The Writing on the Wall

Bánffy wrote his trilogy between 1934 and 1940, about the same time Zweig was writing his memoirs. It comprises a sort of Transylvanian War and Peace, illuminating the Hungarian side of the Dual Monarchy. Set in the pre-1914 period, when Budapest was still the capital of an enormous state, the stories deal with the affairs in all senses of the Hungarian aristocracy: their national hubris and frivolity. Superbly translated by Bánffy's daughter Katalin.