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	• Hungarian Ethnography and Folklore Ivan Balassa, Gyula Ortutay Intl Specialized Book Service Inc, 1974 - 818 pages average customer review:based on 1 review
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While this book was available as of 5 - 6 years ago for a reasonable price ... due to its scarcity ... the price has quadrupled and for good reason. It is so hard to obtain that my local library could not find a copy on loan from libraries who have it. In my opinion, it is *the* most essential book written on Hungarian Ethnography and Folklore. The authors are highly eminent scholars in their field. I consider myself extremely lucky to have discovered a copy for sale after diligent searches on the internet, and even more fortunate that it was the English translation (I could have plodded through the Hungarian but this way it is much easier). Originally, the book was titled "Magyar Neprajz" and published by Corvina Kiado in Budapest, Hungary (1979).

At first, the most striking feature of the book is the jacket cover: bright colorful photos of a peasant house, two shepherds in their stylishly embroidered cloaks, and a wedding photo, likely of Transylvanian folk costumes, and a ceramic jug. The back cover is just as fascinating, several multi-colored intricately embroidered table cloths in brilliant red hues and complex floral patterns, three ceramic plates, and a "best room" with emboridered pillow covers and old peasant furniture. The next most notable feature of the book is, it is BIG, totalling 785 pages, if you count all the credits. And most enticing are:. the inside photos ... along with the scholarly research and detailed contents of each chapter. The book is very comprehensive in scope and depth. It details many of the folk customs, regional costumes, peasant homes, folklore designs, music, instruments, embroidery, cemetery grave posts, patterns of village settlement, furniture styles, designs and patterns of homes, farming implements, animal husbandry, beehives, fishing implements and techniques, earthenware designs and manufacture, hair braiding and headddresses, and much more. The outstanding photographs and illustrations provide the reader a better appreciation for the past. They emphasize the vast amount of energy and talent it took to create such living memories of folk art and life. This is a "must own" book for anyone interested in Hungarian folklore, folk art, folk music and the ancient past of Hungary. It receives my most enthusiastic and highest recommendations. Erika Borsos (erikab93)

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