Talk:Abigail (novel)

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Young Adult (YA) fiction

I think Abigél could be called a "young-adult" novel rather than a children's novel. A publisher's site recommends it to ages 12-16, and it was also published as part of the "Striped books" series, which I think was recommended for teenage girls (see a striped cover among the covers here).

The novel has also been published as an audiobook read by Ildikó Piros, the actor who played the deaconess Zsuzsanna in the TV series. Should we put that in the "Adaptations" section or elsewhere? --Kletta (talk) 21:47, 1 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, Robina Fox, for changing the description to “young-adult novel”! However, I think that the main character is only 14 at the start of the novel, starting fifth grade in the school, the equivalent of today’s ninth grade. I think it might be in the TV series and perhaps the musical that she’s in seventh grade, the equivalent of eleventh grade, but I’m not sure. --Kletta (talk) 07:28, 17 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Locations

Originally, the article said that Gina is from Pest, but her father's house is on Gellért Hill (p. 7), which is in Buda. At one point [at least in the English translation], "the General called over his shoulder to say that...they were no longer in Pest" (p. 12). But that seems like a mistake. Because of this ambiguity, I changed the article to read, "a spoiled girl from Budapest." And at the Bishop Matula Academy, everyone knows her as the girl from Budapest.

Also, the New York Times review of the book mistakenly places the location of her boarding school. Taking the place name Árkod literally, the reviewer writes, "It is 1943 when Gina’s father, a general in the Hungarian Army, ships his daughter off to an oppressively pious boarding school in the remote village of Arkod (now the Serbian town of Jarkovac)."^[1] Yes, Jarkovac was once known as Árkod, but based on all the descriptions of the city in the book, it is probably Debrecen: "Árkod, the oldest university city in eastern Hungary...97.5% Protestant" (p. 14) "a large, four-square-looking church, almost white as chalk" (p. 18) Poldy Bloom (talk) 14:57, 9 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for bringing that up. I wonder why you wrote "spoiled". Gina is just an ordinary young girl, so I changed that wording.--Medusahead (talk) 11:20, 17 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I did not write "spoiled." It was already in the article. I only changed "Pest" to "Budapest." Poldy Bloom (talk) 18:57, 9 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Rothfeld, Becca (17 January 2020). "In Magda Szabo's Magical Novel, a Statue Protects Students From the Nazis". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 April 2020.

[1] Rothfeld, Becca (17 January 2020). "In Magda Szabo's Magical Novel, a Statue Protects Students From the Nazis". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 April 2020.

[1]