Amitié amoureuse. Gróf Bánffy Miklós és báró Bornemissza Elemérné Szilvássy Karola
Amitié amoureuse. Count Miklós Bánffy and Baroness Karola Bornemissza Szilvássy

Summary/Abstract: From the two great loves of the life of Miklós Bánffy, the first was a relationship which lasted for more than fifty years, a kind of “loving friendship”. This relationship has become a romantic tale to which the personality of Bánffy lends a strange halo due to all that which his name signifies within the 20th century history of Hungary, Transylvania, and Hungarian culture. This special “literary love story” has become fashionable not only because its protagonists, who are notable representatives of the Transylvanian aristocracy. The most important cause of the interest for this narrative is none other than the Grand Segnieur, the tragic figure of Bánffy himself, an aristocrat who has lost everything in his old age. Although the relationship has certainly been a romantic one, it is not the kind of typical romance in which the beloved woman, of secondary importance, becomes famous due to the love of an important man. Here, we have a relationship between two active people of similar intellectual value, who have supported each other until their death. Furthermore, this love story cannot be regarded as traditional because the careers of both participants is not only “novel-like”, but extraordinary.

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