a.k.a. G. I. Zerffi, Hohlbr�ck, Dumont, Dr. Piali, or Dr. Gustav G. Zerffi

[pynchonoid]

A fascinating character in his own right, Pynchonesque
in some ways you might say, and possible background
for the next Pynchon novel if it turns out to have
that Hungarian connection that's been rumored....


Tibor Frank. Ein Diener seiner Herren. Werdegang des
österreichischen Geheimagenten Gustav Zerffi
(1820-1892). Edition Böhlissimo. Vienna: Böhlau
Verlag, 2002. 315 pp. Illustrations. EUR 29, ISBN
3-205-99453-1. 

Reviewed by Jeff Leigh, Department of History,
University of Wisconsin Marathon County.
Published by HABSBURG (July, 2003) 

Wer ist Zerffi?

Tibor Frank's title Ein Diener seiner Herren posits an
answer to the question of what was the man variously
known as G. I. Zerffi, Hohlbrück, Dumont, Dr. Piali,
or Dr. Gustav G. Zerffi in place of an answer to the
question of who he was. Indeed, it restates the
question of personal identity in the form of a social
role, and, in this, provides the framework for this
wide ranging book. As stated in the foreword: "This
book would like to appear as a simple biography, but
it is not the simple story of a man. This book is,
first off, a contribution to the history of the secret
service in the Habsburg Monarchy in the nineteenth
century. It also concerns itself with important
aspects of the Revolution and the struggle for freedom
in Hungary, 1848-9, and especially with its
consequences, as with the exiles of the European
Revolution in many lands. And, in an especially
important way, the biography of G.G. Zerffi
constitutes a presentation of the European origins of
the modernization of Japanese historiography in Meiji
Japan. Although these aspects appear only to be tied
together through the life of a single man, this book
is more than a biography. It is the investigation of
the different possibilities of an intellectual and of
the value of his moral and intellectual triumphs and
tragedies. From notorious Hungarian journalist of the
Vormärz, he transformed himself into an anonymous
Austrian secret agent, became one of the first members
of the Royal Historical Society in London, and an
internationally known historian. In an important way,
his biography is a cumulative symbol of the possible
life paths and pitfalls of the intelligentsia of the
nineteenth century" (p. 9). 

[...] The life of G.G. Zerffi appears more to have
been a set of causes and assumed alien identities,
illustrating a fundamental rootlessness "as an
assimilated Jew in the Hungary of Metternich, as a
'homeless' 'Hungarian' émigré in Turkey, as an
'Austrian' agent provocateur in the international
revolutionary emigration, or as the former
'revolutionary Honved officer' in the academic life of
Victorian England" (p. 207) [...] 

continues:
<http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=47681060656016>



__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com