**Washington Post Best Books of 2013** The celebrated TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY by Count Miklós Bánffy 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, Bánffy’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. Bánffy’s lush depiction of an opulent lost paradise focuses on two upper-class cousins who couldn’t be more different: Count Balint Abády, a liberal politician who compassionately defends his homeland’s downtrodden Romanian peasants, and his dissipated cousin László, 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.

The Transylvanian Trilogy, Volume I: They Were Counted; Introduction by Hugh Thomas (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series)

Literature & Fiction

Bánffy, Miklós

Literary

Everyman"s Library

"Perfect late night reading" JAN MORRIS "Banffy is a born storyteller" PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR "Totally absorbing" MARTHA KEARNEY "So evocative" SIMON JENKINS An extraordinary portrait of the vanished world of pre-1914 Hungary, They Were Counted is an epic story told through the eyes of two cousins, Count Balint Abady and Count Laszlo Gyeroffy. 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. This is the first volume Banffy's trilogy, which continues with They Were Found Wanting and They Were Divided. It was rediscovered for an international readership after the fall of communism in Hungary. With a Foreword by Patrick Leigh-Fermor Translated from Hungarian by Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Banffy-Jelen WINNER OF THE WEIDENFELD TRANSLATION PRIZE

They Were Counted

Arcadia Books

"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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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

They Were Found Wanting

"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 Bánffy'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.&nbsp; 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 Bánffy-Jelen With a Foreword by Patrick Leigh-Fermor WINNER OF THE WEIDENFELD TRANSLATION PRIZE

They Were Divided

Transporting stories of intrigue, superstition and rivalry from a European master, in English for the first time.

The Enchanted Night: Selected Tales

United States

Pushkin Press

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

They were counted.The Transylvania Trilogy. Vol 1.

Contemporary

Everyman

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.

They Were Found Wanting and They Were Divided: The Transylvania Trilogy Vol. 2

Paints an unrivalled portrait of the vanished world of pre-1914 Hungary, as seen through the eyes of two young aristocratic Transylvanian cousins.

They Were Counted (The Writing on the Wall (Erdelyi Tortenet) the Transylvanian Trilogy, Book 1)

Genre Fiction

Arcadia Books Ltd

Takes up the tale of the two Transylvanian cousins, their loves and very different fortunes, a year after They Were Counted ends.

They Were Found Wanting (The Writing on the Wall (Erdelyi Tortenet) : The Transylvanian Trilogy, booK 2)

Volume III of the Bánffy Trilogy details events in Montenegro, the Balkan wars and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand as the youth of Hungary march gayly off not only to their death on the field of battle, but to the dismemberement of their once great country,

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bánffy, Miklós. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Bánffy, Miklós

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Bánffy, Miklós. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Transylvanian Trilogy, Volume I: They Were Counted; Introduction by Hugh Thomas (Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics Series)

They Were Counted

They Were Found Wanting

They Were Divided

The Enchanted Night: Selected Tales

They were counted.The Transylvania Trilogy. Vol 1.

They Were Found Wanting and They Were Divided: The Transylvania Trilogy Vol. 2

They Were Counted (The Writing on the Wall (Erdelyi Tortenet) the Transylvanian Trilogy, Book 1)

They Were Found Wanting (The Writing on the Wall (Erdelyi Tortenet) : The Transylvanian Trilogy, booK 2)

They Were Divided