A rediscovered masterwork from famed Hungarian novelist Sándor Márai,
Portraits of a Marriage tracks the lifelong entanglement of a man and
two women haunted by class differences and misdirected longings.
Peter and Ilonka are a wealthy couple whose outwardly perfect marriage
is undone by secrets. The insecure Ilonka believes she can never be
elegant and refined enough for her husband, while Peter has long been
tormented by his forbidden love for Judit, a peasant and servant in his
childhood home. What Judit longs for most, however, is freedom from the
constraints of the society that has ensnared all three in a vortex of
love and loss. Set against the backdrop of Hungary between the wars, in
a world on the verge of dramatic change, this exquisite novel offers
further posthumous evidence of Marai's brilliance.
Translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes