Szegedi parasztok és egyéb urak

Szegedi parasztok és egyéb urak by István Tömörkény is a collection of short stories written in the late 19th century. The volume sketches the everyday life of the Great Hungarian Plain around Szeged, focusing on peasants, soldiers, and small-town figures in scenes that mix rough humor with stark realism. Recurring characters, such as the crafty farmer Förgeteg János and various shepherds, anchor these portraits of custom, pride, and survival. The opening of the collection moves from a bleak winter tavern scene—where a simmering feud between shepherds and a csikós erupts into a fatal brawl and a grim cover‑up—to a run of comic, closely observed village episodes. Förgeteg János is pressed into public labor on a dyke but stalls with endless, knowing delays; later he and his neighbors conduct a ceremonious, nitpicking suba purchase that collapses in haggling and taste (tulipán vs. rózsa). A farmer, Jegenye András, goes to town for a new pocketknife, testing blades with sparks, clicks, and hair-slicing before bargaining hard and leaving his old knife for repair. A planned boot-buying trip with a brother‑in‑law turns into a performance of buyer’s pride and price‑beating that ends with a practical turn: buying the wife new shoes instead. Finally, Förgeteg visits a bookbinder to cover a much‑loved “clever” book, bridles at the quoted price, and blusters; the scene breaks off mid‑squabble. (This is an automatically generated summary.)