Móricz was largely cherished by Hungarian literary historians of traditional Marxist sympathies for his social realism — for his intimate knowledge and meticulous description of the life of the Hungarian peasantry and for his ruthless exposition of the empty and wasteful life of the Hungarian fin-de-siècle gentry. This is certainly true for most of his oeuvre; some of the peasant heroes of his early writing embody the brute force which cannot assert itself in constrictive societies and therefore threatens with unpredictable eruptions, while some of his later novels passionately expose the emptiness of the life of the small town gentry where men waste themselves in elegant debauchery, while women turn into neurotic small-time Madame Bovarys in their frustration.

Narrow confines of social existence, compelling pictures of stifling boredom and crude sensuality are, however, only one segment of his oeuvre; his autobiographical novels largely differ. These novels were written in the 1920s and include Be Faithful Unto Death (1921) Teenagers (1928) and Wine in Ferment (1931), of which the first one stands out as the best. Its hero, young Mishi Nyilas, the eleven year-old boarder of the Reformed College of Debrecen, goes through important formative experiences in his early teens. Here, as well as in other Hungarian novels of both boys’ and girls’ boarding schools, the focus is not so much the sustained physical and mental cruelty of the educational establishment against which the young hero learns to assert his identity, rather it is the sense of isolation, the inevitable pain of growing up, and the recognition of the complexity of human relationships.

Mishi, the innocent and naïve hero, arrives in the Reformed College of Debrecen from his village, from a poor villager background. Mishi is the son of an impoverished carpenter, and of a sensitive, generous and overworked mother, a minister’s daughter. His social origins are not flattering, yet do not single him out for suffering as much as his sensitivity does. Gradually, he learns that the grown-up world consists of good as well as evil people, elegant ones and impoverished ones. His maturation is assisted by his friendship with the Orczy family, members of the local gentry, as well as with Mr Pósalaky, the blind gentleman, to whom he reads out the newspaper regularly. A different perspective on the world is offered by the family of his tutee, who represent the unrealistic expectations and unpleasant manners of recently impoverished landowners. Mishi, although feeling rather isolated, encounters no hostility from the outside world as such, but he finds dealing with the different social classes difficult.

During the process of socialisation, however, evil also turns up, in the person of young János Török, the irresponsible, wastrel son of Mishi’s previous landlord. From there onwards, Mishi, the believer in human goodness, gets hopelessly entangled in human relations, in the flirting of the dandified cad with Bella. János takes advantage of Mishi’s bashfulness and obedience, and not only does he force Mishi into forwarding his love letters, but, more importantly, also steals a winning lottery ticket entrusted to Mishi by his old patron, the blind gentleman.

This situation allows the novel to depict the little boy’s psychological suffering, anxiety and agony, as Mishi is unaware of the theft of the lottery ticket, and feels that he has cheated upon his old and venerable patron. Truly, some of his suffering is self-inflicted, for he appears helpless in the face of adult intentions, in fact, his passivity can be irritating. Yet, it is impossible to deny that Mishi is a young boy, uprooted, and forced into a self-directed role by the adult world which he often misinterprets, and even when correctly senses evil intentions with his uncorrupted and morally sensitive soul, his education and socially dependent position do not allow him to stand up for himself and demand the truth. It is not Mishi’s behaviour that is put to shame for its defencelessness, rather, the way (some of) the adult world manipulates his bashfulness and takes advantage of his innocence. Mishi is subsequently accused of theft and deception, and dishonesty, and is tried by the school board on false grounds. Although he is finally saved by his uncle who explains his innocence and events take a better turn, Mishi and the reader undergo a serious questioning of values. Despite the fairy tale ending, the novel addresses ethical issues; issues of sensitivity, growing up, injustice, and issues relating to the moral principle of goodness and innocence. Although his experiences could easily teach him to distrust mankind and the world of adults, nevertheless, Mishi consistently adheres to his own positive ethical code. His credo is uttered at the end of the novel; despite his experiences and humiliation, Mishi wants to remain true.

Mishi was ashamed; he wanted to study, though not just to study but to know. He wanted to know everything a man could know. He was afraid of revealing his secret, the thing he had to make clear even to himself, than he could not tell anyone except perhaps his mother; he wanted to be a poet.

‘How do you mean?’ his uncle went on kindly; ‘you want to start on the road of life alone, and begin teaching the first man you meet?’

Mishi closed his eyes with a secret smile and said;

‘Yes.’

[...]

‘I think you would be best to come to the school where I teach, and there you can learn the declensions and the conjugations of verbs and all the things that you need to know to teach others...’[...]

‘Or do you want to teach mankind other things?’

‘Yes’ answered Mishi. ‘Just to be faithful unto death’.