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takes her back to the school, but her decision makes her father tell her why she must stay in Árkod: General Vitay is the leader of a resistance group within the
Hungarian military, and he does not want his enemies to find his daughter. Learning this, Gina shows maturity as she voluntarily accepts her "captivity" and finally reconciles with the others. The school seems to be not so rigorous, as Gina accepts some of Matula's traditions, which until then she found childish.
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On her second day at school, Gina flies into a rage and reveals one of the secrets of her classmates to the headmaster of the institute, which makes her classmates ostracize her for months. Gina feels lonely and seeks a way to escape to
Budapest. Her attempt fails as one of the teachers finds her and
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Gina's father does not telephone her for months and she has to stay in the school even at
Christmas. Early in spring, her suitor from home, Feri Kuncz, appears in the city and says that he wants to bring her secretly to her father, who he pretends is ill and is waiting for her. The plan fails, but
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The school's greatest legend has been woven around the statue in the garden, which the girls name
Abigail. The mysterious benefactor who helps everyone if they write Abigail a letter appears in Gina's life too. Moreover, he or she not only solves adolescent problems, but takes on serious social
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in 2005, it was voted the sixth most popular novel in
Hungary. It was the third most popular Hungarian novel on the list. The novel has been translated into Catalan, Czech, French, German, Italian, Latvian, Persian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, and Turkish. An English translation by
124:, the daughter of a general, her mother died early, her governess had to leave Hungary by the beginning of the Second World War. In 1943, her father, without an explanation, from one day to the next sends Gina away to the Matula Institute, an old and traditional
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girls' boarding school in the fictional
Protestant town of Árkod in easternmost Hungary. The closed Puritan world of Matula forces Gina, who is used to individualism and freedom, to give up her former life. The strict rules, the education by
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still, Gina has to leave Árkod. The winds of war have arrived at the seemingly impregnable Matula. Helped by Mici Horn, an ex-pupil of Matula and a war widow, Gina escapes from Árkod and gets a new identity.
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was published in
January 2020. A Hungarian audiobook is read by Ildikó Piros (who played Sister Susanna in a television adaptation of the novel), and an English audiobook is read by Samantha Desz.
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At the end of the novel, Gina finds out that Mr. Kőnig, a teacher whom she hated and looked down on during the school year, is actually
Abigail, her greatest helper and the saver of many lives.
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A TV series based on the novel was produced in 1978. The novel was also adapted as a musical that premiered in March 2008.
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The main character of the novel is
Georgina "Gina" Vitay, a girl from
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213:"The Hungarian Despair of Magda Szabó's "The Door""
387:Novels set in high schools and secondary schools
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257:"Abigail by Magda Szabo. Translated by Len Rix"
190:"Magda Szabó: Acclaimed author of 'The Door'"
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412:Children's books set during World War II
96:girls' school in eastern Hungary during
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314:from the original on 24 September 2023
223:from the original on August 19, 2017.
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92:about a teenage girl who attends a
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337:The text of the novel in Hungarian
234:Editions of Abigail by Magda Szabó
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407:Children's books set in the 1940s
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211:Zarin, Cynthia (April 29, 2016).
200:from the original on 18 May 2019.
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402:Children's books set in schools
397:Children's books set in Hungary
362:Hungarian children's literature
263:from the original on 2019-01-23
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392:Novels set in boarding schools
377:Novels set during World War II
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16:1970 novel by Magda Szabó
259:. Penguin Random House.
80:by the Hungarian author
288:. 2016. Archived from
382:Novels set in Hungary
357:1970 children's books
196:. 22 November 2007.
306:[Abigail].
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286:Publishing Hungary
239:2023-05-28 at the
105:Hungarian Big Read
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352:1970 novels
152:Adaptations
131:deaconesses
82:Magda Szabó
38:Magda Szabó
346:Categories
267:2019-01-22
160:References
245:Goodreads
126:Calvinist
94:Calvinist
70:Hungarian
47:Hungarian
318:13 April
312:Archived
304:"Abigél"
261:Archived
237:Archived
221:Archived
198:Archived
122:Budapest
44:Language
20:Abigail
308:Jegy.hu
110:Len Rix
103:In the
86:Abigail
65:Abigail
88:is an
74:Abigél
34:Author
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
