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Peter Esterhazy. Harmonic caelestis. Budapest. Magveto. 2000. 711 pages. 2,490 Ft. ISBN 963-14-2193-7.
The title of the volume under review refers to the musical composition of Palatine Pal Esterhazy, one of the author's ancestors. Peter Esterhazy's "family history" is made up of two parts, "Numbered Sentences from the Life of the Esterhazy Family" and "The Confessions of an Esterhazy Family." His use of the definite and indefinite articles alludes to the author's intentions: in the first case, the quotes are arbitrary; in the second, the family is.
If one's family history cannot be separated from that of the country, it is only natural that the author's father (the alleged main character of both parts) can be any male member of that five-century-- old family - or, for that matter, the entire country. Therefore the father figures, of which there are several dozens in the novel, can be a Prince Miklos Esterhazy, or Pal (who was...