A Hungarian Romance
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Drawing on the old Hungarian széphistoria or romance tradition, Ágnes Hankiss both assimilates its 16th century roots and subverts them with this engaging double narrative of His-story — show trials, rebellions and religious unrest that helped to form the Hungarian national identity — and Her-story — searing private conflicts within a family and a marriage that must burst into the public sphere. The domestic struggle of a woman for identity and independence mirrors and finally overwhelms the national story in this great novel artfully combining lyricism with passion, wonderfully translated into English.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The stories of Susanna Forgach's desire for freedom from her abusive marriage, and Hungarian hero Istvan Illeshazy's struggle with the Hapsburg rulers of Hungary, are intertwined in this powerful, intricately constructed novel. As the narratives alternate and then merge, they simultaneously ask the question: ``. . . is there really any such thing as freedom? Is it not merely the ghost of denial and yearning . . . ?'' The tangled triangle of the beautiful Susanna, her violent, impotent husband Ferenc Revay and her worldly lover Peter Bakics culminates in a divorce trial as ludicrous and complicated as Illeshazy's sham treason trial. Hankiss's elegant and ironic writing skillfully blends fact and fiction as she exposes the myriad layers of corruption and deceit in politics and in the human soul. Despite the explanatory introduction, the complex political situation can occasionally be confusing, but we are drawn in and captivated by the human side of this first novel, by the tender, knowing treatment of the age-old love triangle and the awakening of a woman's sense of herself.
