Gavalieri

Kálmán Mikszáth portrays the characters and figures from the “olden days” of Hungary in an unsurpassable manner. In the novella, The Gentry, these are the inhabitants of Šariš who, despite their dire circumstances, manage to live like true gentlemen.
“I know the glorious Šariš county well. I have visited it often; I have family and friends there, great lords and lesser lords, which makes no difference, for in Šariš even the lesser lords are great lords, and vice versa: even the great lords are lesser lords. Šariš is the county of good taste and illusions. I have been to many a ball and banquet there, and it always seemed to me that I was sitting among Esterházys, though I knew full well they were county clerks and minor officials, lacking everything, perhaps even secretly starving, but when the eyes of strangers are upon them, they can part with their last five-florin note with princely grandeur.”
The text is based on a translation by Belo Klein-Tesnoskalský from the first half of the last century, which has been grammatically and stylistically revised.