The Paul Street Boys

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name = The Paul Street Boys
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author = Ferenc Molnár
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country = Hungary
language = Hungarian
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release_date = 1906
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"The Paul Street Boys" is a youth novel by the Hungarian writer Ferenc Molnár (in Hungarian: Molnár Ferenc), first published in 1906.

Plot outline

The novel is about schoolboys in the rapidly developing Budapest at the turn of the 20th century, who defend their playground, the "grund", from the "redshirts", a team of other boys who want to occupy it. The boys regard the "grund" as their "Fatherland", constitute themselves its "National Army" and constantly use all the terminology of nationalism as common at the time - in Hungary as elsewhere in Europe.

The "battle", fought with "sandbombs" is decided by self-sacrifice of the smallest and weakest Pal street boy, Ernő Nemecsek, whom the other boys earlier called a traitor and whose name they wrote down without capital letters. Nemecsek, already gravely ill, dies of pneumonia after the battle.

Soon after his death, the boys are chased off their beloved "grund"/"Fatherland" by engineers who inform them that an apartment building would be erected on the spot. The book ends with a mood of dejection and disillusion, with a character remarking bitterly "The Fatherland has betrayed us". The book can thus be seen as a biting satire of European nationalism and a premonition of the First World War which broke out a few years after its publication. The message gets through, even though the book is not about politics and is an easy reading for children.

Literary significance & criticism

The book has earned the status of the most famous Hungarian novel in the world. It has been translated into many languages and in several countries (like the UK and Italy) it is a mandatory or recommended reading in schools. Ernő Nemecsek is now ranked there among the eternal heroes of youth literature like Oliver Twist or Tom Sawyer. The novel can be easily read in most parts of the world as if its story could have happened anywhere and in any age.

Erich Kästner took up the theme of two groups of boys conducting a "war" and using all the terminology of militarism and nationalism in "The Flying Classroom", published just before the Nazi takeover of Germany. Kästner was, however, less harsh with the character resembling Nemecsek, who in Kästner's version sufferes no more than a broken leg.

In Israel the book, in Hebrew translation, was highly popular in the 1940s and 1950s, and recently a new translation was published. The Israeli left-wing columnist Haim Bar'am, of the "Kol Ha'ir" weekly in Jerusalem, wrote: "The highest praise which I can bestow on a pure-hearted, idealistic person is to compare him or her to Nemecsek. I don't often do that, only when I feel that somebody truly deserves the ultimate compliment."

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

*"A Pál utcai fiúk" film of Hungarian director Béla Balogh in 1929
*"No Greater Glory" Film of Frank Borzage U.S. director in (1934)
*"I ragazzi della via Paal", film of Italy's Alberto Mondadori and Mario Monicelli in 1935
*"The Boys of Paul Street" Film of the Hungarian director Zoltán Fábri in 1969