Vadászat férjre és hozományra. Jelenetek egy házasságból
Hunt for Husbands and Dowries

Summary/Abstract: The case study presents the story of an unusual marriage. Both parties, as well as their respective families, employ a diversity of practices breaching contemporary norms and etiquette. The aristocratic groom is motivated to win the hand of the daughter of the ennobled rich Greek merchant by the supposed wealth of her dowry. In the meantime, the mother of the girl is out to find the best husband for her barely grown-up, illegitimate child. The story of the marriage is known from two versions of the girl’s own narrative. The first version, a lengthy detailed letter to her father, was written shortly after the marriage, in which she, blaming her mother for what had happened, pleads for the promised annuity. The second version was written during the divorce and blames everything on the dowry-shark husband who had ripped off her father in the most deplorable manner. In this letter she chooses to remain silent about the role of the mother in the case. The story is evidence how etiquette guides are very unreliable sources in assessing the norms of behaviour and values of the nobility (and possibly the bourgeoisie too) of fin-de-siecle Hungary.

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