Baron Pal Podmaniczky and the Norwegian Bible | Page 3

upbeat expression of the motivating power of the whole story in one sentence. "The discovery of the marvellous world of languages is the great experience of my life."
This idea runs through the story and motivates the climax of the story, an attempt to steal the bilingual Bible.
The plot is very simple, the writer (the story is written in the first person singular) finds a Bible, reads it, becomes attached to it, wants to steal it--but in the end she resists the temptation.
The story is only the superficial message of the story. The real message is hidden between the lines. The storyline is less important. What is important is the frame of mind of the writer, the way she narrates the story.
One of the characteristic features of the genre of the short story is that there must be a culminating point. The way to this point of this story is shown by explaining how important the bilingual Bible becomes for the writer. Although grandfather’s hobbies, memories, religious childhood, and his love of languages are mirrored in the story, the description of all this foreshadows the climax.
............
The next three or four pages of this analysis were lost. This loss too became a mirror. One of my professors at the Teacher’s Training College was introduced in this mirror. But I will write about this event later on!
There was a big family meeting on the second day of Christmas in my mother’s flat in Budapest. I gave my present to my mother, sister, four brothers, an uncle, my husband, my two daughters and my son.
Some of the reactions:
> My mother, daughter of a theology professor, wife of my minister father, mother of six children, grandmother of sixteen grandchildren and two great grandchildren, whose great aim, perhaps whose only task in her old age is to lead her relatives back to the church, to a religious life, to God. She organises religious summer camps for her grandchildren, summons everybody to church on Sunday mornings and always presents us with Protestant hymn books and psalms. Her opinion: "I liked your English, the theme was interesting, I liked meeting my father’s--your grandfather’s spirit in it. But if you confess you haven’t learned the Bible in your last 30 years, please read it now and live on the basis of it in your next thirty years."
> Younger brother, a former speed skating trainer, who is now a businessman, living in Vienna with his third wife and third and fourth children. He is the small Benjamin of the family, the youngest child--who likes other brothers and sisters, our mother, his former wives and children, but does everything for his own good rather than that of others. Having read my short story very quickly--(he had not much time, he was running after his next business!),--he began to laugh at me, "Gee, Ilus (my nickname in the family), you are a fool, aren’t you? Why did you leave the Bible there? I have got about fourteen or sixteen Bibles from different hotel rooms in the different countries that I visited when I took part in skating competitions, the Olympics, and the world championships. Not to read them but to possess them."
> Other brother, husband of a rich business-woman. She is full of ideas and plans and has got the money for her good deeds. She promotes a young Russian painter, an infant prodigy and helped to found an English theatre in Budapest. She has a chain of clothing shops. My brother asked me: "Don’t you need a publisher? We have just founded a publishing house."
> My elder daughter, a student (her majors are: American Studies and Physical Education) happily showed everyone her copy with my dedication in it: "To my schoolmate with love--your mummy".
> A sixty-six year old uncle, a retired lawyer, very religious, who finished studying Protestant theology two years ago. "Now that you have met the Bible again won’t you think of continuing this friendship at home in your life?" The same thought as my mother’s. They are cousins and have a common great-grandfather, a bishop and psalm writer. An inherited way of thinking, perhaps?
Three or four weeks after mailing the forty or fifty bilingual "Norwegian Bibles" as my Christmas cards this year, my everyday post has grown. I got two or three letters weekly and a Bible every month.
> I begin with the last one. On the 11th March I got a postcard from a Japanese penfriend of mine, an otolaryngologist. He has written: "Thank you for your nice short story. I enjoyed ’The Norwegian Bible’ very much. I now understand you have inherited your multilingual ability from your ancestors, your grandparents. Please write another version of this story. Suppose you steal the Bible. I am sure Christ will be pleased. Anyway, I think you have a great