They Were Counted: The Transylvanian Trilogy, Volume I

by Miklós Bánffy, Patrick Thursfield (Translator), Kathy Banffy-Jelen (Translator)

Overview

"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

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781908129024
Publisher:	Quercus Publishing
Publication date:	07/09/2009
Series:	The Writing on the Wall , #1
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	508
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	Up to 12 Years

About the Author

Count Miklós Bánffy (1873-1950) was variously a diplomat, MP and foreign minister in 1921-22 when he signed the peace treaty with the United States and obtained Hungary's admission to the League of Nations. He was responsible for organising the last Habsburg coronation, that of King Karl in 1916. His famous "The Writing on the Wall" trilogy was first published in Budapest in the 1930s, and rediscovered for the international market after the fall of communism. This epic work has now been translated into ten languages.

Editorial Reviews

They Were Counted ( paperback original; Jun. 14, 1999; 596 pp.; 1-900850-15-X): This roomy, eventful historical novel is the opening volume of a celebrated trilogy (A Transylvanian Story, 1934•40) written by a remarkably gifted (Romanian-born) Hungarian aristocrat (1873•1950) whose busy career as an influential diplomat somehow left time for Bánffy's equally impressive achievements as a painter and designer, musical administrator (who befriended Béla Bartók), and writer. They Were Counted is a Tolstoyan panorama that dramatizes Hungarian and Romanian history in the prewar years 1904•14 by juxtaposing the sometimes intertwined lives of two highborn cousins: one a heartless sybarite who casually throws his life away, the other a compassionate defender of his country's endangered peasant populace. It's a great work, whose forthcoming further volumes (the whole in English to be collectively entitled The Writing on the Wall) will be eagerly awaited by readers swept up in Bánffy's replete, absorbing, and very moving story.

Kirkus Reviews

Bánffy is a born storyteller.

Patrick Leigh Fermor

This epic Hungarian novel, absorbing both for its exploration of human nature and its study of the decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire … weaves social and political themes into Bánffy's powerful tale.

Daily Telegraph

Bitter comedy, elegiac description and a love affair make this a book I wish I'd read more slowly.

The Guardian