Novel
Abel Alone
Ábel a rengetegben
Áron Tamási · 1932
Synopsis
In the aftermath of the Great War, in a Transylvania that has become Romanian, Szakállas Ábel, a fifteen-year-old Székely boy, is placed by his father as a forest warden on the Hargita, on behalf of a bank: he must watch over the felled timber and sell some of it to buyers against a receipt. He lives alone in a forester's house with his dog, a goat, a cat and two hens, and sees visitors come and go: a Romanian merchant who robs him, a gendarme posted with him for the winter, monks from the neighbourhood. To each of them he replies with a cunning and a verve inherited from his father.
Context
The novel first appears as a serial in the daily Brassói Lapok, then in volume form in 1932 in Kolozsvár, from the Erdélyi Szépmíves Céh, with drawings by Miklós Bánffy. It is the first part of a trilogy drawn in large part from the author's life: Ábel az országban follows in 1933 and Ábel Amerikában in 1934, and the whole appears in one volume, under the title Ábel, in 1937. Written in the speech of the Székelys, rich in wordplay, it is counted among the texts most loved by Hungarian readers.
Who it is for
A short novel, carried by the language of the Székelys and its wordplay; translated into French and English.
Prizes and reception
Counted among the favourite books of Hungarian readers, it was adapted for the screen in 1994.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.