The Transylvanian Trilogy, Volumes II & III

The Transylvanian Trilogy, Volumes II & III

Author: Miklos Banffy

Publisher: Everyman's Library

Published: 2013-07-02

Total Pages: 842

ISBN-13: 0375712305

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**Washington Post Best Books of 2013** The celebrated TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY by Count Miklós Bánffy is a stunning historical epic set in the lost world of the Hungarian aristocracy just before World War I. Written in the 1930s and first discovered by the English-speaking world after the fall of communism in Hungary, Bánffy’s novels were translated in the late 1990s to critical acclaim and appear here for the first time in hardcover. They Were Found Wanting and They Were Divided, the second and third novels in the trilogy, continue the story of the two aristocratic cousins introduced in They Were Counted as they navigate a dissolute society teetering on the brink of catastrophe. Count Balint Abády, a liberal politician who defends his homeland’s downtrodden Romanian peasants, loses his beautiful lover, Adrienne, who is married to a sinister and dangerously insane man, while his cousin László loses himself in reckless and self-destructive addictions. Meanwhile, no one seems to notice the gathering clouds that are threatening the Austro-Hungarian Empire and that will soon lead to the brutal dismemberment of their country. Set amid magnificent scenery of wild forests, snowcapped mountains, and ancient castles, THE TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY combines a Proustian nostalgia for a lost world, insight into a collapsing empire reminiscent of the work of Joseph Roth, and the drama and epic sweep of Tolstoy.


They Were Divided

They Were Divided

Author: Miklós Bánffy

Publisher: MacLehose Press

Published: 2024-09-26

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781529434682

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"Perfect late night reading" JAN MORRIS "Banffy is a born storyteller" PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR "Totally absorbing" MARTHA KEARNEY "So evocative" SIMON JENKINS The final volume of Miklos Bánffy'spanoramic trilogy of the dying years of the Habsburg empire. They Were Divided reflects the rapidly disintegrating course of events in Central Europe. In the foreground once again the lives of Balint, with his ultimately unhappy love for Adrienne, and his fatally flawed cousin, Laszlo Gyeroffy, who dies in poverty and neglect, are told with humour and a bitter-sweet nostalgia for a paradise lost through folly. The sinister and fast moving events in Montenegro, the Balkan wars, the apparent encirclement of Germany and Austria-Hungary by Britain, France and Russia, and finally the assassination of Franz Ferdinand all lead inexorably to the youth of Hungary marching off to their death and the dismemberment of their once great country. Volume three of the epic, sweeping and wholly immersive trilogy that began with They Were Counted, and continued with They Were Found Wanting. Translated from the Hungarian by Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Bánffy-Jelen With a Foreword by Patrick Leigh-Fermor WINNER OF THE WEIDENFELD TRANSLATION PRIZE


They Were Found Wanting

They Were Found Wanting

Author: MIKLOS. BANFFY

Publisher: Arcadia Books

Published: 2024-10-29

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781529434675

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"Perfect late night reading" JAN MORRIS "Banffy is a born storyteller" PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR "Totally absorbing" MARTHA KEARNEY "So evocative" SIMON JENKINS The second volume of Miklos Banffy's panoramic trilogy of the dying years of the Habsburg empire. The tale of two Transylvanian cousins, their loves, their ambitions and their fortunes continues in They Were Found Wanting. Balint Abady is forced to part from the beautiful and unhappily married Adrienne Uzdy. Laszlo Gyeroffy is rapidly heading for self-destruction through drink and his own fecklessness. The politicians, quarrelling among themselves and stubbornly ignoring their countrymen's real needs, are still pursuing their vendetta with the Habsburg rule from Vienna. Meanwhile they fail to notice how the Great Powers - through such events as Austria's annexation of Bosnia-Herzagovina in 1908 - are moving ever closer to the conflagration of 1914-1918 that will destroy their world for ever. Banffy's portrait contrasts a life of privilege and corruption with the lives and problems of an expatriate Romanian peasant minority whom Balint tries to help. It is an unrivalled evocation of a rich and fascinating aristocratic world oblivious of its impending demise. Part two of the trilogy that began with They Were Counted, and ends with They Were Divided. Translated from the Hungarian by Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Banffy-Jelen With a Foreword by Patrick Leigh-Fermor WINNER OF THE WEIDENFELD TRANSLATION PRIZE


Gift of Diamonds

Gift of Diamonds

Author: Roberta Seret

Publisher: Wayzgoose Press

Published: 2021-02-23

Total Pages: 335

ISBN-13:

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Seventeen-year-old Mica is a determined aspiring actress living with her parents in Romania as Nicolae Ceausescu begins his reign. Her parents are covertly political and influential, which makes them a perfect target for the Secret Police. They’re soon arrested, and Mica flees the country with her father’s rare—and possibly cursed—diamonds. With her parents imprisoned, it’s up to Mica to investigate the terrorism involving Ceausescu and his nuclear business partners.


They Were Counted

They Were Counted

Author: Miklós Bánffy

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2009-07-09

Total Pages: 804

ISBN-13: 1908129026

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"Perfect late night reading" JAN MORRIS "Banffy is a born storyteller" PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR "Totally absorbing" MARTHA KEARNEY "So evocative" SIMON JENKINS An extraordinary portrait of the vanished world of pre-1914 Hungary, this epic story is told through the eyes of two cousins, Count Balint Abady and Count Laszlo Gyeroffy. Shooting parties in great country houses, turbulent scenes in parliament and the luxury life in Budapest provide the backdrop for this gripping, prescient novel, forming a chilling indictment of upper-class frivolity and political folly in which good manners cloak indifference and brutality. Abady becomes aware of the plight of a group of Romanian mountain peasants and champions their cause, while Gyeroffy dissipates his resources at the gaming tables, mirroring the decline of the Austro-Hungarian empire itself. This is the first volume Banffy's trilogy, which continues with They Were Found Wanting and They Were Divided. It was rediscovered for an international readership after the fall of communism in Hungary. With a Foreword by Patrick Leigh-Fermor and translated from Hungarian by Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Banffy-Jelen WINNER OF THE WEIDENFELD TRANSLATION PRIZE


Treasure Seekers

Treasure Seekers

Author: Roberta Seret

Publisher: Wayzgoose Press

Published: 2021-04-27

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13:

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In this final installment of the Transylvanian Trilogy, childhood friends Marina and Cristina become amateur investigators, traveling from New York City and Paris to Istanbul to learn more about a web of crime among the countries’ leaders. Romanian leader Ceausescu had traveled to Tehran three days before he was executed on Christmas day, 1989, with suitcases filled with gold—gold that was never found. In their travels, the women risk their lives but deepen their friendship. Treasure Seekersexplodes with crime, passion, and a love story for the ages. But above all, it is about uncovering political truths.


The Transylvanian Trilogy, Volume I

The Transylvanian Trilogy, Volume I

Author: Miklos Banffy

Publisher: Everyman's Library

Published: 2013-07-02

Total Pages: 698

ISBN-13: 0375712291

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**Washington Post Best Books of 2013** The celebrated TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY by Count Miklós Bánffy is a stunning historical epic set in the lost world of the Hungarian aristocracy just before World War I. Written in the 1930s and first discovered by the English-speaking world after the fall of communism in Hungary, Bánffy’s novels were translated in the late 1990s to critical acclaim and now appear for the first time in hardcover. They Were Counted, the first novel in the trilogy, introduces us to a decadent, frivolous, and corrupt society unwittingly bent on its own destruction during the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Bánffy’s lush depiction of an opulent lost paradise focuses on two upper-class cousins who couldn’t be more different: Count Balint Abády, a liberal politician who compassionately defends his homeland’s downtrodden Romanian peasants, and his dissipated cousin László, whose life is a whirl of parties, balls, hunting, and gambling. They Were Counted launches a story that brims with intrigues, love affairs, duels, murder, comedy, and tragedy, set against the rugged and ravishing scenery of Transylvania. Along with the other two novels in the trilogy—They Were Found Wanting and They Were Divided—it combines a Proustian nostalgia for the past, insight into a collapsing empire reminiscent of the work of Joseph Roth, and the drama and epic sweep of Tolstoy.


The Enchanted Night

The Enchanted Night

Author: Miklos Banffy

Publisher: Pushkin Press

Published: 2021-05-25

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1782275932

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Transporting stories of intrigue, superstition and rivalry from a European master, in English for the first time In this stark, haunting collection, Miklós Bánffy narrates with wry wisdom stories of cunning, betrayal and myth ranging from classical antiquity to the Transylvania of his own day. These are communities of sharp rivalries and religious superstition: young Borbálka, about to marry an unsuitable man, receives strange counsel from a suspicious figure in her village; four men seek to exploit the captive Gavrila Lung for money, while mountain wolves howl in the distance; when Old Damaskin betrays his stepson to hold on to his land, his wife extracts bizarre revenge. Translated into English for the first time by the award-winning Len Rix, this collection further establishes Bánffy as one of the foremost European writers of the twentieth century.


Exploring Gypsiness

Exploring Gypsiness

Author: Ada I. Engebrigtsen

Publisher: Berghahn Books

Published: 2007-03-01

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 0857457101

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Romania has a larger Gypsy population than most other countries but little is known about the relationship between this group and the non-Gypsy Romanians around them. This book focuses on a group of Rom Gypsies living in a village in Transylvania and explores their social life and cosmology. Because Rom Gypsies are dependent on and define themselves in relation to the surrounding non-Gypsy populations, it is important to understand their day-to-day interactions with these neighbors, primarily peasants to whom they relate through extended barter. The author comes to the conclusion that, although economically and politically marginal, Rom Gypsies are central to Romanian collective identity in that they offer desirable and repulsive counter images, incorporating the uncivilized, immoral and destructive "other". This interdependence creates tensions but it also allows for some degree of cultural and political autonomy for the Roma within Romanian society.


Massacre Street

Massacre Street

Author: Paul Zits

Publisher: University of Alberta

Published: 2013-03-20

Total Pages: 129

ISBN-13: 0888646755

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Poetic exploration of historical records of the Frog Lake Massacre (1885) links past to present.