Baron Pal Podmaniczky and the Norwegian Bible | Page 3

some of them spoke no English, I hoped they would be happy
to get the small bilingual book.
After writing the short story in November, our next task was to analyse
our own literary work. The first page of my self analysis as follows:

THE NORWEGIAN BIBLE
an analysis
The writer begins her story--as classical authors of this genre--with an
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