrant market in North America. Translated from a French original, the tale takes its title from the knout, the heavy flogging whip used in Tsarist Russia, and follows Polish Catholic families suffering under Russian rule in the years surrounding the failed November Uprising of 1830. Her husband was a partner in the New York Catholic publishing house D. and J. Sadlier, though The Knout itself appeared in Philadelphia from Peter F. Cunningham, whose editions of 1856 and 1865 carried it to American readers. The book is a window on how nineteenth-century Catholic readers viewed partitioned Poland. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.