Examining the unclear circumstances of the death of Franz Joseph I�s son Rudolph (who died on 30th January 1889), the author digresses into politics, history and psychology while fitting together the puzzle-pieces of undestroyed data with a detective�s precision. Doing so, he reveals the bureaucratic and political system of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

 

The ten short pieces of the book depict the objects of the one-time Elemér Street with the precision of a minimalist (perhaps typical of a translator and dictionary compiler); Bart’s style is full of poetic description, irony and matter-of-fact conciseness. There are milk bottles and market-halls, the bird-head of the soda-bottle, scooters and many other pre-war objects (all from before the age of plastic), as well as the representatives of certain professions: the ice-man, the dustman, the “assistant caretaker” and others; and we catch glimpses of the behaviour of the tenants. It is the beginning of the 1950s, an era of political wariness and uncertainty, as the child-observer tries to come to terms with the world around him. In the joy of recollecting the objects, the author resists the narrative temptation, warning himself, “but let’s not tell stories.”

István Bart has translated several English, American and Irish authors (including Jack London, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Muriel Spark, Walter Scott, Philip Roth, B. S. Johnson, Henry Miller, Frederic Forsyth, Richard Hughes, A. E. Poe, Bernard Malamud, Norman Mailer, Samuel Beckett, Trevor Griffith, Sean O'Casey and others) and has edited a volume of essays on literary translation (Literary Translation Today). The two cultural dictionaries deal with customs and traditions typical of the English and American lifestyles, holiday traditions as well as the everyday; objects characteristic of the countries' lifestyles are included; and dress, dining and sports are covered, as are matters of law, state and religion.