puf (pál utcai fiúk) (paul street boys) summary for the people interested
its a book by ferenc molnár, published as a book in 1907 (at first it was published in parts, in a paper/magazine(?) for youths, in 1906). its also a mandatory reading in most schools in 5-6th grade. its about two groups of boys basically playing out war on a small scale.
it got multiple movie adaptations, a musical, and a fandom with less active members than an average class.
the two groups are the paul street boys (meeting to play in a lumber yard (which they call the grund) on the corner of paul street and mary street), and the red shirts (their meeting place is a botanical garden (the füvészkert), they also all wear red shirts). basically the red shirts want the grund because its a big open space to play méta (best i can describe it is hungarian baseball) and whatever else.
most characters dont even have canon first names, and everyone is referred to by their last name most of the time. but notable characters are: jános boka (becomes elected leader of the paul street boys when the war starts), feri áts (leader of the red shirt group from the start), ernő nemecsek (blond, sickly, seemingly weak hero of the story who dies of pneumonia caused by multiple times being submerged in cold water, for various reasons), dezső geréb (betrays the paul street boys for the red shirts but writes an apology letter and gets accepted back, except the apology & redemption part is cut from most adaptations), and the pásztor brothers (basically just. bullies. and part of the red shirt group.)
there is also the gittegylet which by god dont ask me to translate. theyre a group within the paul street boys who scrape out the sealing thing from freshly replaced windows/glass and chew it, but they operate like a whole serious group with a president, secretary, etc (nemecsek is part of this group).
the plot:
the real plot starts when the pásztor brothers "einstand" (steal through the power of being intimidating) marbles from a group of paul street boys in the museum garden, which even boka (whos described as like mostly peaceful, mature, and doesnt care about this kind of drama) finds unacceptable. and right after this, feri áts steals the paul street boys's flag as well (which nemecsek discovers by encountering him on the grund).
the paul street boys of course cant have this, and three of them (including nemecsek and boka) go to the botanical garden to leave a note saying "the paul street boys were here", just to show they arent scared of the red shirt guys. cue nemecsek's first two times of getting into cold ass water (one time accidentally falling in, and the other time to hide. in a pond). nemecsek and boka also see geréb at the red shirt meeting, but decide to not tell anyone else yet.
and so the war pretty much officially starts.
i havent read the book in a long time so the exact timeline here might be off but nemecsek decides to spy on geréb who is trying to bribe the adult guarding the grund to let the red shirts in (because there is an adult guard, as it is a lumber yard after all, hes just chill with having kids hang out there). nemecsek then abandons his duty as gittegylet secretary to alert boka about this, which gets his name written down in all lowercase and labeled as a traitor in the gittegylet's "black book" (a fate worse than death, until he actually-).
nemecsek then goes back to the botanical garden, to steal back the flag áts stole from the grund, and hides out in a tree, listening to the red shirt meeting, and geréb describing the grund's layout for sneak attack type reasons. until geréb calls the paul street boys cowards, because then nemecsek reveals himself just to defend his group. he has the flag taken away from him and gets thrown into a pond (3rd times the charm, bros definetly getting pneumonia </3) but also mentions the pásztor brothers' bullying, which gets them the pond treatment as well because áts may be the antagonist of the story but hes not a villain and cant tolerate the pásztor bros picking on weaker kids.
geréb later writes an apology letter which he delivers to boka via a servant (only speaking female character apart from nemecsek's mom, this shit does Not pass the bechdel test). boka takes him back.
throughout this whole thing there's tactical plans being made for the upcoming war, and boka has already been elected as leader.
nemecsek gets pneumonia, and is really fucking sick. he gets like, a formal apology and well wishes from the red shirts (the pásztor bros and one more guy visit him at his home).
on the day of the battle, nemecsek sneaks out, still Very Sick, literally faints onto áts and through that, he wins the battle for the paul street boys.
nemecsek dies of pneumonia right before the gittegylet can formally correct his name to all caps and name him a hero. the boys learn that the grund is going to have a house built on it so it doesnt even matter that they won, and we learn that the red shirts got kicked out of the botanical garden for being loud.
nobody wins, one frail 1800s child dies, and thats the end basically.
