Release date is 2025-11-23

Albert László from page images generously made available by the Google Books Library Project

"A honszerző" by Ferenc Herczeg is a novel written in the early 20th century. It portrays the collapse of an old Hungarian noble line when Szitnyay György recklessly loses his ancestral estate at cards, setting off a clash between inherited honor, money, and modern ambition. Central figures include György, his resolute wife Irma, the professional gambler Balázsovics, Irma’s miserly father Naszódy Bálint, and the formidable jurist Jordán Sándor.

The opening of the novel follows a sensational night in a Budapest casino where Balázsovics wins 400,000 forints from the unsuspecting Szitnyay György, as onlookers coolly relish the spectacle. A sweeping interlude recounts the Szitnyay family’s centuries-long, often ruthless devotion to their land, heightening the irony of György’s swift loss. Reeling with fear and shame, György recalls a charged encounter with actress Vivó Edit, rejects his father-in-law’s cynical schemes to escape the debt, and receives a deferment from the gambler that lets him adopt a proud public pose. The scene shifts to the Szitnya estate, where Irma and the brilliant, domineering Jordán Sándor discuss duty and desire; he claims to understand and command her truest self. When György confesses the ruin, Irma—feeling released from a broken order—decides to leave for her parents at Jordán’s urging, promising only a letter later. The section closes with György watching Irma’s train depart and, in a stark image, glimpsing Jordán alone at his lamp, a silent emblem of the new force entering their lives. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: Budapest: Singer és Wolfner, 1913