七個銅板

主要內容：

小說以母親的笑貫穿全篇，描寫一個貧苦的婦女為了湊夠七個銅板，買一塊肥皂給家人洗衣服，不得不翻箱倒柜，最后在一個老乞丐的幫助下，才湊夠七個銅板，可肥皂卻沒買成，女主人終于笑的咯了血的悲慘故事。反映了20世紀初匈牙利勞動人民的貧困和痛苦，贊揚了母子間、窮人間深刻的理解和淳樸真誠的友愛。

作者介紹：

莫里茲早期短篇小說《七個銅板》，以別開生面的形式描寫了窮人的“哭”與“笑”，因內容與形式的創新而轟動文壇。第一次世界大戰期間到前線采訪，1916年發表了反戰小說《窮人》。中篇小說《火炬》描寫一個有志于社會改革的青年牧師被舊勢力同化的過程。20年代的中篇小說《一生做好人》、長篇三部曲《愛爾德伊》、長篇小說《通宵達旦》、《老爺的狂歡》和《親戚》，多以揭露封建社會的腐朽墮落和探索治國道路為主題。 30年代寫出《 幸福的人》、《強盜》、《羅饒·山多爾》等小說，反映農民悲慘遭遇和反抗斗爭。莫里茲一生還寫過80多部劇本，大部分根據自己的小說改編。SEVEN PENNIES

The gods in their wisdom have granted the benefit of laughter also to the poor.

The tenants of huts do not wail all the time, often enough a hearty laughter comes ringing from their dwellings. I might even go to the length of saying that the poor often laugh when they have every reason to cry.

I happen to be thoroughly familiar with that kind of world. The generation of the Soós tribe that had brought forth my father went through the direst stages of destitution. At that time, my father worked as a day-labourer in a machine shop. There was nothing for him, nor for anyone else, to brag about in those days. (Yet brag they did.)

And it is a fact that never in my life was I to laugh as much as in those very years of my childhood.

How, indeed, should I ever again have laughed so heartily after I had lost my merry, red-cheeked mother, who used to laugh so sweetly that, in the end, tears came trickling down her cheeks and her laughter ended in a fit of coughing that almost choked her...

But she never laughed as merrily as on the afternoon which we spent searching for seven pennies. We searched, and we found them, too. Three were in the drawer of the sewing machine one in the cupboard... the rest were more difficult to find.

My mother found the first three pennies all by herself. She thought there ought to be more coins in the drawer, for she used to turn a penny by sewing and kept whatever she earned in that drawer. To me, the drawer of the sewing machine seemed an inexhaustible gold mine, and whenever you delved into it, all your wishes came true.

Thus I was flabbergasted to see my mother digging into a mess of needles, thimbles, scissors, bits of ribbon, braid and buttons, and, after she had poked around in them a while, to hear her say in astonishment:

"They have gone into hiding."

"Who?"

"The coins," she said with a laugh.