What do you think?
Rate this book
Abigail
Abigail, the story of a headstrong teenager growing up during World War II, is the most beloved of Magda Szabó’s books in her native Hungary. Gina is the only child of a general, a widower who has long been happy to spoil his bright and willful daughter. Gina is devastated when the general tells her that he must go away on a mission and that he will be sending her to boarding school in the country. She is even more aghast at the grim religious institution to which she soon finds herself consigned. She fights with her fellow students, she rebels against her teachers, finds herself completely ostracized, and runs away. Caught and brought back, there is nothing for Gina to do except entrust her fate to the legendary Abigail, as the classical statue of a woman with an urn that stands on the school’s grounds has come to be called. If you’re in trouble, it’s said, leave a message with Abigail and help will be on the way. And for Gina, who is in much deeper trouble than she could possibly suspect, a life-changing adventure is only beginning.
There is something of Jane Austen in this story of the deceptiveness of appearances; fans of J.K. Rowling are sure to enjoy Szabó’s picture of irreverent students, eccentric teachers, and boarding-school life. Above all, however, Abigail is a thrilling tale of suspense.
There is something of Jane Austen in this story of the deceptiveness of appearances; fans of J.K. Rowling are sure to enjoy Szabó’s picture of irreverent students, eccentric teachers, and boarding-school life. Above all, however, Abigail is a thrilling tale of suspense.
333 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1970
About the author
Magda Szabó
75 books878 followersMagda Szabó was a Hungarian writer, arguably Hungary's foremost female novelist. She also wrote dramas, essays, studies, memories and poetry.
Born in Debrecen, Szabó graduated at the University of Debrecen as a teacher of Latin and of Hungarian. She started working as a teacher in a Calvinist all-girl school in Debrecen and Hódmezővásárhely. Between 1945 and 1949 she was working in the Ministry of Religion and Education. She married the writer and translator Tibor Szobotka in 1947.
She began her writing career as a poet, publishing her first book Bárány ("Lamb") in 1947, which was followed by Vissza az emberig ("Back to the Human") in 1949. In 1949 she was awarded the Baumgarten Prize, which was--for political reasons--withdrawn from her on the very day it was given. She was dismissed from the Ministry in the same year.
During the establishment of Stalinist rule from 1949 to 1956, the government did not allow her works to be published. Since her unemployed husband was also stigmatized by the communist regime, she was forced to teach in an elementary school during this period.
Her first novel, Freskó ("Fresco"), written in these years was published in 1958 and achieved overwhelming success among readers. Her most widely read novel, Abigél ("Abigail", 1970), is an adventure story about a schoolgirl boarding in eastern Hungary during the war.
She received several prizes in Hungary, and her works have been published in 42 countries. In 2003, she was the winner of the French literary prize Prix Femina Étranger for the best foreign novel.
Her novel Abigél was popularized through a much-loved television series in 1978. Abigél was also chosen as the sixth most popular novel at the Hungarian version of Big Read. Her three other novels that were in the top 100 are Für Elise , An Old-Fashioned Story , and The Door .
Born in Debrecen, Szabó graduated at the University of Debrecen as a teacher of Latin and of Hungarian. She started working as a teacher in a Calvinist all-girl school in Debrecen and Hódmezővásárhely. Between 1945 and 1949 she was working in the Ministry of Religion and Education. She married the writer and translator Tibor Szobotka in 1947.
She began her writing career as a poet, publishing her first book Bárány ("Lamb") in 1947, which was followed by Vissza az emberig ("Back to the Human") in 1949. In 1949 she was awarded the Baumgarten Prize, which was--for political reasons--withdrawn from her on the very day it was given. She was dismissed from the Ministry in the same year.
During the establishment of Stalinist rule from 1949 to 1956, the government did not allow her works to be published. Since her unemployed husband was also stigmatized by the communist regime, she was forced to teach in an elementary school during this period.
Her first novel, Freskó ("Fresco"), written in these years was published in 1958 and achieved overwhelming success among readers. Her most widely read novel, Abigél ("Abigail", 1970), is an adventure story about a schoolgirl boarding in eastern Hungary during the war.
She received several prizes in Hungary, and her works have been published in 42 countries. In 2003, she was the winner of the French literary prize Prix Femina Étranger for the best foreign novel.
Her novel Abigél was popularized through a much-loved television series in 1978. Abigél was also chosen as the sixth most popular novel at the Hungarian version of Big Read. Her three other novels that were in the top 100 are Für Elise , An Old-Fashioned Story , and The Door .
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 821 reviews
July 1, 2020
“Four-square, severe, stark-white. Tiny windows covered with iron bars; iron bars across the entrance. It must be terribly old. It isn’t like a school at all. More like a fortress.”
You are a fourteen-year old, motherless girl, and you adore your father deeply. A war is going on, but you don’t really feel the consequences of it (yet). Your beloved French governess has been sent back to her homeland. Suddenly, your father tells you that you are being uprooted from the only home you’ve ever known and being sent to a girls’ boarding school far away. Not just any girls’ school, either – a “fortress.” What is a young adolescent to do? Rebel, naturally! Although to give her credit, Gina Vitay’s brand of rebellion isn’t necessarily of the kicking and screaming variety, but rather a more controlled, clever, and stoic sort of defiance. After all, her father is a general in the Hungarian army and Gina has inherited a backbone much like this stalwart and composed officer.
“She needed no instruction on what to feel, and she would certainly never expose what was private between them to the eyes of people they did not know.”
Gina is left in the confines of the Bishop Matula Academy for girls while World War II seethes across the globe. She is reduced to a replica of all the other girls housed there. They all dress and wear their hair the same; no precious belongings from the outside are allowed as comforts to be hoarded and cherished. An independent-minded, spirited girl like Gina becomes instantly hostile. The other girls have their own coping mechanisms - ways to keep themselves amused and games to fool their teachers and superiors. They invite Gina into their fold, but Gina makes a wrong step and is quickly ostracized. Anyone that has ever been a teenage girl or has had dealings with one will know how ugly this can get!
“They have swallowed me whole. I am no longer myself, she thought, and her breathing became a rapid pant.”
There is a mystery behind this story and a rather compelling one at that. There is the secret of why the General has left Gina in the clutches of these seemingly cold, uncaring adults. There are whispers of the dissident of Árkod, whose handiwork the girls observe furtively, much to the dismay of their teachers. Then there is Abigail. Abigail is a statue on the grounds of the institute. She is said to come to the aid of those in trouble, and the other girls firmly believe in her. Gina, however, looks on this statue with scorn. Until one day she receives a note of her own from this guardian angel of sorts. It is rumored that a person must certainly be behind these secret messages, but who could it be? And how does he or she fit into the other puzzles of the academy and the town itself?
“Who are you, Abigail, you whose true face no one has ever seen, whom we know only by the actions that you’ve been carrying out inside these walls for thirty years?”
There is much to admire in this novel that has been translated into English after being published in Hungary fifty years ago. Magda Szabó is an author that writes a solid and very engaging plot. She moves the story along with a good deal of suspense, but also a variety of interesting characters. These characters are not necessarily readily developed, but that is not the point of this book. Each is distinctly drawn, yet it is the plot itself that wins the day. There are lessons to be learned - in particular, appearances can be deceiving (as we all know)! But when a group of girls view people on the surface only (as young girls are wont to do), they can truly get themselves and others into some hot water! Matchmaking and general disdain rule the day when it comes to interactions with their teachers.
This isn’t my first time reading one of Szabó’s books in translation, nor will it be my last. I could easily recommend this to anyone that enjoys a boarding school story and a mystery. I have to admit, I did unscramble part of the riddle fairly early on. That’s not really the object here though – at heart, it’s an entertaining story full of atmosphere and accomplished writing.
“When, as an adult, she thought back to the hymns and psalms of her youth, she never remembered them in isolation; particular sounds and scents drifted around them, and with them too the smell of the home-made soap that filled the corridors of the Matula, the soundless opening and closing of doors, the timid, hesitant movement of her fingers on the piano keyboard, and even her face as it had looked at the time.”
You are a fourteen-year old, motherless girl, and you adore your father deeply. A war is going on, but you don’t really feel the consequences of it (yet). Your beloved French governess has been sent back to her homeland. Suddenly, your father tells you that you are being uprooted from the only home you’ve ever known and being sent to a girls’ boarding school far away. Not just any girls’ school, either – a “fortress.” What is a young adolescent to do? Rebel, naturally! Although to give her credit, Gina Vitay’s brand of rebellion isn’t necessarily of the kicking and screaming variety, but rather a more controlled, clever, and stoic sort of defiance. After all, her father is a general in the Hungarian army and Gina has inherited a backbone much like this stalwart and composed officer.
“She needed no instruction on what to feel, and she would certainly never expose what was private between them to the eyes of people they did not know.”
Gina is left in the confines of the Bishop Matula Academy for girls while World War II seethes across the globe. She is reduced to a replica of all the other girls housed there. They all dress and wear their hair the same; no precious belongings from the outside are allowed as comforts to be hoarded and cherished. An independent-minded, spirited girl like Gina becomes instantly hostile. The other girls have their own coping mechanisms - ways to keep themselves amused and games to fool their teachers and superiors. They invite Gina into their fold, but Gina makes a wrong step and is quickly ostracized. Anyone that has ever been a teenage girl or has had dealings with one will know how ugly this can get!
“They have swallowed me whole. I am no longer myself, she thought, and her breathing became a rapid pant.”
There is a mystery behind this story and a rather compelling one at that. There is the secret of why the General has left Gina in the clutches of these seemingly cold, uncaring adults. There are whispers of the dissident of Árkod, whose handiwork the girls observe furtively, much to the dismay of their teachers. Then there is Abigail. Abigail is a statue on the grounds of the institute. She is said to come to the aid of those in trouble, and the other girls firmly believe in her. Gina, however, looks on this statue with scorn. Until one day she receives a note of her own from this guardian angel of sorts. It is rumored that a person must certainly be behind these secret messages, but who could it be? And how does he or she fit into the other puzzles of the academy and the town itself?
“Who are you, Abigail, you whose true face no one has ever seen, whom we know only by the actions that you’ve been carrying out inside these walls for thirty years?”
There is much to admire in this novel that has been translated into English after being published in Hungary fifty years ago. Magda Szabó is an author that writes a solid and very engaging plot. She moves the story along with a good deal of suspense, but also a variety of interesting characters. These characters are not necessarily readily developed, but that is not the point of this book. Each is distinctly drawn, yet it is the plot itself that wins the day. There are lessons to be learned - in particular, appearances can be deceiving (as we all know)! But when a group of girls view people on the surface only (as young girls are wont to do), they can truly get themselves and others into some hot water! Matchmaking and general disdain rule the day when it comes to interactions with their teachers.
This isn’t my first time reading one of Szabó’s books in translation, nor will it be my last. I could easily recommend this to anyone that enjoys a boarding school story and a mystery. I have to admit, I did unscramble part of the riddle fairly early on. That’s not really the object here though – at heart, it’s an entertaining story full of atmosphere and accomplished writing.
“When, as an adult, she thought back to the hymns and psalms of her youth, she never remembered them in isolation; particular sounds and scents drifted around them, and with them too the smell of the home-made soap that filled the corridors of the Matula, the soundless opening and closing of doors, the timid, hesitant movement of her fingers on the piano keyboard, and even her face as it had looked at the time.”
September 21, 2019
I loved this propulsive, infectious novel coming out this January. Think a bit of EMMA, with a headstrong lead, and a bit of Harry Potter, a school full of byzantine rules and moments of kindness, and all of it set during World War 2, with the same great insightful writing as THE DOOR. It is fascinating to see such a psychologically acute writer spin such a wonderful, universal narrative. I can see why this is a beloved book in Hungary - I wish I'd read it when I was younger.
January 9, 2020
A strong early contender for my favourite book of 2020. This is the fourth of Szabó's novels to be translated into English by Len Rix and might just be the best of the four, though it is difficult to compare such different books. The first, her late masterpiece The Door, is one of my favourites and the other two (Iza's Ballad and Katalin Street) are very impressive - I hope there are more to come, as it seems extraordinary that a book this good had to wait almost half a century for an English translation.
At first, in 1943, we seem to be in almost formulaic territory, as our omniscient narrator introduces us to the teenage protagonist Gina (Georgina) Vitay, a somewhat spoilt only child who has been living in Budapest with her father, who is a General, and her beloved governess, who has just returned to France. Her father decides that he needs to send her away to a boarding school, but does not reveal all of his reasons.
The school, in the Eastern town of Árkod on the edge of the great plain (the blurb mentions Debrecen, which suggests that it is a thinly veiled version of Szabó's own home town), is a forbidding near fortress, largely isolated from the town around it, and governed by a strict religious code which dictates almost everything the girls do. Szabó describes the culture shock and its effect on Gina brilliantly, and her storytelling establishes a hold which never relents.
From this fairly traditional rites of passage story, it doesn't take long for more interesting elements to emerge. Without giving away spoilers, these concern Hungary's uneasy relationship with its ally Germany, and the emergence of a resistance movement that attempted to curtail Hungary's involvement in the war and thwart the Nazis.
Gina's gradually emerging awareness, both of the complex nuances of her situation and of the real motivations of the adults around her and some of the other girls, is handled very cleverly, and although the narrator often hints at events to come (for example at times she describes the adult Gina's memories), one of the most dramatic revelations is held back until the last few pages. Len Rix's translation is unobtrusive and very readable, and I couldn't resist devouring the book in less than three days. I can't recommend this one highly enough.
At first, in 1943, we seem to be in almost formulaic territory, as our omniscient narrator introduces us to the teenage protagonist Gina (Georgina) Vitay, a somewhat spoilt only child who has been living in Budapest with her father, who is a General, and her beloved governess, who has just returned to France. Her father decides that he needs to send her away to a boarding school, but does not reveal all of his reasons.
The school, in the Eastern town of Árkod on the edge of the great plain (the blurb mentions Debrecen, which suggests that it is a thinly veiled version of Szabó's own home town), is a forbidding near fortress, largely isolated from the town around it, and governed by a strict religious code which dictates almost everything the girls do. Szabó describes the culture shock and its effect on Gina brilliantly, and her storytelling establishes a hold which never relents.
From this fairly traditional rites of passage story, it doesn't take long for more interesting elements to emerge. Without giving away spoilers, these concern Hungary's uneasy relationship with its ally Germany, and the emergence of a resistance movement that attempted to curtail Hungary's involvement in the war and thwart the Nazis.
Gina's gradually emerging awareness, both of the complex nuances of her situation and of the real motivations of the adults around her and some of the other girls, is handled very cleverly, and although the narrator often hints at events to come (for example at times she describes the adult Gina's memories), one of the most dramatic revelations is held back until the last few pages. Len Rix's translation is unobtrusive and very readable, and I couldn't resist devouring the book in less than three days. I can't recommend this one highly enough.
October 4, 2023
[Edited 10/4/23]
Gina, our main character, is a teenager, daughter of a recently widowed Hungarian general. The story is set at an incredibly strict religious girls’ school.
The novel is set around the time when World War II is nearing its end. Hungary is an Axis ally but Hitler’s troops are invading because he feels Hungary isn’t doing enough to help his cause and they are not inflicting his horrors upon the Jews fast enough.
I suggest that although the translator’s introduction gives away some of the plot, it is worth reading in advance to understand the complex historical context of what is going on. Hungarian troops are fighting the Germans and losing badly. Young Hungarian men are just cannon fodder in front of the German advances.
The plot is structured around three mysteries. First, why has her father sent Gina away to the farthest end of the country, to this strict all-girls religious school? She would do anything to stay near her father. So what if he wants to remarry? But that's not it. Why can't she stay with her aunt? Her aunt is a very cosmopolitan woman who throws parties for the elite of the city.
The second mystery concerns Abigail of the title. Abigail is a statue with a bowl where girls leave notes and get notes back answering their questions and giving them guidance about the most traumatic events going on in their lives. Who is Abigail?
The third mystery is: who is risking imprisonment or even death by posting anti-war signs around the town?
The school environment is strict - depressing, repressing and joyless. The girls wear a full-body uniform. No ornamentation or personal possessions are allowed and they even have to have the same hairstyle. (I kept thinking of The Handmaid’s Tale.) Everything is regimented by bells. Idleness and free time are considered dangerous. The girls are always occupied by work and study. Even conversation among them is discouraged. Their letters in and out are censored and their phone calls monitored.
SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW
Gina quickly runs afoul of the other girls. Coming from the capital, she's too sophisticated for them and she spurns what she considers their silly childish games. They turn on her viciously and she is shunned. She's miserable and she plans an escape.
Abigail give Gina good advice about making up with her institutional sisters. Then Abigail selects her for a dangerous task. She is sent into the director's office to steal records and to give them to a number of girls who, according to their records, belong to a strange Protestant religious group.
Eventually Gina recognizes there is no way out. “Gina began to realize how exhilarating it was to live in a forbidden forest. Like hungry little foxes, they were always on the qui vive, looking to squeeze out every bit of fun they could in the thicket of rules and regulations and constant supervision.”
The girls have no opportunity for a love life but they delight in watching and inventing ones for the male and female staff, all of whom live on campus. Of course there is a male teacher they all fall in love with, and a female staff member they look up to as a role model. They delight in imagining a marriage for the pair. But as the girls watch and speculate on the mismatched love interests of the staff, it’s an A loves B; B loves C; C loves D thing.
The staff too has many ridiculously stringent rules. In a role reversal the young woman realizes that in creating this prison-like atmosphere for the girls, the staff members have created a prison for themselves. She sees the staff in a room locked in an endless dull meeting, and she feels like an adult looking in at a room of kindergartners playing silly games.
All in all, I would define this as a coming-of-age novel. The young woman learns about life and matures in a traumatic environment during traumatic times.
This is another book in the excellent New York Review of Books series. I previously read and enjoyed this author’s book, The Door, about a young married professional couple and their relationship with a phenomenally complex older woman who is their maid and cook. Szabo (1917-2007) lost her day job and had literary awards retracted when her writings ran afoul of ‘socialist realism’ during Hungary’s communist era.
Top photo at the Szechenenyi Baths in Budapest around 1940 from flickr.com
The author from hlo.hu
Gina, our main character, is a teenager, daughter of a recently widowed Hungarian general. The story is set at an incredibly strict religious girls’ school.
The novel is set around the time when World War II is nearing its end. Hungary is an Axis ally but Hitler’s troops are invading because he feels Hungary isn’t doing enough to help his cause and they are not inflicting his horrors upon the Jews fast enough.
I suggest that although the translator’s introduction gives away some of the plot, it is worth reading in advance to understand the complex historical context of what is going on. Hungarian troops are fighting the Germans and losing badly. Young Hungarian men are just cannon fodder in front of the German advances.
The plot is structured around three mysteries. First, why has her father sent Gina away to the farthest end of the country, to this strict all-girls religious school? She would do anything to stay near her father. So what if he wants to remarry? But that's not it. Why can't she stay with her aunt? Her aunt is a very cosmopolitan woman who throws parties for the elite of the city.
The second mystery concerns Abigail of the title. Abigail is a statue with a bowl where girls leave notes and get notes back answering their questions and giving them guidance about the most traumatic events going on in their lives. Who is Abigail?
The third mystery is: who is risking imprisonment or even death by posting anti-war signs around the town?
The school environment is strict - depressing, repressing and joyless. The girls wear a full-body uniform. No ornamentation or personal possessions are allowed and they even have to have the same hairstyle. (I kept thinking of The Handmaid’s Tale.) Everything is regimented by bells. Idleness and free time are considered dangerous. The girls are always occupied by work and study. Even conversation among them is discouraged. Their letters in and out are censored and their phone calls monitored.
SOME SPOILERS FOLLOW
Gina quickly runs afoul of the other girls. Coming from the capital, she's too sophisticated for them and she spurns what she considers their silly childish games. They turn on her viciously and she is shunned. She's miserable and she plans an escape.
Abigail give Gina good advice about making up with her institutional sisters. Then Abigail selects her for a dangerous task. She is sent into the director's office to steal records and to give them to a number of girls who, according to their records, belong to a strange Protestant religious group.
Eventually Gina recognizes there is no way out. “Gina began to realize how exhilarating it was to live in a forbidden forest. Like hungry little foxes, they were always on the qui vive, looking to squeeze out every bit of fun they could in the thicket of rules and regulations and constant supervision.”
The girls have no opportunity for a love life but they delight in watching and inventing ones for the male and female staff, all of whom live on campus. Of course there is a male teacher they all fall in love with, and a female staff member they look up to as a role model. They delight in imagining a marriage for the pair. But as the girls watch and speculate on the mismatched love interests of the staff, it’s an A loves B; B loves C; C loves D thing.
The staff too has many ridiculously stringent rules. In a role reversal the young woman realizes that in creating this prison-like atmosphere for the girls, the staff members have created a prison for themselves. She sees the staff in a room locked in an endless dull meeting, and she feels like an adult looking in at a room of kindergartners playing silly games.
All in all, I would define this as a coming-of-age novel. The young woman learns about life and matures in a traumatic environment during traumatic times.
This is another book in the excellent New York Review of Books series. I previously read and enjoyed this author’s book, The Door, about a young married professional couple and their relationship with a phenomenally complex older woman who is their maid and cook. Szabo (1917-2007) lost her day job and had literary awards retracted when her writings ran afoul of ‘socialist realism’ during Hungary’s communist era.
Top photo at the Szechenenyi Baths in Budapest around 1940 from flickr.com
The author from hlo.hu
July 26, 2021
اینقدر دوستش داشتم که از الان دلم براش تنگ شده.. و بله هرچقدر تلاش کردم دیرتر تمومش کنم نشد :))
ابیگیل داستان زندگی گینای ۱۴ ساله است تو مدرسه شبانه روزی ماتولا. ماتولایی که دنیای دیگهایه فارغ از تمام اتفاقات درون مجارستان و جنگ در حال وقوع. سابو فضای داستان رو خیلی ساده توصیف کرده و پیش برده، اما همین سادگی به قدری تاثیرگذاره که انگار همراه با گینا داری زمانی رو توی مدرسه میگذرونی، با غصههاش ناراحت میشی، میترسی، از بیرحمی بچههای کلاس پنجم به ستوه میای و حتی تاییدش میکنی برای فرار از مدرسه..
مکانی که تو ابتدای داستان از شدت قوانین سخت��گیرانه و بعضا نفرتانگیزش جایی شبیه زندان بنظر میاد، انتهای داستان دوستداشتنیتر از هر پناهگاهیه. من ماتولا رو دوست داشتم، شاید چون آدمهاش چیزی رو از مذهب و اصول یاد گرفته بودند که زیباترین بخششه.
نگاه جالب گینا به مسائل که ناشی از اعتماد به نفس بالاست طنز جالبی رو ساخته، طوری که در مقابل خیلی از اتفاقها با ذهن شکلنیافته و بچهسالش قضاوتها و پیشبینیهای عجیب و غریب و غلط میکنه. اما به مرور تو مدت زمانی که زندگیش تحت تاثیر جنگ کاملا از هم میپاشه و همه چیزش رو از دست میده، چیزهایی رو بدست میاره که خیلی با ارزشن و برای ادامهی مسیر سختی که پیش رو داره کمکش میکنن.
مدتها بود داستانی نخونده بودم که تا این حد بتونم از فضای قصه لذت ببرم، همه چی درست و کافی بود و به معنای واقعی کیف کردم 💜
.
پ.ن: فک کنم اولین ریویوی فارسی کتاب رو نوشتم :))
ابیگیل داستان زندگی گینای ۱۴ ساله است تو مدرسه شبانه روزی ماتولا. ماتولایی که دنیای دیگهایه فارغ از تمام اتفاقات درون مجارستان و جنگ در حال وقوع. سابو فضای داستان رو خیلی ساده توصیف کرده و پیش برده، اما همین سادگی به قدری تاثیرگذاره که انگار همراه با گینا داری زمانی رو توی مدرسه میگذرونی، با غصههاش ناراحت میشی، میترسی، از بیرحمی بچههای کلاس پنجم به ستوه میای و حتی تاییدش میکنی برای فرار از مدرسه..
مکانی که تو ابتدای داستان از شدت قوانین سخت��گیرانه و بعضا نفرتانگیزش جایی شبیه زندان بنظر میاد، انتهای داستان دوستداشتنیتر از هر پناهگاهیه. من ماتولا رو دوست داشتم، شاید چون آدمهاش چیزی رو از مذهب و اصول یاد گرفته بودند که زیباترین بخششه.
نگاه جالب گینا به مسائل که ناشی از اعتماد به نفس بالاست طنز جالبی رو ساخته، طوری که در مقابل خیلی از اتفاقها با ذهن شکلنیافته و بچهسالش قضاوتها و پیشبینیهای عجیب و غریب و غلط میکنه. اما به مرور تو مدت زمانی که زندگیش تحت تاثیر جنگ کاملا از هم میپاشه و همه چیزش رو از دست میده، چیزهایی رو بدست میاره که خیلی با ارزشن و برای ادامهی مسیر سختی که پیش رو داره کمکش میکنن.
مدتها بود داستانی نخونده بودم که تا این حد بتونم از فضای قصه لذت ببرم، همه چی درست و کافی بود و به معنای واقعی کیف کردم 💜
.
پ.ن: فک کنم اولین ریویوی فارسی کتاب رو نوشتم :))
October 27, 2023
خانم ماگدا سابو در چهارمین کتابی که از او به فارسی ترجمه شده بازهم به گونه ای جنگ و پیامدهای آن را در مرکز کتاب خود قرار داده ، در ابیگیل هم باز جنگ است که صحنه گردان کتاب او شده ، جنگ است که زندگی ها را در خود بلعیده و جنگ است که گویی همه از آن می گریزند .
خانم سابو آشکارا به قتل و عام ، خشونت و وحشت خوفناک جنگ نپرداخته ،هدف او شرح خشونت بی پرده جنگ نبوده ، او سرانجام بشر پس از جنگ را می جوید . قهرمانان داستان او دختران جوانی هستند که اگرچه کاری به جنگ ندارند اما جنگ چندین بار به سروقت آنها می رود ، قهرمانانی که نویسنده چنان با مهارت آنها و خصوصیات آنها را ترسیم کرده که خواننده در درازای خواندن کتاب خود را با آنها و اخلاق آنها کاملا آشنا و شاید همدل بیابد .
شاید بتوان سادگی پیش از حد کتاب را هنر خانم سابو دانست ، او داستان یکنواخت خود را چنان جذاب تعریف کرده که خواننده از خواندن زندگی ساده و بی هیجان این دختران در ماتولا حتی لحظه ای احساس خستگی نمی کند . او با استادی خواننده را از گینا ویتایی چندین گام جلوتر قرار داده ، وقایعی که گینا دلیل آنها را نمی فهمد خواننده اهمیت آنرا می داند ، هنگامی که گینا مدارک دانش آموزان یهودی را جا به جا می کند متوجه اهمیت کار خود نیست اما خواننده می داند که بااین کار جان آنان را نجات داده است . به همین ترتیب ماگدا سابو دین و اصول آن را هم نقد کرده اگرچه نقد سابو هم به شیوه کتاب ابیگیل ظریف و لطیف است ، آنجایی که ژوژانا ، خواهر روحانی خود را در دو راهی اخلاقی بین راست گویی و دروغ گرفتار می بیند ، او به حکم وجدان اگرچه دروغ را انتخاب کرده اما جان انسانی را نجات می دهد ، گویا دینی که جان انسانی را نجات دهد به هدف اصلی خود رسیده است .
همین گونه خانم سابو با بیان آیه ای ازرساله ای پولس قدیس : شفقت نه نزد اوست که تمنا می کند نه نزد او که تقلا می کند ، بلکه دست خداوند است ، نگاهی کوتاه به جبر و اختیار انداخته ، اگرچه که او هم مشخص نکرده ژوژانا از روی اختیار یا به جبر دروغ را برگزیده .
با جست و جویی کوتاه در اینترنت می توان فهمید که از کتاب ابیگیل سریال موزیکالی هم ساخته شده است ، کتاب ابیگیل فیلم آوای موسیقی که در ایران به نام اشکها و لبخندها پخش شده را به خاطر من آورد ، اگرچه به سختی ارتباطی میان آنها بتوان پیدا کرد
اما با وجود علاقه بسیار زیاد به خانم سابو و کتاب های او ، باید اعتراف کنم که سادگی بیش از اندازه کتاب و پیش بینی آسان خط سیر داستان از جذابیت آن اندکی کاسته اگرچه که خللی در زیبایی دنیای شاید کودکانه او وارد نکند .
تلاش خانم سابو در کتاب ابیگیل آفریدن دنیایی زیبا در قلب جهنمی سرشار از زشتی و کشتار است ، شاید آفریدن چنین دنیایی تنها با ساده نوشتن میسربوده باشد .
خانم سابو آشکارا به قتل و عام ، خشونت و وحشت خوفناک جنگ نپرداخته ،هدف او شرح خشونت بی پرده جنگ نبوده ، او سرانجام بشر پس از جنگ را می جوید . قهرمانان داستان او دختران جوانی هستند که اگرچه کاری به جنگ ندارند اما جنگ چندین بار به سروقت آنها می رود ، قهرمانانی که نویسنده چنان با مهارت آنها و خصوصیات آنها را ترسیم کرده که خواننده در درازای خواندن کتاب خود را با آنها و اخلاق آنها کاملا آشنا و شاید همدل بیابد .
شاید بتوان سادگی پیش از حد کتاب را هنر خانم سابو دانست ، او داستان یکنواخت خود را چنان جذاب تعریف کرده که خواننده از خواندن زندگی ساده و بی هیجان این دختران در ماتولا حتی لحظه ای احساس خستگی نمی کند . او با استادی خواننده را از گینا ویتایی چندین گام جلوتر قرار داده ، وقایعی که گینا دلیل آنها را نمی فهمد خواننده اهمیت آنرا می داند ، هنگامی که گینا مدارک دانش آموزان یهودی را جا به جا می کند متوجه اهمیت کار خود نیست اما خواننده می داند که بااین کار جان آنان را نجات داده است . به همین ترتیب ماگدا سابو دین و اصول آن را هم نقد کرده اگرچه نقد سابو هم به شیوه کتاب ابیگیل ظریف و لطیف است ، آنجایی که ژوژانا ، خواهر روحانی خود را در دو راهی اخلاقی بین راست گویی و دروغ گرفتار می بیند ، او به حکم وجدان اگرچه دروغ را انتخاب کرده اما جان انسانی را نجات می دهد ، گویا دینی که جان انسانی را نجات دهد به هدف اصلی خود رسیده است .
همین گونه خانم سابو با بیان آیه ای ازرساله ای پولس قدیس : شفقت نه نزد اوست که تمنا می کند نه نزد او که تقلا می کند ، بلکه دست خداوند است ، نگاهی کوتاه به جبر و اختیار انداخته ، اگرچه که او هم مشخص نکرده ژوژانا از روی اختیار یا به جبر دروغ را برگزیده .
با جست و جویی کوتاه در اینترنت می توان فهمید که از کتاب ابیگیل سریال موزیکالی هم ساخته شده است ، کتاب ابیگیل فیلم آوای موسیقی که در ایران به نام اشکها و لبخندها پخش شده را به خاطر من آورد ، اگرچه به سختی ارتباطی میان آنها بتوان پیدا کرد
اما با وجود علاقه بسیار زیاد به خانم سابو و کتاب های او ، باید اعتراف کنم که سادگی بیش از اندازه کتاب و پیش بینی آسان خط سیر داستان از جذابیت آن اندکی کاسته اگرچه که خللی در زیبایی دنیای شاید کودکانه او وارد نکند .
تلاش خانم سابو در کتاب ابیگیل آفریدن دنیایی زیبا در قلب جهنمی سرشار از زشتی و کشتار است ، شاید آفریدن چنین دنیایی تنها با ساده نوشتن میسربوده باشد .
May 4, 2020
A War Story about the Burden of Courage
A young adult story of 15 year old Gina who is bereft because her beloved father, a general in the Hungarian army during WW 2, has seemingly abandoned her in an all girl's school far from her home of Budapest. Gina is wretched, her father seems to have done this on a whim with no explanation, the school is very strict and very religious.
At first, the other girls take her in and try to console her, but her misery makes her strike out at them and soon she becomes a pariah among them and the staff. She has no one and can only look forward, once a week to a phone call, monitored by the director and the staff of the school, from her father.
In the midst of her sorrow, she finds "Abigail", a beautiful statue of a young girl that stands in the garden and helps you with your problems if you leave her a note. She thinks all this is very childish until she receives a note from Abigail, detailing Gina's problem and wanting to help. She realizes that there is some wonderful, loving person behind this and tries to figure out who it is. Not only does Abigail help though, Gina starts to slowly learn how important are the virtues of stoicism and self-reliance and working hard on her studies. She is becoming a fine adult, but lets her prejudice of what she considers weakness to cloud her vision of what courage means.
A young adult story of 15 year old Gina who is bereft because her beloved father, a general in the Hungarian army during WW 2, has seemingly abandoned her in an all girl's school far from her home of Budapest. Gina is wretched, her father seems to have done this on a whim with no explanation, the school is very strict and very religious.
At first, the other girls take her in and try to console her, but her misery makes her strike out at them and soon she becomes a pariah among them and the staff. She has no one and can only look forward, once a week to a phone call, monitored by the director and the staff of the school, from her father.
In the midst of her sorrow, she finds "Abigail", a beautiful statue of a young girl that stands in the garden and helps you with your problems if you leave her a note. She thinks all this is very childish until she receives a note from Abigail, detailing Gina's problem and wanting to help. She realizes that there is some wonderful, loving person behind this and tries to figure out who it is. Not only does Abigail help though, Gina starts to slowly learn how important are the virtues of stoicism and self-reliance and working hard on her studies. She is becoming a fine adult, but lets her prejudice of what she considers weakness to cloud her vision of what courage means.
February 18, 2020
Gina is the much loved, much spolied daughter of a Hungarian General. As some parent he had denied his fourteen years old daughter little, so why nowdespite her begging and pleading, is he intent on sending her away to school? She is convinced he wants her out of the way so he can remarry. The truth, however, is much more complicated and potentially more dangerous.
She arrives at the school, which appears as more of a fortress, and where everyone dresses and wears their hair the same. Where Psalms and scriptures are read daily, and where everyone gives up their personal possessions. At first she has trouble fitting in, but eventually when the truth is known, she tries harder. Abigail, is the status in the garden, where desperate young girls leave pleas for help.
This is the fourth of Szabos novels to be translated, I have one yet to read. I've loved the ones I have already read. This one unravels at a consistent pace, and is more effective because we are seeing and experiencing it through the lens of a young girl. Innocence, danger, and evil, balanced by friendship, love and sacrifice. I can't wait for more of her novels to be translated as I think she is a wonderful writer.
ARC from Edelweiss
She arrives at the school, which appears as more of a fortress, and where everyone dresses and wears their hair the same. Where Psalms and scriptures are read daily, and where everyone gives up their personal possessions. At first she has trouble fitting in, but eventually when the truth is known, she tries harder. Abigail, is the status in the garden, where desperate young girls leave pleas for help.
This is the fourth of Szabos novels to be translated, I have one yet to read. I've loved the ones I have already read. This one unravels at a consistent pace, and is more effective because we are seeing and experiencing it through the lens of a young girl. Innocence, danger, and evil, balanced by friendship, love and sacrifice. I can't wait for more of her novels to be translated as I think she is a wonderful writer.
ARC from Edelweiss
June 9, 2020
My second Magda Szabo book was just as good as the first of hers I read, "The Door", but in a much different way. I try not to compare books by the same author, saying this was better than that, but letting each book speak for itself. The GR blurb describes this as her most beloved book in her native Hungary. It's the story of Gina, sent to a religious boarding school described as a fortress, by her widowed father, a General in the army. It's the total antithesis of what she's used to as a spoiled 14 year old, so to say she has trouble adjusting is putting it mildly. It's 1943, WWII is raging outside the walls of the school, and Gina is raging and rebelling on the inside. The girls and the teachers become the main focus of both the book's characters and the reader.
Lest you forget the title of this book, Abigail is a statue in the garden of the school courtyard, rumored to help the girls when appealed to in times of need. It becomes apparent early on that there is a real person behind the statue, but the identity remains a secret til the very end. Appearances can be deceiving for all of us, and learning who we can and cannot trust is a lifetime's work.
Authors you can trust are a different matter though, and Magda Szabo has joined those ranks for me.
Lest you forget the title of this book, Abigail is a statue in the garden of the school courtyard, rumored to help the girls when appealed to in times of need. It becomes apparent early on that there is a real person behind the statue, but the identity remains a secret til the very end. Appearances can be deceiving for all of us, and learning who we can and cannot trust is a lifetime's work.
Authors you can trust are a different matter though, and Magda Szabo has joined those ranks for me.
July 4, 2020
My second Szabo in as many weeks, and a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Set in an austere religious school in the middle of World War II, Szabo’s is a tale of contrasts. The young Gina, daughter of a Hungarian General, is placed in the school very abruptly by her father and enters a world deeply different from the one she has been plucked from. From finery and adoration to simplicity and loneliness, Gina makes her lot even worse by immediately offending the girls in her class.
What ensues is a bit of meanness that could really only be inflicted by girls of a certain age. What the reader understands, that the girls and Gina do not, is how entirely insignificant their worries are compared to the weighty issues being decided outside in the adult world. The war is waging, men are dying, decisions are being made, and most of them are life-threatening. There is the constant contrast between the serious proceedings of the razor blade world outside the school and the deceptively safe and removed space within it, and the fearful spaces where those worlds overlap.
And then there is the mysterious Abigail. Abigail, a statue that stands in the garden, hears the complaints and heartaches of the students, and often miraculously solves them. The all-seeing and all-knowing guardian of girls, whose presence becomes so very important to Gina.
I am taken with the writing style of Magda Szabo, it has the lyrical quality of a poet--it came as no surprise to learn poetry was her first love. She weaves a gripping story that moves with perfect pacing. Although I felt I had cracked the mystery at the heart of Abigail’s identity fairly early on, I changed my mind several times during the progress of the novel and found the final reveal quite satisfying. Like her other novel, Katalin Street, there is more going on beneath the story than one might initially suspect. There is Gina’s tale, of course, but there is also the political unrest of Hungary, both in the World War II setting and in the 1970’s world in which Szabo is writing. There is veiled commentary here if you wish to see it.
In the bit of biography at the preface to the novel are these words:
A member of the European Academy of Sciences and a warden of the Calvinist Theological Seminary in Debrecen, Szabo died in the city in which she was born, a book in her hand.
I like that. A good way to go.
What ensues is a bit of meanness that could really only be inflicted by girls of a certain age. What the reader understands, that the girls and Gina do not, is how entirely insignificant their worries are compared to the weighty issues being decided outside in the adult world. The war is waging, men are dying, decisions are being made, and most of them are life-threatening. There is the constant contrast between the serious proceedings of the razor blade world outside the school and the deceptively safe and removed space within it, and the fearful spaces where those worlds overlap.
And then there is the mysterious Abigail. Abigail, a statue that stands in the garden, hears the complaints and heartaches of the students, and often miraculously solves them. The all-seeing and all-knowing guardian of girls, whose presence becomes so very important to Gina.
I am taken with the writing style of Magda Szabo, it has the lyrical quality of a poet--it came as no surprise to learn poetry was her first love. She weaves a gripping story that moves with perfect pacing. Although I felt I had cracked the mystery at the heart of Abigail’s identity fairly early on, I changed my mind several times during the progress of the novel and found the final reveal quite satisfying. Like her other novel, Katalin Street, there is more going on beneath the story than one might initially suspect. There is Gina’s tale, of course, but there is also the political unrest of Hungary, both in the World War II setting and in the 1970’s world in which Szabo is writing. There is veiled commentary here if you wish to see it.
In the bit of biography at the preface to the novel are these words:
A member of the European Academy of Sciences and a warden of the Calvinist Theological Seminary in Debrecen, Szabo died in the city in which she was born, a book in her hand.
I like that. A good way to go.
June 17, 2020
Abigail by Magda Szabo was published in Hungarian in 1970 and translated into English by Len Rix only in 2020. If only translation of her oeuvre can be speeded up! Readers who have read The Door will likely agree with me.
Abigail is a coming of age story set in Hungary during World War Two between September 1943 and March 1944. Gina (Georgina Vitay), a 14-year-old motherless girl, is suddenly uprooted from her privileged, upper social class life in Budapest, and sent to a very strict religious boarding school, Bishop Matula Academy, in Arkod located on the Eastern border of Hungary. Gina’s father, a General in the Hungarian army, is unable to tell her his reasons for first packing her governess back home to France and then banishing Gina to the boondocks, away from adoring relatives and a dashing Lieutenant admirer whom he and the governess both dislike. Gina and the General share a loving and close father-daughter relationship; thus their leave-taking was heartbreaking to read.
Although well known as the first institution of pedagogic excellence for female students in Hungary, Matula is an oppressive, no-nonsense fortress, where every student is made to dress alike, fill all waking hours with studies and meaningful work, obey every rule or risk punishment and even expulsion. However, the girls cope by inventing their own traditions, trading private jokes, and having their own fun. Unsurprisingly, being the bright, headstrong, and impetuous teenager that she is, Gina gets into trouble right from the beginning. Her gravest transgression is to bust a long-standing tradition, which makes her public enemy number one among the fifth level girls. Oh, the girls’ brand of relational aggression toward Gina is vicious. As in The Door and Iza’s Ballad, Szabo’s writing in Abigail revealed a wealth of psychological insight into female relationships – the ties that bind are as strong as the destructive potential that resides in misplaced expectations and lapses in the language of love.
How will Gina survive missing her father and the prolonged ostracism of her schoolmates? Much more is at stake for Gina than her young mind can comprehend. Yet, there is apparently hope for all Matula girls in despair. In the school compound is Abigail, a neoclassical stone sculpture of a woman holding a ground stone pitcher. The girls hail Abigail as a miracle worker, an angel who comes to the rescue of any student who unburdens her cares to her. Of course, Gina regards this claim with total contempt. Will she need Abigail’s help? Is Abigail a figment of the imagination? If she is real, who is she? Unraveling the mystery of Abigail quickens the pulse of this story.
Abigail sets a teenage girl’s petty fights against the menace and danger of WW2 where death and annihilation are stark realities. Szabo told a gripping story that had me holding my breath in several places. I read this with my heart in my mouth as the suspense built up, gathered momentum, and did not let up until the very last word. I needed to know if Gina would find deliverance from the problems she has created for herself as well as from enemies more fearsome than her rejecting schoolmates.
Readers who enjoy stories about boarding schools and the eccentricities that take place behind their closed doors as well as stories that unravel the love-hate relationship between students and their teachers are likely to love this novel. If I had read this when I was younger, I would have appreciated it more. Nonetheless, this is no shallow boarding school tale and well worth the time.
That the impending destruction is hidden from the understanding of school-aged teens wrapped up in their own dreams lent this story its poignancy. Hitler’s advances rocked the carefree world of a group of adolescent girls. For them, the implications of a world war seem remote given their more immediate preoccupation with peer relationships, fantasy about romance and marriage, including matchmaking their teachers. All this minutiae of day-to-day life is dwarfed by the realities of war, which hit home personally for some of them. The lives of the girls in Matula, Gina’s especially, are irrevocably changed.
Read Abigail. Much awaits the reader within the fortified walls of the Bishop Matula Academy.
I had the joy and privilege of reading this book with the Obscure Group. This erudite group offered much insight into the history of Hungary in WW2, background to Szabo's life, the meanings of Hungarian names, character and plot development. I learned so much from them. Special thanks to Ken Craft who led this motley crew for his tiptop organization of our discussion schedules.
Abigail is a coming of age story set in Hungary during World War Two between September 1943 and March 1944. Gina (Georgina Vitay), a 14-year-old motherless girl, is suddenly uprooted from her privileged, upper social class life in Budapest, and sent to a very strict religious boarding school, Bishop Matula Academy, in Arkod located on the Eastern border of Hungary. Gina’s father, a General in the Hungarian army, is unable to tell her his reasons for first packing her governess back home to France and then banishing Gina to the boondocks, away from adoring relatives and a dashing Lieutenant admirer whom he and the governess both dislike. Gina and the General share a loving and close father-daughter relationship; thus their leave-taking was heartbreaking to read.
Although well known as the first institution of pedagogic excellence for female students in Hungary, Matula is an oppressive, no-nonsense fortress, where every student is made to dress alike, fill all waking hours with studies and meaningful work, obey every rule or risk punishment and even expulsion. However, the girls cope by inventing their own traditions, trading private jokes, and having their own fun. Unsurprisingly, being the bright, headstrong, and impetuous teenager that she is, Gina gets into trouble right from the beginning. Her gravest transgression is to bust a long-standing tradition, which makes her public enemy number one among the fifth level girls. Oh, the girls’ brand of relational aggression toward Gina is vicious. As in The Door and Iza’s Ballad, Szabo’s writing in Abigail revealed a wealth of psychological insight into female relationships – the ties that bind are as strong as the destructive potential that resides in misplaced expectations and lapses in the language of love.
How will Gina survive missing her father and the prolonged ostracism of her schoolmates? Much more is at stake for Gina than her young mind can comprehend. Yet, there is apparently hope for all Matula girls in despair. In the school compound is Abigail, a neoclassical stone sculpture of a woman holding a ground stone pitcher. The girls hail Abigail as a miracle worker, an angel who comes to the rescue of any student who unburdens her cares to her. Of course, Gina regards this claim with total contempt. Will she need Abigail’s help? Is Abigail a figment of the imagination? If she is real, who is she? Unraveling the mystery of Abigail quickens the pulse of this story.
Abigail sets a teenage girl’s petty fights against the menace and danger of WW2 where death and annihilation are stark realities. Szabo told a gripping story that had me holding my breath in several places. I read this with my heart in my mouth as the suspense built up, gathered momentum, and did not let up until the very last word. I needed to know if Gina would find deliverance from the problems she has created for herself as well as from enemies more fearsome than her rejecting schoolmates.
Readers who enjoy stories about boarding schools and the eccentricities that take place behind their closed doors as well as stories that unravel the love-hate relationship between students and their teachers are likely to love this novel. If I had read this when I was younger, I would have appreciated it more. Nonetheless, this is no shallow boarding school tale and well worth the time.
That the impending destruction is hidden from the understanding of school-aged teens wrapped up in their own dreams lent this story its poignancy. Hitler’s advances rocked the carefree world of a group of adolescent girls. For them, the implications of a world war seem remote given their more immediate preoccupation with peer relationships, fantasy about romance and marriage, including matchmaking their teachers. All this minutiae of day-to-day life is dwarfed by the realities of war, which hit home personally for some of them. The lives of the girls in Matula, Gina’s especially, are irrevocably changed.
Read Abigail. Much awaits the reader within the fortified walls of the Bishop Matula Academy.
I had the joy and privilege of reading this book with the Obscure Group. This erudite group offered much insight into the history of Hungary in WW2, background to Szabo's life, the meanings of Hungarian names, character and plot development. I learned so much from them. Special thanks to Ken Craft who led this motley crew for his tiptop organization of our discussion schedules.
May 2, 2021
[4+] Abigail is an enthralling novel about a teenage girl who "comes of age" during a year at a cloistered boarding school during WWII. Initially Gina fights against the repressive rules of the school but over time her opinion of the school and fellow students evolve. As the war rages outside the school's walls, it becomes a protective fortress. The identity of the kind benefactor behind the statue of Abigail is the mystery at the heart of the novel - one that the reader is given many clues to figure out, but leaves Gina befuddled until the end. The joy of this novel is watching Gina grow up.
April 1, 2020
I very much liked this novel. I am so thankful that it and “The Door” was translated into English. This book originally came out in 1970–it was re-issued by NYRB in 2020. I have ordered Magda Szabo’s two other books that have been translated and re-issued by NYRB” Iza’s Ballad (1963) and Katalin Street (1969).
Magda Szabo was born in 1917 and died in 2007 (with a book in her hand!). Szabo, whose father taught her to converse with him in Latin, German, English and French, attended the University of Debrecen, studying Latin and Hungarian, and went on to work as a teacher throughout the German and Soviet occupations of Hungary in 1944 and 1945. She wrote “Abigail” when she was 60 years old!
This is one of those books where if I reveal much of anything regarding the plot I have given away things that you, the reader, should discover for yourself for part of the joy of reading this book are the surprises that come throughout it.
A skeleton of the plot: Set over six months, from September 1943 to March 1944 when Germany occupies Hungary, Abigail follows the 14-year-old Gina Vitay who is sent to a religious boarding school by her father a widower who is a General in the Hungarian army. The decision to put her in a boarding school came on all of a sudden–the bond between Gina and her father was strong and he does not explain why she has to go and be separated from those she loves. At the Protestant boarding school, she does not get along well with the other students, in part due to her spoiled-girl attitude (she doesn’t want to be there and shows it) and the girls in turn shun her. The teachers are strict. She tries to run away and is caught. There is a statue on the school grounds, a woman with an urn that is called Abigail by the girls at the school. “If you’re in trouble, it said, leave a message with Abigail and help will be on the way. And for Gina, who is in much deeper trouble than she could possibly suspect, a life-changing adventure is only beginning.”
From the Publishers Weekly (starred review): “…Gina Vitay, the headstrong, spoiled lead, is reminiscent of Jane Austen’s Emma…Szabo pairs the psychological insights readers will recognize from the novel “The Door” with action more akin to “Harry Potter”. Gina is one of Szabo’s finest creations.”
I would state on a cautionary note: The translator Len Rix has a 4½-page Introduction that while excellent gives away too much. Go into this with some naivete and I believe it will be much more satisfying. Read the Introduction after you read the novel to gain further insight into it, including the context in which it was written. I hope other GR reviewers have spoiler alerts if they want to spill the beans. This is a 333-page novel, and if one knows the plot and answers to the many questions presented in the novel at the get-go, that will no doubt diminish the reading experience. I like being on tenterhooks while reading a good novel (I want to know what happens next…). I looked forward every time I picked up the book as to what would happen next to Gina and those around her the reader was introduced to. This was a thumping good read! 😊
Reviews: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/bo...
Magda Szabo was born in 1917 and died in 2007 (with a book in her hand!). Szabo, whose father taught her to converse with him in Latin, German, English and French, attended the University of Debrecen, studying Latin and Hungarian, and went on to work as a teacher throughout the German and Soviet occupations of Hungary in 1944 and 1945. She wrote “Abigail” when she was 60 years old!
This is one of those books where if I reveal much of anything regarding the plot I have given away things that you, the reader, should discover for yourself for part of the joy of reading this book are the surprises that come throughout it.
A skeleton of the plot: Set over six months, from September 1943 to March 1944 when Germany occupies Hungary, Abigail follows the 14-year-old Gina Vitay who is sent to a religious boarding school by her father a widower who is a General in the Hungarian army. The decision to put her in a boarding school came on all of a sudden–the bond between Gina and her father was strong and he does not explain why she has to go and be separated from those she loves. At the Protestant boarding school, she does not get along well with the other students, in part due to her spoiled-girl attitude (she doesn’t want to be there and shows it) and the girls in turn shun her. The teachers are strict. She tries to run away and is caught. There is a statue on the school grounds, a woman with an urn that is called Abigail by the girls at the school. “If you’re in trouble, it said, leave a message with Abigail and help will be on the way. And for Gina, who is in much deeper trouble than she could possibly suspect, a life-changing adventure is only beginning.”
From the Publishers Weekly (starred review): “…Gina Vitay, the headstrong, spoiled lead, is reminiscent of Jane Austen’s Emma…Szabo pairs the psychological insights readers will recognize from the novel “The Door” with action more akin to “Harry Potter”. Gina is one of Szabo’s finest creations.”
I would state on a cautionary note: The translator Len Rix has a 4½-page Introduction that while excellent gives away too much. Go into this with some naivete and I believe it will be much more satisfying. Read the Introduction after you read the novel to gain further insight into it, including the context in which it was written. I hope other GR reviewers have spoiler alerts if they want to spill the beans. This is a 333-page novel, and if one knows the plot and answers to the many questions presented in the novel at the get-go, that will no doubt diminish the reading experience. I like being on tenterhooks while reading a good novel (I want to know what happens next…). I looked forward every time I picked up the book as to what would happen next to Gina and those around her the reader was introduced to. This was a thumping good read! 😊
Reviews: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/a...
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/bo...
February 19, 2022
This is the English translation of one of my all-time favourite books.
I have already read several Hungarian novels in English (The Pendragon Legend, Journey by Moonlight, The Door) translated by Len Rix, because I wanted to see/feel, how the translations were bearing up to the original and I have to say that what Rix did was nothing short of amazing. He managed to evoke the same feelings/tastes that were there in the originals.
He did the same with Abigail, this is a great translation, doing full justice to Magda Szabo's prose.
I have already read several Hungarian novels in English (The Pendragon Legend, Journey by Moonlight, The Door) translated by Len Rix, because I wanted to see/feel, how the translations were bearing up to the original and I have to say that what Rix did was nothing short of amazing. He managed to evoke the same feelings/tastes that were there in the originals.
He did the same with Abigail, this is a great translation, doing full justice to Magda Szabo's prose.
March 6, 2020
The eponymous Abigail is a statue at a girls boarding school in Hungary that the superstitious children believe can ease their sufferings and grant their wishes. Indeed, she sometimes does. Gina, the young protagonist of this novel, knows, as does the reader, that this isn't magic, that there is someone real behind the statue who protects them. The pretense of the book is that this is a mystery. Gina at first is stumped as to Abigail's identity, and then she guesses wrongly.
I guessed rightly, and fairly early on. And I guessed who would not make it to the end of the book and which ostensibly good guy would turn out to be an actual bad guy. I even could sense the denouement to the plot. The only surprise would have been if what seemed obvious was instead a false lead by the author. It wasn't.
The predictability didn't matter. This is just a really good story, well told and, I suspect, well-translated.
This is the fourth work of Szabó's to be translated into the nyrb-classics series. Hopefully, they continue to publish her remaining work.
I guessed rightly, and fairly early on. And I guessed who would not make it to the end of the book and which ostensibly good guy would turn out to be an actual bad guy. I even could sense the denouement to the plot. The only surprise would have been if what seemed obvious was instead a false lead by the author. It wasn't.
The predictability didn't matter. This is just a really good story, well told and, I suspect, well-translated.
This is the fourth work of Szabó's to be translated into the nyrb-classics series. Hopefully, they continue to publish her remaining work.
November 30, 2020
I realize that the gateway drug to Magda Szabó is The Door, but I put the cart before the horse by reading this, which may play second fiddle in most of the reading world but apparently is first in the hearts of Szabó's native Hungary.
Fortunately, I dispensed with Dickens and had no Great Expectations, a favor we should extend to every book, really, though it's hard on Goodreads when you're constantly bombarded with 5-star reviews like this. So please, if you read it, understand that this is an "enjoyment" 5-star review, not a "Wow, Can This Author Write Instant Classics" or even a "This Deserves a Place on the All-Time Shelf" 5-star review.
No, none of that. It's a plot book set in Hungary during WWII. Hungary is one of those Eastern European countries that was first run over by the Nazis and later by the Russkies. Here, it's Germany's turn, and the motherless Gina, a spoiled but strong-willed daughter to a Hungarian general, is subjected to the worst sort of nightmare: She is secretly placed (apparently for her own safety) in a fortress-like, Lutheran school called The Bishop Matula.
Cue Hogwarts when she runs afoul of a group of girls, turning the early plot into a Hungarian Mean Girls episode. But it turns out she has bigger problems than them. There's a resistance movement afoot, and her father is in deep, which means SHE'S in deep.
Meanwhile, the title Abigail. It's a statue in the school. Tradition has it that girls in trouble leave notes for Abigail, who actually responds in writing. A lot of mileage is gained in wondering who the hell Abigail really is amongst the staff (if, indeed, it IS a staff member). And what about moles? Does everyone have Gina's best interests in mind in this school? Weird things begin to go down and discerning readers want to know why.
All in all, it brought me back to my youthful days when reading was just old-fashioned fun. Page-turners. Atmosphere in spades. All in the hands of a writer who knows how to tell a story and hook a reader.
So, yeah. I liked it. As much as Mikey likes Life (a dated reference for American readers who saw commercial television in the 1960s -- the rest of you may pass GO and collect $200).
Better yet? I still have The Door (and maybe a few other Szabó's) to walk through. Sweet!
Fortunately, I dispensed with Dickens and had no Great Expectations, a favor we should extend to every book, really, though it's hard on Goodreads when you're constantly bombarded with 5-star reviews like this. So please, if you read it, understand that this is an "enjoyment" 5-star review, not a "Wow, Can This Author Write Instant Classics" or even a "This Deserves a Place on the All-Time Shelf" 5-star review.
No, none of that. It's a plot book set in Hungary during WWII. Hungary is one of those Eastern European countries that was first run over by the Nazis and later by the Russkies. Here, it's Germany's turn, and the motherless Gina, a spoiled but strong-willed daughter to a Hungarian general, is subjected to the worst sort of nightmare: She is secretly placed (apparently for her own safety) in a fortress-like, Lutheran school called The Bishop Matula.
Cue Hogwarts when she runs afoul of a group of girls, turning the early plot into a Hungarian Mean Girls episode. But it turns out she has bigger problems than them. There's a resistance movement afoot, and her father is in deep, which means SHE'S in deep.
Meanwhile, the title Abigail. It's a statue in the school. Tradition has it that girls in trouble leave notes for Abigail, who actually responds in writing. A lot of mileage is gained in wondering who the hell Abigail really is amongst the staff (if, indeed, it IS a staff member). And what about moles? Does everyone have Gina's best interests in mind in this school? Weird things begin to go down and discerning readers want to know why.
All in all, it brought me back to my youthful days when reading was just old-fashioned fun. Page-turners. Atmosphere in spades. All in the hands of a writer who knows how to tell a story and hook a reader.
So, yeah. I liked it. As much as Mikey likes Life (a dated reference for American readers who saw commercial television in the 1960s -- the rest of you may pass GO and collect $200).
Better yet? I still have The Door (and maybe a few other Szabó's) to walk through. Sweet!
December 29, 2020
I was reminded of Fleur Jaeggy's Sweet Days of Discipline when I first started this: a girls’ boarding school; a miserable, rebellious four-/fifteen-year-old in the midst of outwardly conforming schoolmates. But perhaps those similarities are superficial as there are more differences between the two novels than not.
Prior to this, I’d read only The Door by Szabó (she gives her surname to one of the students; perhaps the most physically unattractive though she doesn’t dwell on that).* I found this very different -- more humorous, less complex. The biggest similarities between the two Szabó novels are the depiction of an enclosed community pierced in surprising ways by so-called outsiders and how each book’s main character painfully comes to an awareness that perhaps should’ve been obvious to them sooner.
*Please see message 12. Thanks, Marta!
Prior to this, I’d read only The Door by Szabó (she gives her surname to one of the students; perhaps the most physically unattractive though she doesn’t dwell on that).* I found this very different -- more humorous, less complex. The biggest similarities between the two Szabó novels are the depiction of an enclosed community pierced in surprising ways by so-called outsiders and how each book’s main character painfully comes to an awareness that perhaps should’ve been obvious to them sooner.
*Please see message 12. Thanks, Marta!
July 13, 2021
“In any work of literature the most interesting bits are in the detail,” Kőnig had often said in his lessons. “Be sure to attend to them closely.”
This is a tender coming of age story set primarily in the old Hungarian boarding school during the WW2. War is mostly in the background but you never forget that it’s happening. We only see glimpses of it, but it's ever-looming.
Looking along the rows of heads bent over exercise books she thought of how, back in the dormitory, the girls talked about absolutely everything but the war. There was scarcely one of them who did not have someone at the front; the thought of it was always there, just below the surface of their consciousness; and yet all they ever whispered about was love, their teachers, and what had happened in lessons that day. She was the only person in the class who worried about why it had all started and how it might end. Some of the pupils were actually in mourning; they were allowed to ignore the usual rules and wear whatever they chose under their school uniforms to mark their grief.
At one point a goods train came trundling past, and then a second, transporting troops. When that happened, all work came to a halt. Seeing the class, the soldiers stopped singing and turned their faces to take in the sight of schoolchildren laboring in the countryside—young men on their way to the battlefront, gazing in silence at the girls and the apple trees.
It was one of those experiences whose deeper significance struck Gina only much later. All those soldiers suddenly falling silent, their eyes fixed on her and her companions . . . it took time for her to understand just what it had meant for them, the young men on their way to the frontier and beyond. They had been thinking of their own children, their families, the little patches of earth that were their own gardens, and the grand order of nature to which mankind had been subject since the dawn of time. It was what they too would have been doing had the train not been taking them off to kill or be killed.
I loved Gina from the very beginning. She is smart, educated, loved by her father (one of the most beautiful father-daughter relationships I’ve read) and a little spoiled. Because of war she had to grow up fast and change a lot. I loved these girls, they felt like teenagers. And adults are mysterious just how they are supposed to be.
This was the new Gina, the one who had come into being such a short time earlier that day in the Hajda patisserie. She no longer saw life in terms of petty wrongs and insults, and certainly not by the number of pastries that might or might not be eaten.
Gina had also learned how much more special something was if you had had to struggle to achieve it, and how much stronger you were if you faced life as a group, like mountaineers whose very lives depended on an invisible rope linking them together, sharing the same passions, the same hopes, the same waiting and worrying, and were ready to act as one to help any of your number who needed it.
After the air-raid practice something had changed too in her attitude to the adults. Without particularly analyzing it, she had come to see that they were not so much enemies as opponents, the way the class itself was divided into two teams to compete against each other in the gym. This permanent fixture against the adults could even be a source of amusement: you had to dodge them or sidestep them, outwit them, and finally take the ball from their hands with a piece of nimble footwork.
Also there’s a fairly obvious mystery that is not really a mystery. I loved the atmosphere, the haunting ancient school-fortress full of stern but loving and kind(some of them) teachers.
My first Magda Szabó and a success.
June 6, 2023
Recommending this novel to my 13-year-old self, who enjoyed Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and George Sand’s Consuelo.
Set around the end of World War II, Magda Szabó’s Abigail follows an independent, yet spoiled teenage girl Gina, who has to leave her privileged life in Budapest and enroll in a strict religious all-girls boarding school. Of course, Gina cannot stand it, she rebels, breaks rules, goes against the system. Yet, soon enough, she learns about a life-changing and horrible truth, so she realizes there is no other way, but to adapt to her new environment and become friends or foes with other girls and teachers. Even if everything goes downhill there is a mysterious and miraculous statue of Abigail, who will guide and lend a helping hand.
I have been interested in reading Szabó’s The Door for some time now, yet, I chose Abigail as introduction to the author's work mainly due to its historical setting and it being considered a “beloved story” in Hungary.
Abigail turns out to be a kind of literature I haven’t read in a while: a page-turner novel with a plot! There is a sense of mystery throughout the novel, while Szabó writes in a clear and lucid prose. Even though sometimes the plot is rather predictable, I don’t see it as a negative aspect - there is so much more going on beneath the story. With the backdrop of World War II and Hungary's difficult relationship with its ally Germany, her characters have to come to terms with uncomfortable truths and take complicated decisions. While maintaining the seriousness of the matter, there is a lightness to Szabó’s touch: her delivery is never gratuitous, melodramatic or sentimental. There is no division between good and bad characters, heroes or villains, there is so much we readers (and writers) can learn from this novel.
Abigail accompanied me on a short trip and what a wonderful choice it turned out to be! Usually I think twice before recommending some of the books I read, but this is such a special case and I would readily recommend Abigail to readers regardless of their age or literary preferences.
4/5
Photo: Getting ready for Christmas Eve, Budapest residents were shocked by the arrival of the first Soviet soldiers on December 24, 1944.
Set around the end of World War II, Magda Szabó’s Abigail follows an independent, yet spoiled teenage girl Gina, who has to leave her privileged life in Budapest and enroll in a strict religious all-girls boarding school. Of course, Gina cannot stand it, she rebels, breaks rules, goes against the system. Yet, soon enough, she learns about a life-changing and horrible truth, so she realizes there is no other way, but to adapt to her new environment and become friends or foes with other girls and teachers. Even if everything goes downhill there is a mysterious and miraculous statue of Abigail, who will guide and lend a helping hand.
I have been interested in reading Szabó’s The Door for some time now, yet, I chose Abigail as introduction to the author's work mainly due to its historical setting and it being considered a “beloved story” in Hungary.
Abigail turns out to be a kind of literature I haven’t read in a while: a page-turner novel with a plot! There is a sense of mystery throughout the novel, while Szabó writes in a clear and lucid prose. Even though sometimes the plot is rather predictable, I don’t see it as a negative aspect - there is so much more going on beneath the story. With the backdrop of World War II and Hungary's difficult relationship with its ally Germany, her characters have to come to terms with uncomfortable truths and take complicated decisions. While maintaining the seriousness of the matter, there is a lightness to Szabó’s touch: her delivery is never gratuitous, melodramatic or sentimental. There is no division between good and bad characters, heroes or villains, there is so much we readers (and writers) can learn from this novel.
Abigail accompanied me on a short trip and what a wonderful choice it turned out to be! Usually I think twice before recommending some of the books I read, but this is such a special case and I would readily recommend Abigail to readers regardless of their age or literary preferences.
4/5
Photo: Getting ready for Christmas Eve, Budapest residents were shocked by the arrival of the first Soviet soldiers on December 24, 1944.
August 1, 2021
Why was I so slow to understand that in this forest of rules and instructions and prohibitions there might be someone, not a mere stone statue but a real person hiding behind it, ready to help anyone with a genuine need?
When I started reading this with a group, I wasn't aware that it had been written with a teen/YA adult audience in mind. Not that this is a children's book, but it does make some psychological jumps that I'd have preferred to see delineated with more detail - and, importantly, key elements of the plot are far more transparent than I'd have wished .
Nevertheless, this is an engaging coming-of-age school tale made potent by the fact it's set in Hungary in 1943-4 so that Gina's education is political as well as personal. With 'mean girls', secret romances, kicking back against regulations, and even a minor mystery centred on Abigail, this certainly keeps the pages turning effortlessly. And somewhere between the lines of the story horrific and traumatic things happen.
January 25, 2022
4.5 ⭐️ Abigail is, confusingly, about a spoiled Budapest teenager named Gina whose father sends her away to a strict Calvinist boarding school (on the remote Hungarian Great Plain, no less!) during World War II, where she’s promptly ostracized by her classmates after snitching on them. I spent the first 40% of this book wondering wtf I was reading…but without giving too much away, once you realize what’s going on, this book slaps. It has boarding school hi-jinks and the pleasant, nostalgic vibes of a book like Anne of Green Gables, but with some resistance-of-oppressive-totalitarianism thrown in…I can see why this is one of Hungary’s most beloved books and am now dying to find an English subtitles translation of the 1970s miniseries 😭
May 2, 2020
Vintage classic. A perfect blend of a coming-of-age and historical fiction.
On the Nth re-read still wonderful, moving, mysterious and exciting.
Full review to come.
On the Nth re-read still wonderful, moving, mysterious and exciting.
Full review to come.
September 14, 2023
“In later years, whenever she dreamed of the fortress and the city the wind would always be present, moving restlessly among human figures obscurely glimpsed in the haze.”
Abigail follows fourteen-year-old Gina Vitay’s time as a Matula student in the months leading to the German occupation of Hungary. First published fifty years ago, its English translation has only just come out (Len Rix's translation does not disappoint). Last year I read, and was perturbed by, Magda Szabó's The Door. While I was enthralled by Szabó's prose, I was ultimately left feeling rather mystified by the whole ordeal. Abigail, on the other hand, is deceptively simple in that it may at first strike readers as a conventional coming-of-age. Szabó however permeates this tale of youthful innocence and friendships with an air of unease. Similarly to The Door, Abigail presents its readers with a narrative that is fraught with a quiet suspense. Our heroine is initially oblivious to the threat looming over her country and she's far more concerned with the various dramas that make up her everyday life at her exclusive all-girls school. After she's made privy to a secret that if known could wreak havoc, she will have to learn “dignity and self-discipline”.
Although the narrative obliquely hints at this possibility of danger and violence, an atmosphere of apprehension prevails.
“From this moment onwards, Gina, your childhood is over. You are now an adult, and you will never again live as other children do. I am going to place my life, and yours, and that of many other people, in your hands. What can you swear on that you will never betray us?”
In the autumn of 1943 (when Hungary was still a member of the Axis powers), the pampered daughter of a widowed General is abruptly sent away from her beloved home in Budapest and enrolled in a remote all-girls boarding school. Located in Árkod, Bishop Matula Academy is an exceedingly puritanical institution, a place that our heroine quite fittingly describes, more than once, as a “fortress” and a “world of black and white”. The General refuses to disclose the reason for this ‘exile’ and an uncomprehending Gina is unable to discern her father’s true motivations.
“In the past she had been able to persuade him to do almost anything; now he seemed deaf to all her pleadings. He had decided on her fate without discussing a single detail and had merely informed her what would happen.”
At Matula Gina feels constricted by the school’s “strictly regimented life, with every minute accounted for”. Worse still, after her catastrophic first day at Matula she becomes persona non grata with the rest of the fifth year. To begin with Gina views the other girls and their traditions through her ‘big-city’ lenses. She’s contemptuous of their childish games believing that her flirtations with a young lieutenant (which took place at her Auntie Mimó’s tea dances) make her far more worldly than the other girls. Being ostracised from the other girls soon takes its toll and Gina is left feeling profoundly alone and miserable. Most days, her classmates (who share her living quarters with) refuse to interact with her, and when they aren’t ignoring her they insult or bully her.
Gina is also forbidden from interacting with the outside world, and her letters and weekly phone calls to her father are monitored, and if need be censored, by members of staff (since the general should only hear “cheerful, positive things from [her]”).
Gina's difficult beggings at Matula are alleviated by the presence of a statue known as Abigail. According to school legend, Abigail aids and protects Matula's students. Gina's initial skepticism dissolves when she herself receives Abigail's protection. The mystery of Abigail's identity underlines Gina's story, even after Gina reconciles herself with life at Matula.
“Everything that had been boring, childish and indeed hateful the day before now seemed wonderful, reassuring and comforting.”
While there are moments of idyllic happiness, these are far and few between. Gina's prickly, and impulsive, nature are rendered with great empathy. Szabó's narrative reflects Gina's 'limited' worldview. She misunderstands and misinterprets the adults around her, in particular the dynamics between two of her teachers and Sister Susanna, the fifth year's prefect. Gina, like most of the other girls, views her class tutor Kalmár as a contemporary “St. George, a knight in shining armor”. Her feelings towards her Latin teacher, Kőnig are far from amicable. She mistakes his kindness and compassion for cowardice and stupidity (another reviewer quite aptly compared him to Dostoevsky's Prince Myshkin).
“Once again she had the feeling of being caught up in a play, a play in which she had a totally insignificant role and whose plot was impossible to follow.”
After Gina's adolescent worries are replaced with far greater ones (ones that serious social implications), she tries to become a responsible adult. She soon learns that even good actions can backfire. Similarly to The Door, the characters in Abigail often cause the most harm to each other when they are trying to do good.
“All my life I have been a wild thing, Gina reflected. I am impatient and impulsive, and I have never learned to love people who annoy me or try to hurt me. Now I shall try to learn these virtues, and I shall do so for the sake of my father: for him I shall seek to be gentle and patient.”
In spite of her best efforts, Gina cannot pacify herself with her school's authorities nor does she feel less stifled by its suffocating rules. Still, readers will be able to witness Gina's incredible, and admirable, character growth. I deeply sympathised with Gina, especially since I too found Matula to be a repressive institution, more interested in assigning blame and punishment than actually encouraging students to learn and grow from their mistakes.
“She was oppressed by a consciousness of living in a world of strangers, subject to rules that constantly disrupted the rhythm of her life, and where everything that belonged to her, everything that was part of her, seemed far away.”
In many ways Abigail has all the trappings of a coming-of-age. While Abigail's identity is not a mystery to the reader, there are plenty of smaller mysteries peppered throughout Gina's story. Harrowing moments are made all the more powerful by the fact that they often occur off-page. Gina's troubled relationship with her classmates feels far from childish, and the friendships that she will later develop with some of the other girls are rendered with surprising tenderness.
“When they were at last in bed she lay there, wide awake, thinking about the strange and unexpected way important events in our lives come about—never as we imagine them beforehand, always in quite other ways, in very different circumstances and seemingly by chance”
Szabó's sinuous and beguiling storytelling gripped me from the very first pages. Abigail provides us with an intimate glimpse into the life of a girl burdened with a dangerous secret. Szabó captures the fraught climate of a country at war.
“She tried to imagine what it would be like if every window in the country could be left open and every street flooded with light, and there was no war and none of this dying, no burdensome secrets, no danger or destruction. ”
March 15, 2020
Boarding school angst, Hungarian style.
Szabo’s books usually shatter me, but this one felt a bit different. Maybe because the protagonist, Gina, is so young and still unbroken by life, at least for most of the book. The action takes place in a fortress-prison-school with rigid rules and religious nun-type teachers. Unfortunately for them there was no super helpful BE BEST campaign in WWII Europe, so there’s bullying and ostracizing in that particularly sadistic way known only to teenage girls and orange fuhrers; once the bickering ceases, Gina finds out how dark the world truly is. This is not going to be solved by hand sanitizer and twitter. Her childhood ended. Where does a country go after such a hateful regime? Maybe Szabo has shattered me again after all.
Szabo’s books usually shatter me, but this one felt a bit different. Maybe because the protagonist, Gina, is so young and still unbroken by life, at least for most of the book. The action takes place in a fortress-prison-school with rigid rules and religious nun-type teachers. Unfortunately for them there was no super helpful BE BEST campaign in WWII Europe, so there’s bullying and ostracizing in that particularly sadistic way known only to teenage girls and orange fuhrers; once the bickering ceases, Gina finds out how dark the world truly is. This is not going to be solved by hand sanitizer and twitter. Her childhood ended. Where does a country go after such a hateful regime? Maybe Szabo has shattered me again after all.
October 14, 2020
This was such a wonderful story! I feel so sad to leave it and miss the main character already. The first 50 pages went a bit slowly for me but as soon as Gina got to her boarding school I was hooked and found this hard to put down, a couple of nights I had to keep reading until after midnight despite having to be up by 6am.
I loved the character of Abigail, if only I had an Abigail in my life! There are many other great characters in this story, there were many school girl characters that I really enjoyed and several teachers too, all flawed but realistic. The mystery was good, the relationships and dynamics between the girls and the teachers made for many interesting elements. I really enjoyed some of the humour in this story. The ridiculous punishments and rules seemed both farfetched and believable. The climax of the story was very enjoyable, you may guess the identity of one character but it was good not to be sure until the end. The story became quite a page turner and Gina's voice narrating from the future gave some poignant insights into what became of some of the characters.
Although in my library this is categorised as adult fiction this could be and perhaps is a YA novel. Thank you to goodreads friend Alwynne for her wonderful review of this book.
I loved the character of Abigail, if only I had an Abigail in my life! There are many other great characters in this story, there were many school girl characters that I really enjoyed and several teachers too, all flawed but realistic. The mystery was good, the relationships and dynamics between the girls and the teachers made for many interesting elements. I really enjoyed some of the humour in this story. The ridiculous punishments and rules seemed both farfetched and believable. The climax of the story was very enjoyable, you may guess the identity of one character but it was good not to be sure until the end. The story became quite a page turner and Gina's voice narrating from the future gave some poignant insights into what became of some of the characters.
Although in my library this is categorised as adult fiction this could be and perhaps is a YA novel. Thank you to goodreads friend Alwynne for her wonderful review of this book.
January 5, 2024
“The change that came about in her life robbed her of so much it was as if a bomb had destroyed her home.”
With this first sentence of the book, Magda Szabo sets the stage for a quietly intense and memorable story.
We meet Gina, a 14 yr old girl, who is everything to her father, her aunt and her governess. But this is 1943- the war is on and her father is a prominent General in the Hungarian army. He decides that the safest place for Gina is a boarding school far out in the country. The school is built like a fortress and feels like a prison to Gina. It takes Gina awhile to adjust- she is not used to following such strict rules. She doesn’t understand why her father has done this to her. Much will happen to Gina over the course of the next 6 months!
Magda Szabo captures the atmosphere in a boarding school so well. She, herself, did teach in one. She knows teenage girls- the rivalry, the pettiness, the obsession with thoughts of marriage but also the sisterhood. In the background is the war, but we know that will eventually encroach on them.
The Abigail of the title is a statue in the garden. The belief/ superstition surrounding her is that if you need help, you can write it on a note and put it in her urn and Abigail will help you. Of course, we the reader know that there must be a real person behind Abigail. The true identity is eventually revealed.
I loved this book. Most of the story took place in this fortress with a bunch of teenage girls, their teachers and supervisors. I was totally invested in all of them and never for a moment did I want the author to rush with the story. In fact, I wish the author had written a sequel- I really wanted to know what happened to all of them.
This is the third book I have read by Szabo. Excellent translation by Len Rix. I still have 2 more of her books that have been translated to read and I can hardly wait.
Highly recommended!
Published: 1970
With this first sentence of the book, Magda Szabo sets the stage for a quietly intense and memorable story.
We meet Gina, a 14 yr old girl, who is everything to her father, her aunt and her governess. But this is 1943- the war is on and her father is a prominent General in the Hungarian army. He decides that the safest place for Gina is a boarding school far out in the country. The school is built like a fortress and feels like a prison to Gina. It takes Gina awhile to adjust- she is not used to following such strict rules. She doesn’t understand why her father has done this to her. Much will happen to Gina over the course of the next 6 months!
Magda Szabo captures the atmosphere in a boarding school so well. She, herself, did teach in one. She knows teenage girls- the rivalry, the pettiness, the obsession with thoughts of marriage but also the sisterhood. In the background is the war, but we know that will eventually encroach on them.
The Abigail of the title is a statue in the garden. The belief/ superstition surrounding her is that if you need help, you can write it on a note and put it in her urn and Abigail will help you. Of course, we the reader know that there must be a real person behind Abigail. The true identity is eventually revealed.
I loved this book. Most of the story took place in this fortress with a bunch of teenage girls, their teachers and supervisors. I was totally invested in all of them and never for a moment did I want the author to rush with the story. In fact, I wish the author had written a sequel- I really wanted to know what happened to all of them.
This is the third book I have read by Szabo. Excellent translation by Len Rix. I still have 2 more of her books that have been translated to read and I can hardly wait.
Highly recommended!
Published: 1970
May 17, 2020
Where do I even begin? Perhaps here: while reading Abigail, I barely came up for breath. It is that rare book that totally blots out the real world and substitutes another world that is so genuine and raw and mesmerizing that the twinning of reader and plot soon become complete. I would count it among the five best contemporary books I have ever read – and I have read a lot of books!
First, the title: I assumed Abigail was the name of the book’s protagonist. Not so. Gina Vitay, a headstrong young teen who is the spoiled only child of a reticent and honorable General, is the core of the story. As the tides of battle shift against Hungary and the Axis powers in the mid-1940s, Gina is summarily informed that she will be exiled to a grim religious boarding school fortress in the middle of nowhere—and no amount of pleading will make a difference.
As Gina adjusts to the authoritarian school, part of the intrigue is witnessing the school and the outside events from the perspective of a 14-year-old. The majority of readers will immediately understand the reasons behind the General’s decision (Gina is sure it is because her father wants to remarry and rid himself of her), and they will also recognize what drives the adults who are in charge of her care and quickly guess who can be most trusted.
For Gina, the only one to trust is Abigail, a statue in the outside garden who, for decades, has been the recipient of many heartbroken schoolgirl’s laments and cries for guidance. Abigail actually fixes things for girls in trouble with real, handwritten answers. Obviously, the status is not a supernatural force but what cloistered person has adopted the persona of Abigail? Is it someone who treats Gina and the others with obsequious politeness or someone stern and overbearing? It is a mystery that I solved early on but whether a reader does or not matters little.
What really matters is the journey to self-knowledge and to what values are most essential. Gina will inevitably reach a crucial juncture where her childhood and illusions will be shattered forever she will don the heavy cloak of premature adulthood and that scene will remain among the most memorable I have read. And she will recognize some universal truths: “…how much more special something was if you had had to struggle to achieve it, and how much stronger you were if you faced life as a group, like mountaineers whose very lives depended on an invisible rope linking them together…”
The quality of the writing throughout the book is powerful and propulsive, never calling attention to itself, but through its careful choice of wording, providing a luminous look at a point in time…and in character. It takes an excellent translator to help make this happen and Len Rix was certainly up to the task. I never once felt I was reading a translation. This is a marvelous book and I envy all those who have yet to discover it. My highest recommendation.
First, the title: I assumed Abigail was the name of the book’s protagonist. Not so. Gina Vitay, a headstrong young teen who is the spoiled only child of a reticent and honorable General, is the core of the story. As the tides of battle shift against Hungary and the Axis powers in the mid-1940s, Gina is summarily informed that she will be exiled to a grim religious boarding school fortress in the middle of nowhere—and no amount of pleading will make a difference.
As Gina adjusts to the authoritarian school, part of the intrigue is witnessing the school and the outside events from the perspective of a 14-year-old. The majority of readers will immediately understand the reasons behind the General’s decision (Gina is sure it is because her father wants to remarry and rid himself of her), and they will also recognize what drives the adults who are in charge of her care and quickly guess who can be most trusted.
For Gina, the only one to trust is Abigail, a statue in the outside garden who, for decades, has been the recipient of many heartbroken schoolgirl’s laments and cries for guidance. Abigail actually fixes things for girls in trouble with real, handwritten answers. Obviously, the status is not a supernatural force but what cloistered person has adopted the persona of Abigail? Is it someone who treats Gina and the others with obsequious politeness or someone stern and overbearing? It is a mystery that I solved early on but whether a reader does or not matters little.
What really matters is the journey to self-knowledge and to what values are most essential. Gina will inevitably reach a crucial juncture where her childhood and illusions will be shattered forever she will don the heavy cloak of premature adulthood and that scene will remain among the most memorable I have read. And she will recognize some universal truths: “…how much more special something was if you had had to struggle to achieve it, and how much stronger you were if you faced life as a group, like mountaineers whose very lives depended on an invisible rope linking them together…”
The quality of the writing throughout the book is powerful and propulsive, never calling attention to itself, but through its careful choice of wording, providing a luminous look at a point in time…and in character. It takes an excellent translator to help make this happen and Len Rix was certainly up to the task. I never once felt I was reading a translation. This is a marvelous book and I envy all those who have yet to discover it. My highest recommendation.
February 5, 2020
Compared to the meditative ellipticalness of The Door and the jagged perspectival shifts of Katalin Street, this is more of a conventional mid-century Mitteleuropean novel in the vein of Stefan Zweig or Joseph Roth.
That's not a backhanded compliment-- this is one of the most satisfying reading experiences I've had in the past decade, with relentless narrative momentum and suspense, with the most shocking revelation coming in the last sentence. Szabo keeps tight blinders on her readers, trapping us inside the mind of the early teenage protagonist Gina as she moves from clueless innocence to experience. We don't know what she doesn't know, and this tension makes this novel un-putdownable.
The Nazi invasion of Hungary in 1944 occurs offstage, but the severe and austere Calvinist girl's boarding school she is forced to attend mirrors the oppressiveness of both pre- and post-war totalitarian regimes. I realize this sounds grim, but there are great flashes of humor, and moments of recognition of how the games that adolescents play and the punishments that students receive are nothing when compared to the real life-and-death stakes of collaboration and resistance.
That's not a backhanded compliment-- this is one of the most satisfying reading experiences I've had in the past decade, with relentless narrative momentum and suspense, with the most shocking revelation coming in the last sentence. Szabo keeps tight blinders on her readers, trapping us inside the mind of the early teenage protagonist Gina as she moves from clueless innocence to experience. We don't know what she doesn't know, and this tension makes this novel un-putdownable.
The Nazi invasion of Hungary in 1944 occurs offstage, but the severe and austere Calvinist girl's boarding school she is forced to attend mirrors the oppressiveness of both pre- and post-war totalitarian regimes. I realize this sounds grim, but there are great flashes of humor, and moments of recognition of how the games that adolescents play and the punishments that students receive are nothing when compared to the real life-and-death stakes of collaboration and resistance.
December 27, 2022
I finished reading this book a few days ago now, and I still find myself thinking about this reading and the characters who are part of this story.
I had been moved and impressed for so long with the book "The Door," also by Szabo, this one is too no less as beauty, schocking and delicate as the same time.
A father forcing his daughter to enter in a Calvinist boarding school in the 'extreme outskirts of Hungary during winter 1943. Gina young girl of 14, orphaned by her mother, she then finds herself alone to face her everyday life.
Why did her father, a major Leutenant in the Hungarian army, confine her to that horrible place devoid of human warmth?
And it is in this extreme place, made only of very strict rules, impositions and silence, that Gina will experience a traumatic episode of loneliness and wickedness...... but will it really be so?
Who is this Abigail to whom all the girls, secretly turn for help and support by laying a note at the foot of the statue dedicated to her?
Abigail, an unknown soul until the end of the story, will be the pivot, the grace and the gift of a 'humanity made of love and help; through her the girls will rediscover that humanity made of joys sorrows, and tenderness. Giorgina will rediscover and experience forgiveness and the grace of friendship when it is revealed to her that her imprisonment is nothing but an enormous act of love by her father, hiding her and locking her there , will save her from the traitors in the army devoted to the Germans who would like to use her as bait to find her fugitive father.
It was wonderful to read all those threads of love and tenderness, made up of faces and professors who did everything they could to cover up the presence of Gina and other girls in similar situations, hiding them from the danger of 'political hatred.
Gina, beautiful Gina, who will know so many feelings, but above all will experience forgiveness in the face of her stubbornness that almost did not lead to the failure of her cover, the tenderness of a true friendship, despite being stifled by the rigidity of the rules of the Calvinist Matula College. Gina, the girl, who will experience the 'greatest love, of a father who sacrifices himself to death to save his daughter. A fruitful love, carried on by the certainty of faces that will protect this girl's life in the harshest moments of 20th century European history.
Ho finito di leggere questo libro ormai da qualche giorno, e ancora mi ritrovo a pensare a questa lettura e ai personaggi che fanno parte di questa storia.
Ero rimasta commossa e colpita per tanto tempo con il libro "La porta" sempre della Szabo, anche questo non è da meno come bellezza per l' anima.
Un padre che obbliga la figlia ad entrare in un collegio calvinista nell' estrema periferia dell' ungheria, siamo nel 1943, Gina giovane ragazza di 14 orfana di madre, si ritrova quindi sola ad affrontare la sua quotidianità?
Perchè suo padre, maggiore dell' esercito ungherese, l' ha confinata in quel posto orribile privo di calore umano?
Ed è proprio in questo luogo estremo, fatto solo di regole rigidissime, imposizioni e silenzio che Gina vivrà un episodio traumatico di solitudine e cattiveria...... ma sarà veramente così?
Chi è questa Abigail a cui tutte le ragazze, segretamente si rivolgono per aiuto e supporto deponendo un bigliettino ai piedi della statua a lei dedicata?
Abigail, anima sconosciuta sino alla fine della storia, sarà il perno, la grazia e il dono di un' umanità fatta di amore e di aiuto; attraverso lei le ragazze ritroveranno quell' umanità fatta di gioie dolori, e tenerezza. Giorgina ritroverà e fare esperienza del perdono e della grazia dell' amicizia quando le verrà svelato che la sua reclusione altro non è che un enorme atto d' amore del padre, nascondendola e rinchiudendola lì , la salverà dai traditori dell' esercito devoti ai tedeschi che vorrebbero usarla come esca per ritrovare il padre fuggiasco.
E' stato meraviglioso leggere tutta quei fili di amore e tenerezza, fatti di volti e professori che fecero di tutto per coprire la presenza di Gina e altre ragazze in situazioni simili, nascondendole dal pericolo dell' odio politico.
gina, bellissima Gina, che conoscerà così tanti sentimenti, ma soprattutto farà esperienza del perdono di fronte alla sua cocciutaggine che quasi non portò al fallimento della sua copertura, della tenerezza dell' amicizia vera, nonostante soffocata dalla rigidità delle regole del Collegio calvinista Matula. Gina, la ragazza, che vivrà l' amore più grande, di un padre che si sacrifica alla morte pur di salvare la figlia. Un amore fecondo, portato avanti dalla certezza di volti che proteggeranno la vita di questa ragazza nei momenti più duri della storia europea del ventesimo secolo.
I had been moved and impressed for so long with the book "The Door," also by Szabo, this one is too no less as beauty, schocking and delicate as the same time.
A father forcing his daughter to enter in a Calvinist boarding school in the 'extreme outskirts of Hungary during winter 1943. Gina young girl of 14, orphaned by her mother, she then finds herself alone to face her everyday life.
Why did her father, a major Leutenant in the Hungarian army, confine her to that horrible place devoid of human warmth?
And it is in this extreme place, made only of very strict rules, impositions and silence, that Gina will experience a traumatic episode of loneliness and wickedness...... but will it really be so?
Who is this Abigail to whom all the girls, secretly turn for help and support by laying a note at the foot of the statue dedicated to her?
Abigail, an unknown soul until the end of the story, will be the pivot, the grace and the gift of a 'humanity made of love and help; through her the girls will rediscover that humanity made of joys sorrows, and tenderness. Giorgina will rediscover and experience forgiveness and the grace of friendship when it is revealed to her that her imprisonment is nothing but an enormous act of love by her father, hiding her and locking her there , will save her from the traitors in the army devoted to the Germans who would like to use her as bait to find her fugitive father.
It was wonderful to read all those threads of love and tenderness, made up of faces and professors who did everything they could to cover up the presence of Gina and other girls in similar situations, hiding them from the danger of 'political hatred.
Gina, beautiful Gina, who will know so many feelings, but above all will experience forgiveness in the face of her stubbornness that almost did not lead to the failure of her cover, the tenderness of a true friendship, despite being stifled by the rigidity of the rules of the Calvinist Matula College. Gina, the girl, who will experience the 'greatest love, of a father who sacrifices himself to death to save his daughter. A fruitful love, carried on by the certainty of faces that will protect this girl's life in the harshest moments of 20th century European history.
Ho finito di leggere questo libro ormai da qualche giorno, e ancora mi ritrovo a pensare a questa lettura e ai personaggi che fanno parte di questa storia.
Ero rimasta commossa e colpita per tanto tempo con il libro "La porta" sempre della Szabo, anche questo non è da meno come bellezza per l' anima.
Un padre che obbliga la figlia ad entrare in un collegio calvinista nell' estrema periferia dell' ungheria, siamo nel 1943, Gina giovane ragazza di 14 orfana di madre, si ritrova quindi sola ad affrontare la sua quotidianità?
Perchè suo padre, maggiore dell' esercito ungherese, l' ha confinata in quel posto orribile privo di calore umano?
Ed è proprio in questo luogo estremo, fatto solo di regole rigidissime, imposizioni e silenzio che Gina vivrà un episodio traumatico di solitudine e cattiveria...... ma sarà veramente così?
Chi è questa Abigail a cui tutte le ragazze, segretamente si rivolgono per aiuto e supporto deponendo un bigliettino ai piedi della statua a lei dedicata?
Abigail, anima sconosciuta sino alla fine della storia, sarà il perno, la grazia e il dono di un' umanità fatta di amore e di aiuto; attraverso lei le ragazze ritroveranno quell' umanità fatta di gioie dolori, e tenerezza. Giorgina ritroverà e fare esperienza del perdono e della grazia dell' amicizia quando le verrà svelato che la sua reclusione altro non è che un enorme atto d' amore del padre, nascondendola e rinchiudendola lì , la salverà dai traditori dell' esercito devoti ai tedeschi che vorrebbero usarla come esca per ritrovare il padre fuggiasco.
E' stato meraviglioso leggere tutta quei fili di amore e tenerezza, fatti di volti e professori che fecero di tutto per coprire la presenza di Gina e altre ragazze in situazioni simili, nascondendole dal pericolo dell' odio politico.
gina, bellissima Gina, che conoscerà così tanti sentimenti, ma soprattutto farà esperienza del perdono di fronte alla sua cocciutaggine che quasi non portò al fallimento della sua copertura, della tenerezza dell' amicizia vera, nonostante soffocata dalla rigidità delle regole del Collegio calvinista Matula. Gina, la ragazza, che vivrà l' amore più grande, di un padre che si sacrifica alla morte pur di salvare la figlia. Un amore fecondo, portato avanti dalla certezza di volti che proteggeranno la vita di questa ragazza nei momenti più duri della storia europea del ventesimo secolo.
October 4, 2022
میدونم که از همین حالا دلم برای آدمها و فضای کتاب تنگ میشه
چند وقتی میشد که هیچ کتابی چنان عمیق منو تو دل یک فصل نبرده بود.
بعد از کتاب City of Thieves که کاملا حس زمستون رو بهم منتقل کرد، این کتاب عمیقا بهم حس پائیز رو میده
رنگ های تند پائیزی و تضادشون با خاکستری سردی که مدرسه ماتولا در ابتدا از زبون گینای داستان توصیف میشه تا طعم و بوی شیرینی هایی که پدرش تو ملاقات های هر چند ماه یکبار ب��ای دخترش میبره رو شدیدا حس کردم.
گینا کاملا نشانگر یک نوجوونه، دختری که از دنیای سرخوشش بیرون کشیده شده و بدون هیچ توضیح مشخصی از سمت پدرش، مجبور به زندگی شبانه روزی در مدرسه ماتولا میشه و از این نقطه به بعد مجبور به وفق دادن خودش با مقررات سخت گیرانه مدرسه و پیرامونش میشه
با جلو رفتن داستان ما هم به اندازه گینا از اتفاقات دور و برش خبر دار میشیم، اتفاقات ساده ای که هر بچه ای تو مدرسه باهاش روبرو میشه رو باهاش تجربه میکنیم و همینطور غم و اندوهی که روی دوشش سنگینی میکنه و اونو از هم سن های خودش به مرور زمان بالغ تر میکنه
داستان در واقع تضاد دنیای پاک و ساده یک دختربچه با دنیای درگیر جنگ و سیاست رو به ساده ترین شکل ممکن بیان میکنه و مدرسه یا طبق تصور گینا در ابتدای داستان "زندان"، مرز بین این دو دنیا توصیف میشه
جایی که بیرون از اون اتفاقات اتفاق میفتن و ماتولا مثل یک حباب از اون مصون باقی مونده
گرچه این زندان با پیش رفتن داستان تبدیل به جایی میشه که خود گینا هم توان ترک کردنشو نداره
ابیگیل یه گوشه از قلبم جا گرفت و بی صبرانه منتظرم مابقی کارهای سابو رو بخونم ♡
چند وقتی میشد که هیچ کتابی چنان عمیق منو تو دل یک فصل نبرده بود.
بعد از کتاب City of Thieves که کاملا حس زمستون رو بهم منتقل کرد، این کتاب عمیقا بهم حس پائیز رو میده
رنگ های تند پائیزی و تضادشون با خاکستری سردی که مدرسه ماتولا در ابتدا از زبون گینای داستان توصیف میشه تا طعم و بوی شیرینی هایی که پدرش تو ملاقات های هر چند ماه یکبار ب��ای دخترش میبره رو شدیدا حس کردم.
گینا کاملا نشانگر یک نوجوونه، دختری که از دنیای سرخوشش بیرون کشیده شده و بدون هیچ توضیح مشخصی از سمت پدرش، مجبور به زندگی شبانه روزی در مدرسه ماتولا میشه و از این نقطه به بعد مجبور به وفق دادن خودش با مقررات سخت گیرانه مدرسه و پیرامونش میشه
با جلو رفتن داستان ما هم به اندازه گینا از اتفاقات دور و برش خبر دار میشیم، اتفاقات ساده ای که هر بچه ای تو مدرسه باهاش روبرو میشه رو باهاش تجربه میکنیم و همینطور غم و اندوهی که روی دوشش سنگینی میکنه و اونو از هم سن های خودش به مرور زمان بالغ تر میکنه
داستان در واقع تضاد دنیای پاک و ساده یک دختربچه با دنیای درگیر جنگ و سیاست رو به ساده ترین شکل ممکن بیان میکنه و مدرسه یا طبق تصور گینا در ابتدای داستان "زندان"، مرز بین این دو دنیا توصیف میشه
جایی که بیرون از اون اتفاقات اتفاق میفتن و ماتولا مثل یک حباب از اون مصون باقی مونده
گرچه این زندان با پیش رفتن داستان تبدیل به جایی میشه که خود گینا هم توان ترک کردنشو نداره
ابیگیل یه گوشه از قلبم جا گرفت و بی صبرانه منتظرم مابقی کارهای سابو رو بخونم ♡
Displaying 1 - 30 of 821 reviews