The Inconvenient Grand Seigneur – The Memory of Miklós Bánffy
The Inconvenient Grand Seigneur – The Memory of Miklós Bánffy

Summary/Abstract: If there were a single word to describe the life and afterlife of the author of the monumental A Transylvanian Trilogy, “inconvenient” would certainly best epitomize both the man and the writer. He was the scion of one of Transylvania’s most prominent Hungarian aristocratic families, a man who declined to pursue the customary political career of his family and class (though undertaking the burden in dire moments), wishing instead to win fame as a writer under the penname “Kisbán”. His output in a variety of arts is noteworthy (including, in addition to literature, painting and the visual arts, stage direction, stage and costume design), and he was a decisive figure in the Transylvanian literature of the interwar period as an organizer, but someone who shunned the limelight. He was quickly ousted from the literary scene during the “coalition” period after 1945. His literary afterlife also abounds in excommunications and attempts to dismiss his work on other than literary grounds, and despite his current almost global success and the repeated re-editions of his works abroad, he has failed to find favour with the Hungarian readership. It was not the prominence of his class but the superiority and critical edge of his intellect that guided him in a world the perversities of which – including the historical transgressions that led to its collapse – he tried to expose to his contemporaries. This was probably what the people whom his works are about could not tolerate; nor is it tolerated today by those who indulge in nostalgic reminiscence regarding the great deeds of the “glorious past”, lightly shifting all responsibility for the 20th century fate of Hungary to others.

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