Osveta oružja

by Lajos Zilahy

Barcelona. 1959. Cisne. 18x10. 287p.

Genres: Hungarian Literature, Fiction

320 pages

First published January 1, 1936

About the author

Lajos Zilahy was a Hungarian novelist and playwright. Born in Nagyszalonta (called Salonta in Romania) in Transylvania, then part of the Kingdom of Hungary, an entity of Austria-Hungary, he studied law at the University of Budapest before serving in the Austro-Hungarian army during the First World War, in which he was wounded on the Eastern Front - an experience which later informed his bestselling novel Two Prisoners (Két fogoly).

He was also active in film. His 1928 novel Something Is Drifting on the Water (Valamit visz a víz) was filmed twice. His play The General was filmed as The Virtuous Sin in 1930 and The Rebel in 1931.

Edited Híd (The Bridge) 1940-1944, an art periodical. Opposed both fascism and communism. In 1939 he established a film studio named Pegazus, which operated until the end of 1943. Pegazus produced motion pictures and Zilahy directed some of them. In 1944, his play Fatornyok (Wooden Towers) was banned. Gave all assets to government treasury in early 1940s for use in educating youth in world peace, which led to the establishment of Kitűnőek Iskolája.

He wrote the 1943 screenplay himself and co-directed it with Gusztáv Oláh in Hungary under the international English title Something Is in the Water. The Czechoslovakian screenplay was written by Imre Gyöngyössy, Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, and directed by the latter two with a Serbian, Slovak, Hungarian, Czech and American cast on location at the Danube in Slovakia under the title Desire Called Anada in Czech (Touha zvaná Anada, 1969) and Slovak (Túžba zvaná Anada), with Adrift as its English title.

Lajos Zilahy became the Secretary General of Hungarian PEN but his liberal views placed him at odds, first with the right-wing Horthy regime and later with the post-war Communist government. Zilahy left Hungary in 1947,[1] spending the rest of his life in exile in the USA, where he completed A Dukay család, a trilogy of novels (Century in Scarlet, The Dukays, The Angry Angel) chronicling the history of a fictitious Hungarian aristocratic family from the Napoleonic era to the middle of the twentieth century. He died in Novi Sad, Serbia, then part of Yugoslavia.

Reviews

[Isidora Ivanov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ne postoji ništa što se novcem ne može kupiti. Osim ljubavi. Jer, najvrednije stvari uvek su besplatne. Ovde Lajoš pokreće večito aktuelno pitanje o značaju ili beznačaju novca (da ne kažem dobar sluga, loš gospodar) kada je reč o važnim životnim situacijama, ili – na metafizičkom nivou – otvara temu o balansu ili disbalansu između fizičke i duhovne strane čoveka, jer ipak smo mi nefizička bića koja su došla u ovu materijalističku stvarnost po iskustvo. U centru romana postavio je bogataša Baldera, moćnog proizvođača naoružanja, koji sasvim neočekivano gubi bitku na emotivnom planu, dok uobičajeno briljira na poslovnom. Bolje reći: muška sujeta kojoj jedino novac daje identitet. Ovo je priča o sužnju vlastitog života, čoveku koji jedino ne može uticati na svoju sudbinu, utoliko ubedljivija što nam autor prikazuje Baldera uvek na relaciji ljubav-bogatstvo. Nepredvidljiva fabula je, ne mogu reći izneverila, ali se svakako valjano poigrala sa mojim očekivanjima. Naime, trebalo mi je vremena da prihvatim Lajoševu verziju, s obzirom na to što sam ja pretvodno u glavi skrojila svoju vođena zanimljivim naslovom. Sve u svemu, njegov najslabiji roman do sada, valjda će tako i ostati. Ovoga puta ipak ništa od aristokratskog duha Mađarske, na moju veliku žalost. Iako neobična, fabula mi se nije svidela; smatram da je mogla biti ambicioznija, provokativnija i politički obojena kad je već reč o teškoj industriji, što da ne! Uprkos svemu što me nije oduševilo ni najmanje, ipak je od Lajoša ostala zadivljujuća lakoća naracije, izvanredne metafore i poređenja, podrobna opisivanja psihološkog stanja junaka i kratak i povremen živopisan osvrt na prirodu.
Oprostićeš mi, Laki!
3-

[Соња Николова · Rating 5 out of 5]

Преубава

[Наташа · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dodirljivo.
Oživljivo.
Za kišno vreme primamljivo.
Vrlo, čitalački, zavodljivo - do poslednjeg slova uzbudljivo.

[José Manuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

La historia de amor de un magnate, fabricante de armas, hacia una joven cantante de segunda fila. Un breve encuentro entre ambos, una anécdota, hace que el hombre encuentre en la mujer sensibilidades que nunca había experimentado y experimente una transformación un su modo de vivir y de pensar.
Novela escrita en el periodo entreguerras en Europa, su acción de desarrolla entre varias clásicas ciudades de continente: Budapest, París, Londres, Viena, Praga. Protagonistas bien descritos, y en particular algunos de los secundarios.
No es de lo mejor de Lajos Zilahy, posiblemente le sobren algunas páginas para ser más intensa, pero se lee bien.