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The Poet and the Woman

Stories, Sketches and Miniatures

This set of pre-war prose pieces by Miklós Radnóti (1909-1944) spans a wide variety of settings, from peasant huts in Hungary to a bohemian nightclub in Venice, and from a ceramics studio to airports and battleships. The forms of the stories range from fables to triptychs of naturalistic vignettes, from spare, conversational narratives to a silent drama. As always, Radnóti's emphasis is on emotions and people, whether they are writers, grieving children, booksellers, prostitutes, porters, or apprentices. More than anything, these are stories of lovers and love, dogged, irrepressible, illusion-free, and content-or at least natural.