Zsigmond Móricz started his career in the early twentieth century with uninhibited naturalism, idealised, passionate peasant heroes and the depiction of dramas of sharp societal conflict, and after some splendidly crafted novels on historical and social themes came to the subject - widely held to be hackneyed and dull - of middle-class married life. Theoretically, the subject of marriage had been exhausted in the nineteenth century, yet Móricz secceeded in coming up with something new.