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Article: The great Hungarian novel: a 20th-century classic. (Miklos Banffy's trilogy 'The Writing on the Wall')
- Article from:
- Contemporary Review
- Article date:
- July 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Contemporary Review Company Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Miklos Banffy's trilogy, The Writing on the Wall, which tells the story of Hungary in the last years of peace before the Great War of 1914, was published in Hungarian between 1934 and 1940 and, as it has not previously been translated into any other language, is unfortunately unknown to the Western World. The first novel of the trilogy - They Were Numbered ... - was an immediate success when it was reissued in Budapest in 1982.
The powerful story is told in three books (the first of which can be read as a complete tale in itself) - They Were Numbered, They Were Found Wanting, and They Were Divided. The trilogy is a bitter condemnation of the pre-war ruling classes ...