The Melancholy of Resistance (Hungarian: Az ellenállás melankóliája) is a 1989 novel by the Hungarian writer László Krasznahorkai. The narrative is set in a restless town where a mysterious circus, which exhibits a whale and nothing else, contributes to an apocalyptic atmosphere. Krasznahorkai adapted the novel into a screenplay for the 2000 film Werckmeister Harmonies, directed by Béla Tarr. Written at a time when the Eastern Bloc was undergoing major social unrest, the book is a political allegory. A train bringing an outside force of rabble rouses, headed by a mysterious Prince can be taken for totalitarian ideology which had been pushed on Hungary from the outside. Likewise, the villainous Mrs Eszter who controls the town under the auspices of fighting off the mysterious combatants is herself as well a criticism of totalitarian ideology as much as the people she uses to attain power. Source: Wikipedia (en)