Be Faithful Unto Death
(ZSIGMOND MORICZ)
A scholarship student at a boarding school in Debrecen, eleven year old
Mihaly Nyilas (Misi) suffers from the common insecurities and exuberances of
childhood. He is prone to sudden panics and elations, wild swings in his
feelings for his friends, and fantasies of disaster or success.
Most of Misi''s problems are actually rather minor: having his paint stolen
by a bully, losing his hat, getting caught not paying attention by teachers, or
spending his laundry money buying books. A star pupil, he is given jobs reading
the newspaper to a blind man and tutoring a poorly performing fellow student.
This brings him into contact with a broader range of people, including his
first adolescent encounters with girls. But a real crisis comes when he is
accused of stealing a lottery ticket.
Superficially Be Faithful unto Death is a school novel,
with a simple plot made up of short episodes, but there is more to it than
that. Misi''s visits to three households, and his memories of village life,
illustrate the ways social status and wealth constrain the opportunities of
those drawn to learning.
Misi''s growth and realization of his vocation as a writer are linked through
his education to Hungarian history, to its national heroes and dramatic
incidents. A non-Hungarian reader eighty years later obviously reads this
rather differently to Móricz''s original audience in the 1920s, but it is never
unpleasant or jarring. (This translation includes notes for those unfamiliar
with the relevant history.)
Above all, however, the largely autobiographical Be Faithful unto Death
is an intimate and compelling personal portrait. Misi is a sensitive and
imaginative child ? remembering snippets of conversation had the same
effect on him as if he were listening to people actually talking to him ?
and a poet and writer in the making.
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