Two choices in Hungary

The writer shows how every human feeling is distorted in the midst of distorted relationships. Katánghy first brought the figure of Menyus to life in a scratch and wrote the career of his hero until he became a representative. Two years later, he captured another election "trick" for the title of The Circle Prank. He only later included the two narratives in one volume with the same title: Two Elections in Hungary. The emphasis is on the character drawing: the plot itself is built on worn-out, uncharacteristic motifs taken from newspapers or possibly borrowed from Dickens. Using feudal lord prejudices, Katánghy wants to survive in a bourgeois world that conforms to a different kind of law, and thus legally becomes a parasite, a false player in life. Drawing the character and individuality of his protagonist, Mikszáth did not make a clear judgment here. His main contradiction was reflected in his style. He saw well the depraved life of the gentlemanly society, but in the absence of social ideals evoking the future, some swinging cynicism had crept into his art; the feeling of helplessness made him shrug.