Abigail

Resource Information

The work Abigail represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Randwick City Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

This resource has been enriched with EBSCO NoveList data.

Label

Abigail

Statement of responsibility

Magda Szabó ; translated from the Hungarian by Len Rix

Creator

• trueSzabo, Magda, 1917-2007
• Szabó, Magda, 1917-2007

Contributor

• trueSzabo, Magda, 1917-2007
• Rix, L. B., (Len B.)

Author

• Szabó, Magda, 1917-2007

Translator

• Rix, L. B., (Len B.)

Subject

• trueWorld War II
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Hungary -- Fiction
• trueBoarding schools
• Boarding schools -- Fiction
• trueComing-of-age stories
• trueFathers and daughters
• Fathers and daughters -- Fiction
• trueHistorical fiction
• trueHungary
• Hungary -- History -- 1918-1945 -- Fiction
• Hungary -- Social conditions -- 1918-1945 -- Fiction
• Privilege (Social psychology) -- Fiction
• trueResistance (Psychology) in teenage girls
• trueSchools
• Schools -- Fiction
• trueSecond World War era (1939-1945) -- 1939 -- 1945
• trueSecrets
• trueSpoiled children
• trueStatues
• trueTeenage girls
• Teenage girls -- Fiction
• trueTranslations -- Hungarian to English

Genre

• trueTranslations
• Fiction
• trueHistorical fiction
• trueComing-of-age stories

Language

• eng
• hun
• eng

Summary

It is late 1943 and Hitler, exasperated by the slowness of his Hungarian ally to act on the "Jewish question" and alarmed by the weakness on his southern flank, is preparing to occupy the country. Foreseeing this, and concerned for his daughter's safety, a Budapest father decides to send her to a boarding school away from the capital. A lively, sophisticated, somewhat spoiled teenager, she is not impressed by the reasons she is given, and when the school turns out to be a fiercely Puritanical one in a provincial city a long way from home, she rebels outright. Her superior attitude offends her new classmates and things quickly turn sour. It is the start of a long and bitter learning curve that will open her eyes to her arrogant blindness to other people's true motives and feelings. Exposed for the first time to the realities of life for those less privileged than herself, and increasingly confronted by evidence of the more sinister purposes of the war, she learns lessons about the nature of loyalty, courage, sacrifice and love

Member of

• New York Review Books classics, 30
• trueAbigel
• Abigél

Theme

• trueLife during wartime

Storyline

• trueCharacter-driven

Tone

• trueThought-provoking

Writing style

• trueCompelling

Cataloging source

SALS

Index

no index present

Language note

Translated from the Hungarian

Literary form

novels

Series statement

New York Review Books classics

Series volume

30

Target audience

adult