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Le Cardinal Prisonnier (Ldp Litterature)
317pages. 18 x 11 cm. Broché. En 1956, au moment de la révolution hongroise écrasée par les chars soviétiques, le cardinal Mindszenty se réfugie à l'intérieur de l'ambassade américaine à Budapest. A partir de ce fait historique, l'auteure imagine son existence pendant 20 ans dans le huis clos de ce bâtiment intouchable par la police.
317 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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June 4, 2022
This was not a book I intended to read. In fact, I had pulled it off the shelf to make room for another, recently-finished work, and decided I should "take a look at it" before deciding what to do with it.
The original work is in French; mine is a copy in English, so hard to locate it's not even on the Good Reads search lists. Titled THE CAPTIVE CARDINAL, and in hardback, the book recalls the cold war of the 1960s and the tension and panic that were so heavily in the air. Set in Hungary, it plays on a significant but now-probably-forgotten event; but, it is events going on now - an outright assault by Russia on neighboring Ukraine - that prompted me to read it.
First published in English in 1964 (the original French in 1962), the novel is set in the near future - 1976 - and the worst fears of the time have been realized: all the world, save the United States, Canada, and England, is communist. Peaceful coexistence has replaced War, but there is an uneasiness about it all for the newly appointed US ambassador to Hungary and his wife, who are less than pleased with the posting. They bring with them her brother, who is dying and has one wish: to meet the Hungarian cardinal who, for the last twenty years, has been a voluntary prisoner in the embassy, and help him escape to the US. As a prelate of the Catholic Church, the cardinal is making a show of peaceful resistance to a world that has moved in the wrong direction, and will not even begin to consider the possibility of leaving his confines. Over the course of the novel, though, the cardinal and the ambassadors' brother-in-law forge a strong friendship that builds to a poignant climax. Other characters - the ambassador's wife, her female companion, and her Chinese charge-de-affairs - grow and develop as the novel progresses.
The historic link to this is the now-forgotten episode in history around Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary from 1945 to 1973. Mindszenty "personified uncompromising opposition to fascism and communism in Hungary (Encyclopedia Britannica)," and was imprisoned during Work War II by the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party. Mindszenty was tortured and imprisoned in a show trial that generated worldwide condemnation. Freed after eight years, the cardinal was granted political asylum at the US embassy in Budapest, where he lived for the next 15 years, finally leaving the country in 1971 and dying in exile in 1975. Along the way, he eventually became a thorn in the side of Pope Paul VI and the Vatican, and was relieved of his official titles in 1973, in the name of diplomacy and the greater good of the Church. Clearly, history did not play out as author Christine Arnothy, a native Hungarian, depicts in the novel.
Again, this is not a book I would have deliberately chosen to read. I chose it because of current events, not past ones. While it was OK, parts of it left me puzzled, and its resolution a tad disappointing. If you are interested in reading it, THE CAPTIVE CARDINAL (in English) is not easy to find. Perhaps I'll hang onto it for exactly that reason.
The original work is in French; mine is a copy in English, so hard to locate it's not even on the Good Reads search lists. Titled THE CAPTIVE CARDINAL, and in hardback, the book recalls the cold war of the 1960s and the tension and panic that were so heavily in the air. Set in Hungary, it plays on a significant but now-probably-forgotten event; but, it is events going on now - an outright assault by Russia on neighboring Ukraine - that prompted me to read it.
First published in English in 1964 (the original French in 1962), the novel is set in the near future - 1976 - and the worst fears of the time have been realized: all the world, save the United States, Canada, and England, is communist. Peaceful coexistence has replaced War, but there is an uneasiness about it all for the newly appointed US ambassador to Hungary and his wife, who are less than pleased with the posting. They bring with them her brother, who is dying and has one wish: to meet the Hungarian cardinal who, for the last twenty years, has been a voluntary prisoner in the embassy, and help him escape to the US. As a prelate of the Catholic Church, the cardinal is making a show of peaceful resistance to a world that has moved in the wrong direction, and will not even begin to consider the possibility of leaving his confines. Over the course of the novel, though, the cardinal and the ambassadors' brother-in-law forge a strong friendship that builds to a poignant climax. Other characters - the ambassador's wife, her female companion, and her Chinese charge-de-affairs - grow and develop as the novel progresses.
The historic link to this is the now-forgotten episode in history around Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, leader of the Catholic Church in Hungary from 1945 to 1973. Mindszenty "personified uncompromising opposition to fascism and communism in Hungary (Encyclopedia Britannica)," and was imprisoned during Work War II by the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party. Mindszenty was tortured and imprisoned in a show trial that generated worldwide condemnation. Freed after eight years, the cardinal was granted political asylum at the US embassy in Budapest, where he lived for the next 15 years, finally leaving the country in 1971 and dying in exile in 1975. Along the way, he eventually became a thorn in the side of Pope Paul VI and the Vatican, and was relieved of his official titles in 1973, in the name of diplomacy and the greater good of the Church. Clearly, history did not play out as author Christine Arnothy, a native Hungarian, depicts in the novel.
Again, this is not a book I would have deliberately chosen to read. I chose it because of current events, not past ones. While it was OK, parts of it left me puzzled, and its resolution a tad disappointing. If you are interested in reading it, THE CAPTIVE CARDINAL (in English) is not easy to find. Perhaps I'll hang onto it for exactly that reason.
Displaying 1 of 1 review