István Gombocz, University of South Dakota

Remembering, Forgiving, and Nostalgia in Sándor Márai's Novel Embers

Sándor Márai's bestseller Embers (A gyertyák csonkig égnek: 1942) takes its readers to a reunion dinner in a Hungarian aristocratic castle. Separated decades ago because of a conflict prompted by jealousy, two former officers of the Austro-Hungarian Army exchange their recollections and ideas of camaraderie, loyalty, and men's rivalry. In a night-long discussion, the Hungarian aristocrat Henrik demands final answers regarding an affair that once involved his wife Krisztina and his friend Konrád.

Translated recently into a number of European languages and sold in record numbers of copies, the novel has been for the most part interpreted as a striking psychological study of personal remembering, forgiving, aging, as well as attempts of forgetting. This proposal, based on reading in the original Hungarian, seeks to modify the main-stream interpretations in the following ways: First, it will discuss the differences between the upbringing, financial situation, and class status of the two men. It will reconstruct how inferiority complexes felt by Konrád, the son of a lower-middle class family in Galicia gradually translated into envy and hatred of his comrade Henrik, the privileged scion of an aristocratic family in Hungary. Second, it will portray the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy as a world of stability, reliability, and morality in comparison with the era of uncertainty and impoverishment that followed World War I. Third, it will offer an analysis of the narrative techniques Márai employed for separating and also amalgamating the time frames of his novel, beginning with Henrik and Konrád's military comradeship in Vienna around 1900, continuing with their personal rivalry around 1910, and ending with their attempted reconciliation at the re-union dinner around 1935.