About this title: This 1942 novel, by a Hungarian expatriate writer, takes place in the late 1930s. An aging general named Henrik awaits the arrival at his remote castle of his boyhood friend Konrad, who stole the affections of Henrik's wife years before. A New York Times Notable Book for 2001.
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780141004310ISBN:0141004312
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780141004310ISBN:0141004312
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780141004310ISBN:0141004312
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780141004310ISBN:0141004312
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780141004310ISBN:0141004312
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780670910991ISBN:0670910996
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780141004310ISBN:0141004312
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780141004310ISBN:0141004312
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Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780670910991ISBN:0670910996
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"There have been many enlightening reviews of Embers that compare this book with other famous works by better known authors and the signifigance it has as a metaphor for the state of Europe at the time it was written. As a reader I was not interested in either viewpoint but just looking for an engaging, well written story. So bear with me in that respect. Embers tells the story of two old friends who have not spoken or seen each other for 41 years. Henrik, a military man part of the priveledged upper class and Konrad also in the military but from a much less priveledged background. The story recounts the men's friendship from their first meeting in boarding school through their thirties. This novel is engrossing because the reader knows that something has happened and is slowly, tantalizingly brought to the climax of one fateful day in their life. This book although about the actual events that take place in their lives is really about the philosophies behind human attachment; love, betrayal, jealousy, admiration, envy, honor and friendship. We as the reader get to see these played out in Henrik's recalling of the events that take place between the two men. Henrik never really grasps until much later in his life that his friend is a "different" kind of man. He is left to ponder during his recalling to Konrad, if ever they were truly friends or the brothers he once thought them to be. We the readers are treated to a wonderfully worded, literary feast with a philisophical treatise on nature of friendship. This gives the novel modern day relevance and timeless appeal . It is not a face paced slick production, but a slow moving, thought provoking, winding story that is sure to be enjoyed by most readers."
This is a complex, gripping, masterfully told story. The setting of an old forgotten castle in the Carpathian Mountains sets the gothic ambience of the story and adds to the dark and mysterious narrative of love, passion, betrayal, friendship and infidelity that brilliantly unfolds.
To clarify some of the negative criticism of the book from reviewers:
- All we get from this book is a raving monologue from the General - Well this is not completely true. The General does take up most of the dialogue in this book and at certain points it could be called a monologue. However this is to be expected for it is the General that has had the wrong done to him and not Konrad. Also it is not the General that has come to Konrad's place but the other way around. It is the Generals territory and it is the location of the wrong committed to General 41 years ago. Therefore the General deserves to dominate the dialogue. Also the General, even though he has been tortuously contemplating the betraying episode for decades, still does not know all of the facts. Not everything is definite for him, which can be seen right after he asked Konrad the first of the two questions. Even after all these years of reflection, the General thinks that his question is not the right question and believes he made a mistake asking it the way he did. The General has been haunted with what happened and is trying to separate the facts from his imagination. However with Konrads return it is finally the chance for the General to get at the truth.
- The general has spent a lifetime for this meeting and there is a lot of talk about him planning his revenge but no revenge ever happens - This is not true. The revenge is for Konrad to face the truth; for the General to call him to account. And this is what happens. The General might be a bit mad. You must be a bit mad if you contemplate such an incident so deeply for 41 years. The Generals spiel on twins made me think the guy had completely lost the plot. However in the end it is the general that has made his peace, signified by hanging Krisztina's picture back up on the wall. Konrad had to face the truth of what he did and know that the General figured most of it out without his help. Konrad leaves knowing that he betrayed his best friend, his best friend knows fully about it, and has to live with that guilt for the rest of his life. Also it might be said that he betrayed Krisztina also. He now knows the awful way she died and he will have to live with this too.
- Why did Konrad come back? This is never explained - This is also not true. Konrad came back because of guilt. Konrad possessed all the information about the affair; however what he didn't possess is how much the General, his once best friend, actually knew. I believe he came back to confess all before he died. Of course he didn't have to. The general figured most of it out himself.
- Many Questions are raised in this book but very little is answered in the end - I disagree. Many of the results of this book have been achieved by what has not been said and what has actually been left out. Most lines are telling far more then what is literally said. This is especially true with Konard's silences, which say for more then his actual dialogue. Just like all great literature, apparently minor or unimportant scenes and phrases usually have additional significance and resonance which you can really only hope to understand when you go back and reread the book. But for me, most of the questions were answered and clear in my first reading, and this is also true for the general, who is finally able to make peace at the end of the novel.
I'm not sure if this is a masterpiece. It is a complex work and I would really have to reread it to see if any flaws exist and look more into the negative comments some reviewers gave. But whatever the flaws or whether it is or not a masterpiece, this novel is definitely powerful, gripping, and memorizing and definitely deserves five stars."
Sandor Marai's novella, Embers, is a highly original and affecting discourse on the theme of friendship. The message is that the impulses of true friendship are finer and more powerful than any analysis.
An old Hungarian general has wasted 41 years fantasizing about the intellectual vengeance that he will wreak on his best but faithless friend. On the eve of WWII the friend returns for a visit. The book takes the form of a night-long soliloquy as the old general recapitulates his entire life and all the contradictory threads of his long introspection. The general's restricted viewpoint and rigid self-deception color every paragraph of the book. And yet chapter by chapter the reader develops a clear picture of the general, his dead wife, his friend, and the conflicts that drove them apart.
Embers is certainly a masterpiece of European writing: a timeless story; a unique structure, flawlessly constructed; convincing characterization; and lyrically crafted prose."
"There is little I can add to the other five-star reviews given by others, except to say that when one encounters a book such as this it reminds one of what "literature" is and should aspire to. The book is small, barely over 200 pages, yet the author recreated a tableau so complete that the reader might feel as if s/he were a fly on the wall. Most of the book is a monologue by the main protagonist, an eloquent disquisition on life, love, friendship, and loyalty.
I can say with pride and humility that I have known individuals born between 1890 and, say, 1930, who came to America from either the old Auastro-Hungarian Empire or "Middle Europe." Their education and cultural backgrounds were often at odd with what they encountered in America, and I learned a good deal from them about a world that is no more.
Reading Embers, I felt (or imagined) myself transported to that time and place For me, this is one of the signs of "high literature."
Above I used the words "eloquent disquisition." Rarely have I read such prose so concise and polished, beautiful, yet barely concealing the protagonist's pain. "Exquisite" is not an exaggeration.
Finally, a note about the author, especially as little was written in the earlier reviews. Marai was born in 1900 in what is now Slovakia. His family was ethnic German, and German and Hungarian were his native tongues. While his first literary efforts were in German, he found his voice in Hungarian. By the time he was 30 he was already a novelist, playwright, and poet of the first rank in Hungarian literature at that time.
Buth is life was filled with sorrow. His wife (Jewish, incidentally) bore him one son who died in infancy. They later adopted another boy. He did not "fit" in either Fascist or Communist Hungary and his family migrated to the Unityed States, where they lived for the rest of their lives. The adopted son died of a congenitasl heart condition in the 1980s, Marai's wife predeceased him in the later 1980s, and in 1989, with the world as he knew it gone and with no meaning to his life, he committed suicide.
Six months later "Embers" appeared in a German translation by an obscure publishing house. The Italian publisher and litterateur, Roberto Calasso came across it and saw in it a "lost treasure." Thus began for Marai a posthumous fame that exceeded that which had been lost after 1940s.
I cannot imagine how sad it must have been for him, having been, at the age of 41, at the forefront of Continental European literature in 1940, yet to spend the next 49 years in obscurity.
Finally, I read that a movie was supposed to be made of Embers in the early 2000s, but was never released.
In 2006 a stage adaptation appeared in England, starring Jeremy Irons and Patrick Malahide.
I can see Marai's work easily adapted for the stage, and how I wish there were a video recording of Irons and Malahide!"
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