Novel
Az élet kapuja
Not translated into English
Ferenc Herczeg · 1920
Opening lines
Kanyargó utcasikátoron nyurga bérházak ágaskodnak, agyonfoltozott, vakmerően egymás fölé tapasztott emeletekkel, érthetetlen ablaknyílásokkal, fecskefészek-erkélyekkel, melyeket tarka, száradó rongyokkal lobogóztak föl.
In a winding back alley lanky tenements rear up, with storeys patched over and over and recklessly stuck one on top of another, baffling window openings, and swallow's-nest balconies beflagged with gaudy rags hung out to dry.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
Rome, 1512 and 1513. Tamás Bakócz, Archbishop of Esztergom, comes to the court of Pope Julius II to win Europe over to a league against the Turks, who threaten his country, and soon himself covets the papal throne, against Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici. In his retinue, a young Hungarian nobleman, Tamás Vértesi, falls in love with Fiammetta, a Roman courtesan. Intrigues, bargaining and betrayals gather around the conclave.
Context
The book appeared in 1920 from Singer and Wolfner; the author describes it as a narrative rather than a novel. The action takes place under the pontificates of Julius II and Leo X, and takes up an attested episode: the candidacy of Tamás Bakócz for the papal throne. The author makes it the moment when Europe leaves Hungary to its fate in the face of the Turk, and the book, published in the aftermath of defeat, was read as a meditation on the country's dependence on the West and on the need to count only on oneself.
Who it is for
A short narrative about Renaissance Rome, which assumes knowing what a conclave and the Turkish threat were; no French or English translation has been located.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as its author's best historical novel, and the book that earned him three Nobel Prize nominations, in 1925, 1926 and 1927.
Sources for this page 3
The pages consulted to check this page.