Author
Mária Berde
1889-1949
Mária Berde (1889-1949) is a public-domain author available on Rivro. Read free books, explore subjects, and discover related classics.
WikipediaBooks by Mária Berde
Az örök film : $b Müncheni regény
"Az örök film : Müncheni regény" by Mária Berde is a novel written in the early 20th century. Set in Munich’s Schwabing artists’ quarter, it follows the Hungarian student Etelka, her admirer Aladár, and a vivid circle of painters, designers, poets, and expatriates orbiting the Biedermann boardinghouse. The story probes the allure and hazards of bohemian life, where play-acting, artistic ambition, and social masquerade blur into everyday existence. The beginning of the novel introduces a bright, unseasonal Munich day, where Etelka meets the iparművésznő Karla at the museum and becomes intrigued by a new social world. Aladár pursues entry to a Biedermann penzió fête via the scruffy painter Bukovina, who engineers a fake police raid to outwit a dance ban, revealing a motley crowd: the commanding Ingert, the magnetic Miss Northon, and other eccentrics whirling through smoky rooms improvised from former stables. A later coffee gathering welcomes Zdenka, a naive craftswoman from Prague who is mocked for her accent until Aladár gallantly intervenes; the celebrated poet Lilienthal drops in, while an earnest student-poet, Zwirn, courts notice with verses. The group spills to the intimate Bohém café, where wall-scribbled modernisms frame more dancing and self-display; Karla meets the sober photographer Franci, whose cool critique hints at Schwabing’s tendency to intoxicate, distract, and sometimes undo the young who drift into its orbit.
Haláltánc : $b regény
"Haláltánc" by Mária Berde is a novel written in the early 20th century. The story appears to focus on a group of characters—primarily the introspective and ill Hugh, the delicate, withdrawn Ginevra, and the practical Madame Mercati—who are living in a mountain sanatorium, presumably for the treatment of lung disease. Against the backdrop of a starkly beautiful Alpine landscape, the novel explores themes of illness, isolation, the longing for life, and the tentative emergence of love and hope among young people confronted by their own fragility and mortality. The opening of "Haláltánc" immerses the reader in the sun-drenched yet melancholic world of a high-altitude sanatorium. Ginevra, an Irish girl marked by illness and loss, quietly gathers flowers, while Hugh—himself a long-term patient—watches her with growing fascination. Their hesitant interactions are colored by the ever-present reality of sickness and the rituals of the sanatorium community, where small gestures, glances, and brief conversations take on enormous emotional weight. Tensions subtly arise as other patients—like the vibrant Ziegler and the spirited Aimée—interact with Ginevra, prompting moments of jealousy, self-doubt, and painful longing in Hugh. The detailed descriptions of routines, landscape, and fragile relationships set a contemplative, bittersweet tone, as the characters navigate hope, connection, and the shadow of death that hovers around them.
A tükör – Szegény kicsi Jula – Borzhistória
A tükör – Szegény kicsi Jula – Borzhistória by Mária Berde is a collection of short stories written in the early 20th century. It blends legend and village folklore with psychological realism, using a magical mirror and a rumored “fairy gate” to frame tales of desire, innocence, and fate. The pieces center on a European antiquarian, the harem girl Kandazé and the youth Timur, and a poor mountain child, Jula. The opening of the collection first follows A tükör: a European scholar buys an antique mirror in Istanbul, hears its Baghdadi origin myth, and at midnight the glass reveals the past—Kandazé, promised to the caliph, secretly loves Timur; their flight on the Tigris ends in betrayal and loss when Timur sacrifices her for the mirror and is himself claimed by the river, while the mirror later shatters in the scholar’s room, sobering his skepticism. The scene then shifts to Szegény kicsi Jula, a harsh mountain village where poverty and folk belief shape life: a wise-woman, Ágota, trades in cures and tales, the priest counters superstition, and little Jula yearns to be “innocent,” making small sacrifices to atone for imagined faults. After a brutal winter and late spring, Jula helps Ágota move to her forest hut and, drawn by Ágota’s stories of the Tündérkapu, slips away with a flower-filled cup toward the basalt “fairy gate” at dusk. The excerpt closes as she reaches the silent stone arch.
Télutó : $b Elbeszélések
"Télutó: Elbeszélések" by Mária Berde is a collection of short stories written in the early 20th century. Set against a backdrop of war-torn Transylvania, the stories focus on the personal and social struggles of individuals, especially women, in a time of loss and upheaval. The main characters navigate themes of loyalty, grief, duty, and the search for moral clarity in a fractured society. Throughout, the writing emphasizes the weight of personal sacrifice and the complexities of honor in times of crisis. The opening of "Télutó" introduces Klaudina, a young woman grappling with the transition from mourning to the possibility of new beginnings, as her mother encourages her to cast off her black dresses of grief. The narrative quickly intertwines her fate with that of Krizbai, a fugitive jurist and former family acquaintance, who seeks refuge in Klaudina’s home, putting her father—Czinege, the city’s head official—in a grave moral dilemma between duty and compassion. The tension escalates as Klaudina daringly aids Krizbai’s escape, only to be met by heartbreak and the consequences that ripple through her family. This beginning paints a vivid picture of a community marked by suffering, betrayal, and ethical ambiguity in the aftermath of revolution, setting the tone for deeply human stories of endurance and conscience.