Sept hiboux

by Gyula Krúdy, Gabrielle Watrin (Translator)

Fin du XIXe siècle, Budapest plongée dans la brume de l’hiver.

Que vient chercher Szomjas, le vieil homme nostalgique, en revenant sur les lieux de sa jeunesse aux Sept Hiboux ? Pourquoi Józsiás, l’écrivain de trente ans en quête de notoriété, doit-il affronter tant d’obstacles dans ses projets littéraires et dans sa vie amoureuse ? Que peuvent bien se dire ces deux personnages? Krúdy nous fait revivre cette « fin de siècle » où se heurtent les générations et leurs idéaux.

Krúdy, avec l’œil d’un cinéaste, nous offre des tableaux d’hiver envoûtants, propices au rêve et aux visions. Guidé par le désir d’aventure, il nous conduit dans les rues aux noms imagés, donne vie à leurs quartiers, révèle les odeurs, dévoile ses mets préférés.

Tel le Danube « en marche », le roman nous réserve des surprises. Le courant d’abord léger, malicieux, nous entraîne peu à peu dans les profondeurs de l’âme, les contradictions des personnages complexes et attachants, la tragédie, mais aussi l’amour passionné omniprésent. Les femmes – Leonóra, Zsófia, Áldáska –, vrais ressorts de ses héros, « mènent le monde ».

Pour être classique, Sept Hiboux n’en est pas moins un roman très actuel et visionnaire. Krúdy, profondément hongrois, poète, nous livre ici une œuvre d’intérêt universel.

299 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Gyula Krúdy was a Hungarian writer and journalist.
Gyula Krúdy was born in Nyíregyháza, Hungary. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a maid working for the aristocratic Krúdy family. His parents did not marry until Gyula was 17 years old. In his teens, Gyula published newspaper pieces and began writing short stories. Although his father wanted him to become a lawyer, Gyula worked as an editor at a newspaper for several years, then moved to Budapest. He was disinherited, but supported his wife (also a writer) and children through the publication of two collections of short stories. Sinbad's Youth, published in 1911, proved a success, and Krudy used the character, a man who shared the name of the hero of the Arabian Nights, many times throughout his career.

Krúdy's novels about Budapest were popular during the First World War and the Hungarian Revolution, but he was often broke due to excessive drinking, gambling and philandering. His first marriage fell apart. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Krúdy's health declined and his readership dwindled. In the years after his death, his works were largely forgotten until 1940, when Hungarian novelist Sándor Márai published Sinbad Comes Home, a fictionalized account of Krúdy's last day. This book's success brought Krúdy's works back to the Hungarian public.

He was called "a Hungarian Proust" by critic Charles Champlin in The New York Times.