Böcker av Gyula Krudy

Krudy's articles offer a wistful and nostalgic image of the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Covering the funeral of Emperor Francis Joseph I, the coronation of Charles IV and the Karolyi government, Krudy displays his intimate knowledge of Hungarian society.

"What you have loved remains yours." Thus speaks the irresistible rogue Sindbad, ironic hero of these fantastic tales, who has seduced and abandoned countless women over the course of centuries but never lost one, for he returns to visit them all-ladies, actresses, housemaids-in his memories and dreams. From the bustling streets of Budapest to small provincial towns where nothing ever seems to change, this ghostly Lothario encounters his old flames wherever he goes: along the banks of the Danube; under windows where they once courted; in churches and in graveyards, where Eros and Thanatos tryst. Lies, bad behavior, and fickleness of all kinds are forgiven, and love is reaffirmed as the only thing worth persevering for, weeping for, and living for. The Adventures of Sindbad is the Hungarian master Gyula Krúdy's most famous book, an uncanny evocation of the autumn of the Hapsburg Empire that is enormously popular not only in Hungary but throughout Eastern Europe.

An erotic glimpse into the Hungary of the early twentieth century. It collects ten short stories focusing on the poor and dispossessed and describing the human condition and the futility of life.

In these short stories, Sindbad, a voyager in the realms of memory and imagination, travels through the centuries in pursuit of an ideal love that is directed as much at the feminine essence as at his individual lovers. This text is an erotic elegy to the dying Habsburg empire.