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Story Cycles as a Challenge to Literary History

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APPENDIX 1 AN ANNOTATED LIST OF SELECTED HUNGARIAN SHORT STORY CYCLES

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  • Bodor, Ádám. Sinistra körzet [District Sinistra]. Budapest: Magvető, 1992. Fifteen stories told by the protagonist, who spends some years in a strange region of a totalitarian fantasy-land, which in many aspects resembles Ceaucescu's Transylvania.

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  • Bródy, Sándor. Rembrandt. Budapest: Athenaeum, 1925. Twenty-eight short stories on the life of the old artist, who is lonely, poor and waiting for death.

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  • Eötvös, Károly. Bakony. Budapest: Révai Testvérek, 1909. Various writings about a Hungarian region. The volume contains geographical descriptions of the mountains, stories from the life of the author and his family, short stories that are said to have happened in the region, and biographical essays on famous personalities born there.

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  • Gárdonyi, Géza. Az én falum [My Village]. Budapest: Légrády Testvérek, 1898. Mostly present tense narratives and descriptions of village life in the elegiac mood.

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  • Gion, Nándor. Angyali vigasság [Angels' Amusement]. Újvidék: Forum, 1985. Winter stories from the narrator's childhood spent in a Hungarian provincial town in Yugoslavia. The stories are told in a pub to prevent the suicide of an unnamed narratee.

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  • Gion, Nándor. Mint a felszabadítók [Just Like the Liberators]. Budapest: Osiris, 1996. A professional writer composes short stories based on the stories told to him by a carpenter who builds bookshelves for him. After telling the series of the stories from the carpenter's life in the communist Yugoslavia the writer gets personally involved in the illegal activities of the carpenter's stepson in post-communist Eastern Europe.

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  • Herczeg, Ferenc. A Gyurkovics-lányok [The Gyurkovics Sisters]. Budapest: Singer & Wolfner, 1893. Each short story consists of a narrative about one of the pretty but not well-off sisters who use different but equally skilful strategies to get married.

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  • Jókai, Mór. Forradalmi és csataképek [Images of the Revolution and Its Battles]. Pest: Geibel Ármin, 1850. The short stories mingle historical and military narratives of the Hungarian revolution and war of independence against the Habsburg Empire, through stories of the private lives of various Hungarians living during those two years.

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  • Jókai, Mór. Egy bújdosó naplója [A Refugee's Diary]. Pest: Geibel Ármin, 1851. First person narratives of a refugee, who had fought against Austria in 1848–49. He is hiding in various regions of Hungary, therefore the cycle offers a panorama of the country after the war.

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  • Jókai, Mór. Öreg ember nem vén ember [Old Men Are Still Capable of Love]. The narrator insists that a marriage for an old man is necessarily unsuccessful. Four dreams follow; in each of them the narrator as a different person marries a different lady. All of the possibilities end in unhappy marriages.

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  • Krúdy, Gyula. Szindbád megtérése [Sindbad's Conversion]. Budapest: Athenaeum, 1925. Nostalgic stories of a Hungarian gentleman, who bears the name Sindbad due to his wide experience, especially with women.

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  • Mándy, Iván. Régi idők mozija [Old Movies]. Budapest: Magvető, 1967. Short stories on the life of a young boy in the Budapest of the 1930s, who is enthusiastic about movies. His life is centred around going to the cinema and talking about the world of the film. Life, movie, Hollywood legends and fantasy mingle in his consciousness.

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  • Mikszáth, Kálmán. A jó palócok [The Good People of Palocz]. Budapest: Légrády Testvérek, 1882. Fifteen short stories on people living in some villages near each other and constituting a Hungarian ethnic group.

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  • Pap, Károly. Megszabadítottál a haláltól [Thou Have Saved My Soul]. Budapest: Nyugat, 1932. Seven short stories on the life of poor everyday people in ancient Israel. All but the first one are centred around an identical protagonist that is presented on deferent stages of his spiritual progress.

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  • Thurzó, Gábor. József és Putifárné [Joseph and Potiphar's Wife]. Budapest: Magvető, 1961. Four stories from the life of one man with narratives of separate love affairs. The stories take place in different periods of his life and also in different settings.

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  1. Institute for Literary Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1118, Budapest, Ménesi út 11-13, Hungary

    Péter Hajdu

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Hajdu, P. Story Cycles as a Challenge to Literary History. Neohelicon 30, 49–57 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026291316948

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