[HBK]≡ Descargar They Were Found Wanting The Writing on the Wall Erdelyi Tortenet The Transylvanian Trilogy booK 2 Miklos Banffy Patrick Thursfield Kathy BanffyJelen 9781900850292 Books

They Were Found Wanting The Writing on the Wall Erdelyi Tortenet The Transylvanian Trilogy booK 2 Miklos Banffy Patrick Thursfield Kathy BanffyJelen 9781900850292 Books

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They Were Found Wanting The Writing on the Wall Erdelyi Tortenet The Transylvanian Trilogy booK 2 Miklos Banffy Patrick Thursfield Kathy BanffyJelen 9781900850292 Books

Miklós Bánffy continues his saga of Hungarian/Transylvanian life in the first years of the Twentieth Century -- years in which the "writing was on the wall" but few in Hungary and Transylvania noted it. In Volume I of the trilogy ("They Were Counted"), Bánffy focused more on the blinkered nature of the aristocrats, who partied and hunted and philandered while their social order began to disintegrate. Here, in Volume II, the time frame is 1907 to 1908, and the emphasis is more on the Hungarian politicians who are obsessed with petty, parochial nonsense, altogether failing to hear that the drums of European politics have begun beating the run-up to World War I.

Could things have been otherwise? Could those with power and influence have read the "writing on the wall" and modified their conduct to avert the tragedy of World War I and the splintering of the Austro-Hungarian empire? In the end, despite analyzing the historical missteps and identifying a root cause of World War I (the annexation of Bosnia-Herzogovina) Bánffy seems to say No, that the story he is telling is one of the "inexorable destiny" of Hungary and Transylvania.

Meanwhile personal lives also go forward. The central figure from Volume I, Count Balint Abady, continues his star-crossed romance with Adrienne Miloth, who is trapped in an unhappy marriage with the mad Count Uzdy. Abady's cousin, Count Laszlo Gyeroffy, continues his proud slide into alcoholic squalor. Despite moments of joy, the overall trajectory of the personal lives of Bánffy's characters seems to be ultimately a sad, sad one. Again, could things have been different? Again, Bánffy seems to say No, that his vision of life is a tragic one.

Of course I have yet to read the concluding volume of the trilogy, "They Were Divided". Perhaps there is a happy ending for some. But the reason for continuing on is not in the hope of a happy ending, but rather to enjoy -- paradoxically, to luxuriate in -- the world that Bánffy is re-creating. His trilogy is as fine an evocation of a time, a place, and a society as I have read.

To enjoy Volume II, THEY WERE FOUND WANTING, it is not imperative that you first have read Volume I. Bánffy goes out of his way, sometimes clumsily (about the only awkward writing in Volume II), to provide the necessary background from Volume I. But why deprive yourself of the pleasures of Volume I? The trilogy, at least so far, has a flowing, addictive quality, somewhat like the successive installments of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin saga. Nonetheless, I sense that Volume II is slightly better written, a tad more accomplished, than Volume I. There are more and better picturesque interludes, and Bánffy resists overwriting a scene or situation as he did from time to time in Volume I. For what it's worth, the translation also seems better in Volume II. But then, the reason why I prefer Volume II may simply be that I am now totally immersed in Bánffy's world.


Tags : They Were Found Wanting (The Writing on the Wall (Erdelyi Tortenet) : The Transylvanian Trilogy, booK 2) [Miklos Banffy, Patrick Thursfield, Kathy Banffy-Jelen] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <DIV>Takes up the tale of the two Transylvanian cousins, their loves and very different fortunes, a year after They Were Counted ends. </div>,Miklos Banffy, Patrick Thursfield, Kathy Banffy-Jelen,They Were Found Wanting (The Writing on the Wall (Erdelyi Tortenet) : The Transylvanian Trilogy, booK 2),Arcadia Books,190085029X,Literature & Fiction,CentralEastern Europe,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction General,Fiction-Coming of Age,General,General Adult,Great BritainBritish Isles,History,Hungary,Modern fiction,TEXT

They Were Found Wanting The Writing on the Wall Erdelyi Tortenet The Transylvanian Trilogy booK 2 Miklos Banffy Patrick Thursfield Kathy BanffyJelen 9781900850292 Books Reviews

The second book of the trilogy, just as catching as the first. It goes on in the story of the two cousins Abady and Laszlonon the background of Europe of the beginning of 1900, so called Belle Époque, and of the decline of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Very well written, it reminds of the great Russian novels.
This book is the saddest, most gracefully told, subtly portentous book I've read in years, and it's only the second book in the trilogy. First off, the writing is anything but bathetic. It is poetic where poetry is summoned by circumstance and, likewise, quotidian when needs be. It is altogether unbelievably exquisite in the execution. The subject matter has two mirroring themes, constantly playing off against each other, the political obliviousness of aristocratic Hungary as it hurries unwittingly towards WWI, and, more shatteringly poignant to this reader, the slow, inexorable crumbling of the doomed love between Count Balint Abady and the married Adrienne.

Here, for example, is the description of Abady's enchantment with the estate woodland, his love for which is only enhanced by his love for Adrienne

"Everywhere there were only these three colours, silver, grey, and vivid green and the more that Balint gazed around him the more improbable and ethereal did the forest seem until it was only those strands near at hand, which moved gently in the soft breeze, that seemed real while everything further off, the pale lilac shaded into violet, was like clouds of vapour in slight perpetual movement as if swaying to the rhythm of some unheard music."

And yet, when mundane realities break through, as they do one morning in the cabin Balint has built for trysts with Adrienne on the border of his and her husband's property, the writing is no less exquisite

"A golden shaft of sunlight shot into the cabin and marked out a clearly defined square on the beaten clay floor until, all at once, the inside of the little cabin, previously so mysterious in the half light, lost its magic in the sober glare of morning."

And the other mirror, Hungary itself, is described thus

"Everyday life went on as usual and most people only thought seriously about their work, their business interests, property, family and friends, their social activities, about love and sport and maybe a little about local politics and the myriad trifles that are and always gave been everyone's daily preoccupation. And how could it have been otherwise?"

How indeed?

It is beyond my capability in this review to fully convey how beautiful, but ultimately how sad, how exquisitely sad the spell this book weaves around one is. The best I can do is to proffer that it has to do with the inexorable sadness of life itself as circumstances gradually array themselves against it.

For, isn't each of us, really, lost in our enchanted little Hungary --- waiting for our doom to fall?
If I were to sum up this trilogy, I would say it's a Hungarian War and Peace. That's not to say it's written on the same level as War and Peace, or that Banffy is a Tolstoy. But just in that same way Banffy is trying to give a picture of a society, an entire society, high and low, which was later swept away by history. There are a lot of characters, a lot of events, and the plotting can be a little haphazard. It focuses on the Hungarian nobility, but at the same time it is unsparing in portraying some of them, at least, as drunken wastrels. It is also fairly harsh about the political leadership of Hungary, which basically spent its time in petty nationalistic quarrels (for instance, what language railroad porters in Croatia would be allowed to speak) while ignoring larger world events. At the same time, it does not turn away from social scenes (and Banffy's portrayal of female characters is excellent) as well as descriptions of the beauty of the natural world. Overall I found these books a very satisfying read. I was originally just going to read the first volume, since it was all I could afford, but I ended up buying the other two as well so I could finish.
Miklós Bánffy continues his saga of Hungarian/Transylvanian life in the first years of the Twentieth Century -- years in which the "writing was on the wall" but few in Hungary and Transylvania noted it. In Volume I of the trilogy ("They Were Counted"), Bánffy focused more on the blinkered nature of the aristocrats, who partied and hunted and philandered while their social order began to disintegrate. Here, in Volume II, the time frame is 1907 to 1908, and the emphasis is more on the Hungarian politicians who are obsessed with petty, parochial nonsense, altogether failing to hear that the drums of European politics have begun beating the run-up to World War I.

Could things have been otherwise? Could those with power and influence have read the "writing on the wall" and modified their conduct to avert the tragedy of World War I and the splintering of the Austro-Hungarian empire? In the end, despite analyzing the historical missteps and identifying a root cause of World War I (the annexation of Bosnia-Herzogovina) Bánffy seems to say No, that the story he is telling is one of the "inexorable destiny" of Hungary and Transylvania.

Meanwhile personal lives also go forward. The central figure from Volume I, Count Balint Abady, continues his star-crossed romance with Adrienne Miloth, who is trapped in an unhappy marriage with the mad Count Uzdy. Abady's cousin, Count Laszlo Gyeroffy, continues his proud slide into alcoholic squalor. Despite moments of joy, the overall trajectory of the personal lives of Bánffy's characters seems to be ultimately a sad, sad one. Again, could things have been different? Again, Bánffy seems to say No, that his vision of life is a tragic one.

Of course I have yet to read the concluding volume of the trilogy, "They Were Divided". Perhaps there is a happy ending for some. But the reason for continuing on is not in the hope of a happy ending, but rather to enjoy -- paradoxically, to luxuriate in -- the world that Bánffy is re-creating. His trilogy is as fine an evocation of a time, a place, and a society as I have read.

To enjoy Volume II, THEY WERE FOUND WANTING, it is not imperative that you first have read Volume I. Bánffy goes out of his way, sometimes clumsily (about the only awkward writing in Volume II), to provide the necessary background from Volume I. But why deprive yourself of the pleasures of Volume I? The trilogy, at least so far, has a flowing, addictive quality, somewhat like the successive installments of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin saga. Nonetheless, I sense that Volume II is slightly better written, a tad more accomplished, than Volume I. There are more and better picturesque interludes, and Bánffy resists overwriting a scene or situation as he did from time to time in Volume I. For what it's worth, the translation also seems better in Volume II. But then, the reason why I prefer Volume II may simply be that I am now totally immersed in Bánffy's world.