HERCZEG statesmao and party is revealed in the kind of reception given to the great general . The author is alluding to recent events, when with bitter iron y he telis how Zrinyi gets into debt and accepts th e post of bank manager to some J ewish bankers, who set a great value upon ancient H ongarian names. The most witty novelist who has appeared since the death of Arany is FRANCIS HERCZEG {bom 1863). He has written dramas as weil as novels, but is at his best in the short story . The character of his talent may be briefty described by saying that he is an ironical observer of mankind. He has a keen scent for the foibles of men and women, especially of the latter, but he does not regard these weaknesses with either indignation or inditierence ; he looks at them from a point of view of some elevation and is not blind to their humoraus side. He sets before us with remarkahic truth the types to be met in our stree ts every day. His characters seem to live before our eyes, so real . and living are th e features with which he has iovested them. His · inventiveness and fancy are not so great as those of Jókai, but his powers of observation, his excellent taste and sp irituel attitude towards life, assure bim a dis tinguished place, not only amongst Hungarian authors. Her czeg is spari ng of words, sobre as the Fre neh would say. In his short stories, full of irony, we see the poetica! spirit of a modem man of the world. He is an idea list without illusions. Perhaps the Bohemian world of journalists has never been so truly painted as in Herczeg's novel, Andrds and Andor, wh ich is full of satirical observations. Besides stories dealing with modem town life, like The Gyurkovics Girls , in which the characters seem to be living
