Overview
St. Peter's Umbrella (Hungarian:Szent Péter esernyője) is an 1895 novel by the Hungarian writer Kálmán Mikszáth. It is set in the town of Besztercebánya (now Banská Bystrica), describing the rural life of the peasantry in an undeveloped part of Upper Hungary (now Slovakia).
Synopsis
The story is set is the rural region to the north of Hungary, now Slovakia, where Mikszáth was born. This is the territory of the Palóc people, celebrated by Mikszáth in his writings, especially the short stories "A Jó Palócok" (translated as The Good People of Palocz). The characters in the story are small town middle class and the local peasantry.
The novel is in five sections, the first establishing the legend of 'St Peter's umbrella'. The key character is the young priest, János Bélyi, who has just arrived in his first parish, Glogova, so poor that the living barely supports a priest. Within a couple of weeks, a neighbour from his home village appears. He brings news of the priest's widowed mother's death, and deposits on him his two-year-old sister. How, János wonders, can he care for his sister when the parish hardly provides enough for him? He goes to the church to seek guidance, leaving little Veronica asleep in her basket on the verandah. A sudden storm with torrential rain interrupts his prayers and he hurries back to the sleeping child, only to find her perfectly dry, her basket covered by a ragged red umbrella. The villagers having seen an old Jew in the neighbourhood, with the umbrella, decide that he closely resembled the picture of Saint Peter in their church: they are convinced that the saint has visited their village. The red umbrella becomes a miraculous object of veneration, its widespread fame bringing visitors and prosperity to the village, and to its priest.
The subsequent sections start with a flashback, many years earlier, in the nearby town of Bestercebánya. The key characters are Pál Gregorics, and his son, Gyuri Wibra. Pál, a socially awkward man, inherits a fortune from his mother - to the displeasure of his two elder half brothers and a half sister. When his cook gives birth to an illegitimate son, it is understood that Pál is the father. He dotes on young Gyuri Wibra, and provides for his education. Regarded as an eccentric, Pál always carries with him a red umbrella from which he refuses to be parted.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).