When a priceless Leonardo is stolen from the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, the Hungarian government tries to hush things up and the police show themselves to be completely clueless. Thank goodness for Milla Anderson! A gifted reporter for one of Budapest's daily newspapers, she picks up the trail in Palermo-and of course an international gang is soon hot on her heels. When a Hungarian detective is apparently liquidated and the oily Schoenberg-Belmonte begins insinuating his way into Mrs. Anderson's hotel, things start to look very dangerous indeed. This fast-paced crime story and lighthearted romantic comedy, set against a backdrop of Mediterranean scenery and fascist menace in Italy and Hungary between the wars, is Miklos Banffy at his best. Now published in English for the first time, translated by Thomas Sneddon.

Born in Transylvania in the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Miklos Banffy lived to witness both the zenith of that Empire and its fall. The short stories in this collection, from the tale of the idle young man dawdling pleasantly in Venice to the Romanian villager meditating revenge on his tormentor, draw on the author's experiences of life, love, sacrifice, betrayal and courage, and reveal, as a recurring leitmotif, an indomitable will to survive. The translator, Thomas Sneddon, lives in Budapest where he teaches translation at the Peter Pazmany University.

Back from Troy, the 'divine' Helen looks with fresh eyes at her foul-mouthed hero-husband; a girl in a mountain village seeks reassurance about her arranged marriage; a drunken mandarin invites the devil to tea; and a German princess discovers that people actually drink goat's milk. These delightful tales exhibit Banffy's customary blend of high seriousness and subtle humour, his rich imagination and his remarkably wide-ranging sympathies. Appearing in English for the first time, in finely nuanced translations by the prize-winning Len Rix, The Enchanted Night furthers the writer's growing reputation as one of the most compelling European writers of the twentieth century.

"Perfect late night reading" JAN MORRIS "Banffy is a born storyteller" PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR "Totally absorbing" MARTHA KEARNEY "So evocative" SIMON JENKINS The second volume of Miklos Banffy's panoramic trilogy of the dying years of the Habsburg empire. The tale of two Transylvanian cousins, their loves, their ambitions and their fortunes continues in They Were Found Wanting. Balint Abady is forced to part from the beautiful and unhappily married Adrienne Uzdy. Laszlo Gyeroffy is rapidly heading for self-destruction through drink and his own fecklessness. The politicians, quarrelling among themselves and stubbornly ignoring their countrymen's real needs, are still pursuing their vendetta with the Habsburg rule from Vienna. Meanwhile they fail to notice how the Great Powers - through such events as Austria's annexation of Bosnia-Herzagovina in 1908 - are moving ever closer to the conflagration of 1914-1918 that will destroy their world for ever. Banffy's portrait contrasts a life of privilege and corruption with the lives and problems of an expatriate Romanian peasant minority whom Balint tries to help. It is an unrivalled evocation of a rich and fascinating aristocratic world oblivious of its impending demise.# Part two of the trilogy that began with They Were Counted, and ends with They Were Divided. Translated from the Hungarian by Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Banffy-Jelen With a Foreword by Patrick Leigh-Fermor WINNER OF THE WEIDENFELD TRANSLATION PRIZE

**"Washington Post" Best Books of 2013**
The celebrated TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY by Count Miklos Banffy is a stunning historical epic set in the lost world of the Hungarian aristocracy just before World War I. Written in the 1930s and first discovered by the English-speaking world after the fall of communism in Hungary, Banffy's novels were translated in the late 1990s to critical acclaim and now appear for the first time in hardcover.
"They Were Counted, "the first novel in the trilogy, introduces us to a decadent, frivolous, and corrupt society unwittingly bent on its own destruction during the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Banffy's lush depiction of an opulent lost paradise focuses on two upper-class cousins who couldn't be more different: Count Balint Abady, a liberal politician who compassionately defends his homeland's downtrodden Romanian peasants, and his dissipated cousin Laszlo, whose life is a whirl of parties, balls, hunting, and gambling. "They Were Counted" launches a story that brims with intrigues, love affairs, duels, murder, comedy, and tragedy, set against the rugged and ravishing scenery of Transylvania. Along with the other two novels in the trilogy--"They Were Found Wanting "and "They Were Divided"--it combines a Proustian nostalgia for the past, insight into a collapsing empire reminiscent of the work of Joseph Roth, and the drama and epic sweep of Tolstoy.

**"Washington Post" Best Books of 2013**
The celebrated TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY by Count Miklos Banffy is a stunning historical epic set in the lost world of the Hungarian aristocracy just before World War I. Written in the 1930s and first discovered by the English-speaking world after the fall of communism in Hungary, Banffy's novels were translated in the late 1990s to critical acclaim and appear here for the first time in hardcover.
"They Were Found Wanting "and "They Were Divided, "the second and third novels in the trilogy, continue the story of the two aristocratic cousins introduced in "They Were Counted "as they navigate a dissolute society teetering on the brink of catastrophe. Count Balint Abady, a liberal politician who defends his homeland's downtrodden Romanian peasants, loses his beautiful lover, Adrienne, who is married to a sinister and dangerously insane man, while his cousin Laszlo loses himself in reckless and self-destructive addictions. Meanwhile, no one seems to notice the gathering clouds that are threatening the Austro-Hungarian Empire and that will soon lead to the brutal dismemberment of their country. Set amid magnificent scenery of wild forests, snowcapped mountains, and ancient castles, THE TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY combines a Proustian nostalgia for a lost world, insight into a collapsing empire reminiscent of the work of Joseph Roth, and the drama and epic sweep of Tolstoy.

"Perfect late night reading" JAN MORRIS "Banffy is a born storyteller" PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR "Totally absorbing" MARTHA KEARNEY "So evocative" SIMON JENKINS The final volume of Miklos Banffy's panoramic trilogy of the dying years of the Habsburg empire. They Were Divided reflects the rapidly disintegrating course of events in Central Europe. In the foreground once again the lives of Balint, with his ultimately unhappy love for Adrienne, and his fatally flawed cousin, Laszlo Gyeroffy, who dies in poverty and neglect, are told with humour and a bitter-sweet nostalgia for a paradise lost through folly. The sinister and fast moving events in Montenegro, the Balkan wars, the apparent encirclement of Germany and Austria-Hungary by Britain, France and Russia, and finally the assassination of Franz Ferdinand all lead inexorably to the youth of Hungary marching off to their death and the dismemberment of their once great country. Volume three of the epic, sweeping and wholly immersive trilogy that began with They Were Counted, and continued with They Were Found Wanting. Translated from the Hungarian by Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Banffy-Jelen With a Foreword by Patrick Leigh-Fermor WINNER OF THE WEIDENFELD TRANSLATION PRIZE

Shooting parties in great country houses, turbulent scenes in parliament and the luxury life in Budapest provide the backdrop for this gripping, prescient novel, forming a chilling indictment of upper-class frivolity and political folly, in which good manners cloak indifference and brutality. Abady becomes aware of the plight of a group of Romanian mountain peasants and champions their cause, while Gyeroffy dissipates his resources at the gaming tables, mirroring the decline of the Austro-Hungarian empire itself

The liberal hero, Balint, is at odds with the politics of his time; he lyrically describes the idyllic pre-industrial world of Hungarian Transylvania, later to fall into the hands of first the Nazis and then the Communists, his love for Adrienne, married to an unpleasant and dangerous lunatic, and a Proustian society helplessly bent on its own destruction.This is a novel hard to put down, a masterpiece of twentieth-century literature that deserves to be much more widely known.First published in English in the early 1990s by a small publisher, and a huge word-of-mouth success, this is the first edition in hardback, and in two rather than three volumes.

Reflecting on the rapidly disintegrating course of events in Central Europe, this account centers on the lives of Transylvanian Count Balint Abady, his beloved Adrienne, and his flawed cousin Laszlo Gveroffy, who dies in poverty and neglect. Told with humor and bittersweet nostalgia, this book chronicles the sinister and fast-moving events in Montenegro, the Balkan Wars, and the apparent encirclement of Germany and Austria-Hungary by Britain, France, and Russia. This compelling novel deals with Hungarian politics on the verge of collapse and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand as the youth of Hungary march gaily off not only to their death on the battle field but also to the disintegration of their once-great country. "Reflexionando sobre el curso de desintegracion rapida de los acontecimientos en Europa central, este cuento se centra en la vida del conde transilvano Balint Abady, su amada Adriana y su primo "defectuoso "Laszlo Gveroffy, que muere en la pobreza y el abandono. Contado con humor y nostalgia agridulce, este libro narra los sucesos siniestros y vertiginosos en Montenegro, la guerra de los Balcanes y el cerco aparente de Alemania y Austria-Hungria por Gran Bretana, Francia y Rusia. Esta novela absorbente trata sobre la politica de Hungria al borde del colapso y el asesinato del archiduque Franz Ferdinand mientras los jovenes de Hungria marchan alegremente, no solamente a sus muertes en el campo de batalla, sino tambien a la desintegracion de su otrora gran pais."

Continuing the story of the two Transylvanian cousins from "They Were Counted, "this novel parallels the lives of the counts Balint Abady and Laszlo Gyeroffy to the political fate of their country: Balint has been forced to abandon the beautiful and unhappy Adrienne Miloth, while his cousin Laszlo continues down the path of self-destruction. Hungarian politicians continue with their partisan rivalries, meanwhile ignoring the needs of their fellow citizens. Obstinate in their struggle against Viennese sovereignty and in keeping their privileges, Hungarian politicians and aristocrats are blind to the fact that the world powers are nearing a conflict so large that it will soon give way to World War I and lead to the end of the world as they know it. "They Were Found Wanting "is the second novel of the Transylvanian Trilogy published by Miklos Banffy between 1934 and 1940, and it is considered one of the most important Central European narratives of the first half of the twentieth century. "Retomando la historia de los dos primos transilvanos que protagonizaban "Los dias contados," esta novela narra como las vidas de los condes Balint Abady y Laszlo Gyeroffy transcurren paralelas al destino politico de su pais: Balint se ha visto forzado a abandonar a la bella e infeliz Adrienne Miloth, mientras que su primo Laszlo persevera en su empeno autodestructivo. Entretanto, los politicos hungaros continuan con sus luchas partidistas despreciando las necesidades reales de sus conciudadanos. Obstinados en su pugna contra la soberania vienesa y en mantener sus privilegios, los politicos y aristocratas hungaros seran incapaces de ver como las grandes potencias se estan acercando peligrosamente a una conflagracion que mas tarde desembocara en la primera guerra mundial y terminara con el mundo tal como lo han conocido. "Las almas juzgadas" es la segunda novela de la Trilogia transilvana que Miklos Banffy publico entre 1934 y 1940, y esta considerada como una de las obras mas importantes de la narrativa centroeuropea de la primera mitad del siglo XX. "