Csardas
Page 74
To list everyone who has helped me with this book would be impossible, and indeed, perhaps they would not wish to be listed, for Csardas may not be the kind of book they had finally envisaged. So I just offer my warm and heartfelt thanks to the friends I made in Hungary who, in every walk of life, gave me unstinting help and the most generous of hospitality. On my visits there (made as a lone traveller and without any official guide), I found nothing but kindness and a desire to help. Somehow the language barrier was bridged—mostly because nearly all the Hungarians I met were fluent in two or three tongues—and I returned with a notebook full of personal reminiscences from people of all ages, not big reminiscences of epic history (they can be gleaned from the history books) but tiny details of a first ball dress, of a peasant child walking barefoot to school through the snow, of an old coachman who used to fascinate two small boys with wild tales of the Prussian wars.
I have, for ease of reading, left out all the accents over Hungarian words and have also anglicized some of the more difficult names. I hope the Hungarians will forgive me for mutilating their language, and I hope, also, they will forgive any errors I may unwittingly have made. With research and constant questioning I have endeavoured to make the book as authentic as possible, but undoubtedly something will have slipped through.
The bibliography at the end of the book lists my main source references for the historical background, but I want particularly to mention Paul Ignotus’s Hungary. In a wealth of reading I found this account to be the most balanced and also the wittiest (Hungary may be brave and bloody, but it has never lacked a sense of humour). Mr. Ignotus, a scholar and historian, was also kind enough to indulge my craving for personal reminiscences.
And finally I must mention, with warmth and gratitude, the man who inspired Csardas, who during the four years it has taken to research and write it gave me constant encouragement and patiently answered a huge variety of questions, ranging from the effect of the Anschluss to what he ate for breakfast as a little boy. To Nicholas Vilag, my dear friend, I say a particularly warm thank-you. You should really have written this book yourself, but as you wouldn’t, I have done the best I could.
DIANE PEARSON
September, 1974
Bibliography
Clark, Alan. Suicide of the Empires: The Battles on the Eastern Front, 1914-18. London: BPC Publishing (Unit 75), 1971.
Cruttwell, C. R. M. F. A History of the Great War, 1914-18. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1936.
Czebe, Jeno, and Tibor Petho. Hungary in World War II. Pamphlets of “New Hungary,” Budapest, 1946.
Edwards, Tudor. The Blue Danube. London: Robert Hale & Co., 1973.
Erdei, Ferenc. Information Hungary. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1968.
Faludy, George. My Happy Days in Hell. London: Andre Deutsch, 1962.
Horthy, Admiral Miklós. Memoirs. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1956.
Ignotus, Paul. Hungary. London: Ernest Benn, 1972.
Illyés, Gyula. People of the Puszta. Budapest: Corvina Press, 1967.
Kállay, Miklós. Hungarian Premier: A Personal Account of a Nation’s Struggle in the Second World War. New York: Columbia University Press, 1954.
Liddell Hart, B. H. History of the First World War. London: Cassell & Co., 1970.
Listowel, Judith. The Golden Tree: The Story of Peter, Tomi, and Their Family.... London: Odhams Press, 1958.
Macartney, Carlile A. October Fifteenth: A History of Modern Hungary, 1929-1945. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1956-57.
Newspapers of the First World War. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1970.
Roth, Ernst. A Tale of Three Cities. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971.
Seth, Ronald. Caporetto, the Scapegoat Battle. London: Macdonald & Co., 1965.
Shirer, William L. Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934-1941. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941.
______. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1960.
Taylor, Alan J. P. War by Time-Table: How the First World War Began. New York: American Heritage, 1969.
Watt, Donald C., Frank Spencer, and Neville Brown. A History of the World in the 20th Century. New York: William Morrow & Co., 1967.
Zeman, Z A B. Twilight of the Habsburgs. London: BPC Publishing (Unit 75), 1971.
The incident described on pages 140-145 (here) is based on a factual reportage from the First World War, although the place and time have been altered. This reportage appeared in 20 Riport Bemutalja a Vilagot and was written by Pásztor Arpád.
About this Book
An epic, bestselling historical saga, following the fortunes of an aristocratic Hungarian family through two World Wars.
Csardas – taken from the name of the Hungarian national dance – follows the fortunes of the enchanting Ferenc sisters from their glittering beginnings in aristocratic Hungary, through the traumas of two World Wars.
From the dazzling elegance of coming-out balls, feudal estates and a culture steeped in romance, to terror and starvation in the concentration camps – no story could be more dramatic than that of Eva and Amalia Ferenc, whose fate it is to be debutantes when the shot which killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo plunged Europe into the First World War. Their story is enthralling, tragic, romantic – and absolutely unputdownable.
Reviews
‘A story you won’t easily forget, on the scale of Gone With the Wind’
Sunday Mirror
‘I defy anyone to remain unaffected’
London Evening Standard
‘Immensely readable... has all the fire and dash of the national dance from which it takes its title’
Sunday Telegraph
About the Author
DIANE PEARSON worked in publishing for four decades and is the author of seven novels, including the bestselling Csardas. She was President of the Romantic Novelists Association for twenty-five years. She lives in South London.
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HeadofZeusBooks
The story starts here.
First published in 1975 as a Fawcett Crest Book by Ballantine Books
This eBook edition first published in the UK in 2014 by Head of Zeus Ltd
Copyright © Diane Pearson, 1975
The moral right of Diane Pearson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (E) 9781781857502
ISBN (TPB) 9781781857519
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Contents
Cover
Welcome Page
Display Options Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Part 1
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Part 2
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Author’s Note
Bibliography
About this Book
Reviews
About the Author
An Invitation from the Publisher
Copyright