The Glance of Countess Hahn-Hahn

by Péter Esterházy, Richard Aczel (Translator)

Esterhazy's hero is a professional Traveller, commissioned - like Marco Polo by Kubla Khan - to undertake a voyage of discovery, and to prepare a travelogue about the Danube. Communicating his experiences through terse - and at times surreal - telegrams to his employer, the Traveller weaves a rich tapestry of narratives, evoking the dreamlike past and the precarious present of a disappearing world. Moving from the Black Forest to the Black Sea, Esterhazy takes the reader on a fascinating European journey of the imagination, down the Danube River, through Vienna, Budapest, and beyond the delta where the mighty river empties into the sea. Filled with allusion, fable, fantasy, history, and autobiography, The Glance of Countess Hahn-Hahn (down the Danube) is Peter Esterhazy at his best.

246 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Péter Esterházy was a Hungarian writer. He has been called a "leading figure of 20th century Hungarian literature", and his books are considered to be significant contributions to postwar literature.

Reviews

[Jacob S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Post modernism? – when asked by “the hirer”, Esterhazy(The Traveler) answers very politely, “Up yours!”

Whatever Esterhazy himself might have thought of the work, it bloody is post modernism.
Or, de-constructivism or any other ism that followed in the footsteps of Czech Structuralism.

Following the hired gun/author/traveler from one end of The Danube to the other, we are sucked into a tale taking it´s beginning way back in history and leading into post Iron Curtain Hungary.
The flash-backs are frequent, the alliterations equally frequent and the text includes so many associations and digressions that only citizens of Hungary who holds several master degrees in history covering the last 400 years of local history will have slight chance of getting the full value.
Add to this the deconstruction, and turning, taking up the same piece of text from a new angle, twisting it a bit, throwing it back in the box for later use and then starting over.

It is a tour de force through Middle Europe, and it does provide insight into the traveling soul of a man or nation? trying to find a new identity based on former glory or maybe non-glory.
Overall, the text raises many more questions than can be answered within the span of the average Hungarian life expectancy, which is probably good?

My edition is translated into Danish by a Hungarian translator – thus I believe very little of the original intent is lost in translation.

3 stars for effort.

[Csilla Dózsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

100000000 csillag. Nekem Esterházy a legnagyszerűbb magyar író. Vagy egyszerűen - a legnagyszerűbb író valaha. Már akinek ez mond valamit.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

ezt mondom!
https://ofwonderings.wordpress.com/20...

[John Mawhorter · Rating 4 out of 5]

there's not really anything post-modern, the label is fake, and it's all bad even if it is real

this book is like the only good postmodern thing though. if you like history and learning about other cultures and seriocomic interludes you'll like this. i swam in the Danube in Vienna just in case.

[Sofija Živković · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gusto, grozničavo, lirsko, prozno, pesničko, jedna od mojih najdražih knjiga svakako.

[Róbert Šedivý · Rating 3 out of 5]

A journey based on an ancient book that no one knows about. Events that take place during this journey. Reflections on phenomenons passing. Boundless intertextuality plus all sorts of other things à la Esterházy. The possibility of turning everything upside down.

Count Esterházy outlines a playing field, or rather suggests the lines. Not a word is said about the rules or lack thereof. As always. Please, read on.

I read it. One day with enthusiasm, the next day almost professionally, the third day with lack of understanding, the fourth day with enthusiasm again. The familiar with the unfamiliar, the high with the low, the abstract with the concrete. Metaphysical nonsense. Dream and illusion. Travelogue. Documentary. Essay.

I got used to it. When the Danube flows into the sea, the book will be no more. And indeed, where it is enough just to flow, that is, in the delta, the novel ends. A fine adventure – reading in the spirit of evoking something that one does not even know exists.

So what now? Am I a more perceptive person? A more seasoned reader? A better Central European?
Or: If I more or less liked it, does that mean I'm a snob?

Countess Hahn-Hahn has only one eye. Or maybe not.

- - - - - - -

Putovanie založené na starodávnej knižke, ktorú nikto nepozná. Udalosti, ktoré sa dejú počas putovania. Úvahy nad okoloidúcimi fenoménmi. Bezbrehá intertextualita. Plus všeličo iné a la Esterházy. S možnosťou prevrátenia naruby.

Gróf Esterházy nalinajkoval nejaké ihrisko, lajny skôr naznačil. O pravidlách-nepravidlách nepadlo ani slovo. Tak ako nikdy. Nech sa páči, čítajte. Ja som čítal. Jeden deň s nadšením, druhý deň profesionálne, tretí deň s nepochopením, štvrtý deň zas s nadšením. Známe s neznámym, vysoké s nízkym, abstraktné s konkrétnym. Metafyzické tresky-plesky. Sen a prelud. Cestopis. Dokument. Esej.

Zvykal som si. Keď sa Dunaj vyleje do mora, knižka už nebude. A naozaj, tam, kde stačí už len ústiť, teda v delte, je románu koniec. Fajn dobrodružstvo – čítanie v znamení evokácie čohosi, o čom sa ani nevie, že je.

No a čo teraz? Je zo mňa o čosi vnímavejší človek? O čosi ošľahanejší čitateľ? O čosi kvalitnejší Stredoeurópan? Alebo: Ak sa mi to viac či menej páčilo, znamená to, že som snob?

Grófka Hahn-Hahn má oko len jedno. A možno aj nie.

*Pár mesiacov po prečítaní tejto knihy som narazil na Esterházyho autorské vyznanie, ktoré všeličo vysvetľuje: "Na rozdiel od obvyklého chápania stojí u mňa skutočnosť a veta v obrátenom garde, ja pomeriavam vetu skutočnosťou, inak povedané nesledujem, či veta dobre opisuje skutočnosť, ale či existuje taký kus skutočnosti, aký opisuje moja veta, alebo či je moja veta skutočná. Z toho vyplýva: ak nie je veta, nie je skutočnosť, alebo aspoň neviem, čo s ňou."

[Gabriel Tamaș · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very demanding book filled, as any post-modern creation, with refferences, mentions and images that span over the entire history of Central Europe. But as postmodernism also came.with the Internet, the most Universal tool of all, the reader can be immersed a lot better in the chaotic world and story put togheter by Esterházy Péter. I recommend reading this with your smartphone close by and take at leas a virtual trip down the Danube.