Mr. Muri

The Lord's Muri (1928) takes place at the end of the last century, in millennial times. He draws a picture of the landowners of a small town in the Great Plain with the tools of the noblest fiction, at the same time using a typical manner of speaking in the Great Plain. The novel deals with three serious problems, which are of course Móricz's problems as well. On the one hand, he warns of its danger by realistically depicting the existence of a self-destructive landlord-gentry full of darids. On the other hand, a landowner who stands out from his surroundings and is more valuable than his surroundings; In the form of Zoltán Szakhmáry, he shows the trap of descent due to weakness. The double life of Szakhmáry is also a sign of weakness - he has a lover next to his wife. This is the third problem of the novel: the woman as destiny. In other words, a full life can only be with a real companion, but this is so difficult to find ... The writer looks at his figures with compassion: after all, values and their mistakes, valuable Hungarian people are lost or destroyed. And with that, there will be fewer countries so important to him, and the fate of the nation will be more difficult. Móricz, who is forever built and moving forward, arranges what he has to say for his own age. A few years after Trianon, the slowly consolidating small home that has gained some strength under the presidency of István Bethlen cannot choose self-destruction - no matter how many tragedies, painful memories are behind it and an uncertain future lies ahead. Drunk Zoltán Szakhmáry turns the gun against himself: this is also virtus - Hungarian style ... But the real deed - and this is exemplified not only by the Ún muri, but by the life and oeuvre of Zsigmond Móricz - is not it! Solution, but bad solution; way, but wrong. The biggest virtue is to quote Zsigmond Móricz's friend and comrade-in-arms, Endre Ady: taking on the fate of the must-Hercules. László Kaiser