The Melancholy of Resistance
Az ellenállás melankóliája
A powerful, surreal novel, in the tradition of Gogol, about the chaotic events surrounding the arrival of a circus in a small Hungarian town. The Melancholy of Resistance, László Krasznahorkai's magisterial novel, depicts a chain of mysterious events in a small Hungarian town. A circus, promising to display the stuffed body of the largest whale in the world, arrives in the dead of winter, prompting bizarre rumours. Word spreads that the circus folk have a sinister purpose in mind, and the frightened citizens cling to any manifestation of order they can find - music, cosmology, fascism. The novel's characters are unforgettable: the evil Mrs. Eszter, plotting her takeover of the town; her weakling husband; and Valuska, our hapless hero with his head in the clouds, who is the tender center of the book, the only pure and noble soul to be found. Compact, powerful and intense, The Melancholy of Resistance, as its enormously gifted translator George Szirtes puts it, "is a slow lava flow of narrative, a vast black river of type." And yet, miraculously, the novel, in the words of The Guardian, "lifts the reader along in lunar leaps and bounds."
The architectural brilliance of The Melancholy of Resistance resides in its meticulously crafted prose. László Krasznahorkai has delivered a manuscript that transcends its genre, offering a profound reflection on the human condition that lingers long after the final page is turned.
For patrons of our digital archives, this exclusive edition is preserved with uncompromised fidelity. Experience the narrative seamlessly across your devices, maintaining the aesthetic purity intended by the author.
