Hungary′s most famous authors

 Balassi Bálint was a Hungarian Renaissance lyric poet,
 He wrote mostly in Hungarian but was also proficient in eight more languages: Latin,
Italian, German, Polish, Turkish, Slovak, Croatian and Romanian. He is the founder of
modern Hungarian lyric and erotic poetry.
 Zrínyi Miklós was a Croatian and Hungarian military leader, statesman and poet.
 He is the author of the first epic poem, The Peril of Sziget, in Hungarian literature.
 Csokonai Vitéz Mihály was a leading figure in the Hungarian literary revival of
the Enlightenment.
 Famous works: Dorottya (1798), A Magánossághoz (1798), A Reményhez (1803)

 Ady Endre was a turn-of-the-century Hungarian
poet and journalist.
 Regarded by many as the greatest Hungarian
poet of the 20th century, he was noted for his
steadfast belief in social progress and
development and for his poetry's exploration of
fundamental questions of the modern European
experience: love, temporality, faith, individuality,
and patriotism.
 Ady was undoubtedly influenced by the works of
Baudelaire. He often used Symbolist techniques;
his recurring themes are God, Hungarian identity,
and the struggle for survival in modern society.
 Petőfi Sándor was poet and liberal
revolutionary.
 He is considered Hungary's national
poet, and was one of the key figures of
the Hungarian Revolution of 1848.
 He is the author of the Nemzeti
dal (National Song), which is said to
have inspired the revolution in
the Kingdom of Hungary that grew into
a war for independence from
the Austrian Empire.
 It is most likely that he died in
the Battle of Segesvár, one of the last
battles of the war.

 Arany János was poet, writer, translator and
journalist.
 He is often said to be the "Shakespeare of
ballads" – he wrote more than 102 ballads that
have been translated into over 50 languages,
as well as the Toldi trilogy.
 He translated three dramas of Shakespeare
into Hungarian, A Midsummer Night's Dream,
Hamlet and King John, and they are
considered to be some of the greatest
translations into Hungarian in history
 Famous poems: A Walesi Bárdok (The Bards
of Wales), The Death of King
Buda (1864), Dante
 Áprily Lajos poet, translator. Áprily's poems
usually made use of classical forms and
versification.
 They are characterized by impressionistic
descriptions of nature.
 Major themes of his poetry are nature,
family, grief over the loss of loved ones, and
the ideas of peace, humanity and mutual
respect between individuals and nations.
 His basic mood is warm, melancholic,
reserved and unpretentious.

 József Attila is one of the most
famous Hungarian poets of the 20th century
 He has become the best known of the
modern Hungarian poets internationally
 József published his volumes of poetry A
szépség koldusa (Beauty's beggar), Nem én
kiáltok (It's not me who shouts), Nincsen
apám se anyám (1929) (I have neither
father nor mother), showed the influence of
French surrealism and Hungarian
poets Endre Ady, Külvárosi éj (Night in the
outskirts), Medvetánc (Bear dance), Nagyon
fáj (It hurts very much)
 His most famous love poem: Óda ("Ode„)
 t was Attila József who first formulated
the ars poetica of transrealism
 Babits Mihály poet, writer and translator
 His poems are well known for their intense
religious themes
 Babits is best known for his lyric poetry,
influenced by classical and English forms.
 He also wrote essays and translated much
from English, French, German, Greek, Italian
, and Latin
 His novels such as “The Children of Death”
(1927) explore psychological problems

 Pilinszky János was one of the greatest
Hungarian poets of the 20th century.
 Well known within the Hungarian borders for
his vast influence on
postwar Hungarian poetry
 Pilinszky's style includes a juxtaposition
of Roman Catholic faith and intellectual
disenchantment
 His poetry often focuses on the underlying
sensations of life and death; his time as
a prisoner of war during the Second World War
and later his life under
the communist dictatorship furthered his
isolation and estrangement.
 Weöres Sándor
 His first poems appeared when he was
fourteen, being published in the influential
journal Nyugat ("West")
 Many of Weöres' poems have been set to
music. Zoltán Kodály composed a choral
piece to the text of the 14-year-old poet's
poem Öregek (Old People)
 Works in English: Eternal Moment, Self-
portrait
 In 1980 the Hungarian filmmaker Gábor
Bódy adapted the poem Psyché

 Kosztolányi Dezső was a Hungarian writer, journalist, and translator
 He wrote in all literary genres, from poetry to essays to theatre plays
 Building his own style, he used French symbolism, impressionism, expressionism and
psychological realism.
 He is considered the father of futurism in Hungarian literature.
 Starting in the 1920s he wrote novels, short stories, and short prose works,
including Nero, the Bloody Poet
 Skylark, The Golden Kite, Kornél Esti and Anna Édes.
 Kosztolányi also produced literary translations in Hungarian, such
as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, The Winter's Tale, Lewis Carroll's Alice in
Wonderland

 Madách Imre was a Hungarian aristocrat, writer, poet, lawyer and politician
 His major work is The Tragedy of Man (Az ember tragédiája, 1861)
 It is a dramatic poem approximately 4000 lines long, which elaborates on ideas
comparable to Goethe's Faust and Milton's Paradise Lost.
 The tragic events of the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1848/49 in addition to
the deaths of close family members such as his sister and her husband,
captain Karl Balog de Mánko-Bük, and his temporary stay in prison fueled the
emotional status in which he completed his work.
 The author was encouraged and advised by János Arany
 Many lines have become common quotes in Hungary
 The main characters are Adam, Eve and Lucifer.
 The three travel through time to visit different turning-points in human history
and Lucifer tries to convince Adam that life is (will be) meaningless and
mankind is doomed.
 The Tragedy of Man contains fifteen scenes, with ten historical periods
represented.

 Mikszáth Kámán was a widely reputed Hungarian novelist,
journalist, and politician
 Mikszáth's early short stories were based on the lives of peasants
and artisans and had little appeal at the time.
 Many of his novels contained social commentary and satire, and
towards the end of his life they became increasingly critical of the
aristocracy and the burden he believed the latter placed on
Hungarian society.
 His works: The Slovak Relations (1881), The Good People of
Palocz (1882), Two Beggar-Students (1886), The Postmaster
General (1886), The Siege of Beszterce (1896), The Gentry (1897)
 St. Peter's Umbrella (Hungarian:Szent Péter esernyője) The story
is set is the rural region to the north of Hungary, now Slovakia,
where Mikszáth was born.
 The characters in the story are small town middle class and the
local peasantry.

 During the revolutionary government after World War I, he was vice president of
the Vörösmarty Academy.
 At the end of 1929 he became the prose editor for Nyugat.
 His novels expressed the lives of the Hungarian peasantry and dealt with issues of
poverty.
 Works: Kivilágos kivirradtig (Until the Small Hours of Morning) (1924), Légy jó
mindhalálig (Be Faithful Unto Death) (1920), Úri muri (Very Merry) (1928),
Rokonok (Relations) (1932), Hét krajcár (Seven Pennies and Other Short Stories) (1907),
Sárarany (Gold in the Mud: A Hungarian Peasant Novel) (1911), Árvácska (Orphalina)
(1941)

 poet, writer, educator, and translator
 Following World War II, Nemes Nagy worked on a literary
periodical Újhold (New Moon)
 During the 1950s, her own work was suppressed and she worked as a
translator, translating the works of Molière, Bertold Brecht and others.
 In recent years she has written extensively for children.
 Works: Szárazvillám (Heat lightning), poetry (1957), Az aranyecset (The
golden brush), children's book, Lila fecske (Purple swallow), children's book,
Napforduló (Solstice), poetry (1967), 64 hattyú (64 swans), essays (1975),
Között (Between), poetry (1981), A Föld emlékei (Earth's souvenirs), poetry
(1986)

 Author, stage-director, dramatist, and poet, widely regarded as Hungary’s most celebrated
and controversial playwright.
 His primary aim through his writing was to entertain by transforming his personal
experiences into literary works of art.
 He was never connected to any one literary movement but he did utilize the precepts
of naturalism, Neo-Romanticism, Expressionism, and the Freudian psychoanalytical concepts
 As a novelist, Molnár may best be remembered for The Paul Street Boys the story of two
rival gangs of youths in Budapest.
 The novel is about schoolboys in Józsefváros neighbourhood of Budapest and set in 1889. The
Paul Street Boys spend their free time at the grund, an empty lot that they regard as their
"Fatherland". The story has two main protagonists, János Boka (the honourable leader of the
Paul Street Boys) and Ernő Nemecsek (the smallest member of the group).
 When the "Redshirts"—another gang of boys, led by Feri Áts, who gather at the nearby
botanical gardens—attempt to take over the grund,[ the Paul Street Boys are forced to defend
themselves in military fashion.
 Although the Paul Street Boys win the war, and little Nemecsek repeatedly demonstrates
that his bravery and loyalty surpasses his size, the book ends in tragedy: Nemecsek dies of
pneumonia.

 Writer, playwright, and essayist.
 After publishing volumes of short stories, he published his first
novel The End of a Family Story in 1977.
 He published his second novel, A Book of Memories in 1986. It
took Nádas twelve years to write this book.
 The epigraph of this novel is from the Gospel according to John:
"But he spoke of the temple of his body" (John, 2.21)
 In this novel, Nádas describes the world as a system of relations
linking human bodies to each other.
 This book earned Nádas comparisons to Proust.
 Works translated into English: Parallel Stories: A Novel, A
Lovely Tale of Photography, The End of a Family Story, A Book of
Memories,

 Writer whose plays and novels often featured grotesque situations.
 He was a recipient of the Kossuth Prize in 1973
 After 1949, he worked as a dramaturge at the Youth Theater and,
after 1951, as a playwright at the People's Army Theater
 He was prohibited from publishing after the Revolution and worked
as a chemical engineer at United Pharmaceuticals
 He published his first book, Ocean Dance, in 1941. In 1942, he was
sent to the Russian Front on the Don River
 Due to his Judaism, he was placed in a forced-labor unit.
 There he was captured and detained in a labour camp near Moscow,
where he wrote the play Voronesh.
 In 1946, he returned home to Budapest.
 Works:Ocean Dance, Macskajáték (Catsplay), Tóték (The Toth
Family), One Minute Stories (Válogatott egyperces novellák)

 poet and teacher
 In 1934, he finished his studies with the philosophical doctoral
thesis The artistic development of Margit Kaffka
 In September 1940, he was conscripted to a Jewish labor battalion
of the Hungarian Army until December of that year
 On 2 May 1943, he converted together with his wife
from Judaism to Roman Catholic faith.
 Works: Pogány köszöntő (Pagan Greeting), Újmódi pásztorok éneke,
Lábadozó szél (Convalescent Wind), Újhold (New Moon), Járkálj
csak, halálraítélt! (Just Walk Around, Condemned!), Meredek
út (Steep Road), Naptár (Calendar), Tajtékos ég (Foamy Sky)

 was a Hungarian radical socialist journalist and politician.
 He wrote one of the earliest Holocaust memoirs, Nine
Suitcases (Kilenc koffer in Hungarian)
 Tibor Fischer has called it "Hungary's finest contribution to
Holocaust writing", warning that it is "not for the squeamish".
 Zsolt's memoir Nine Suitcases has been called "Hungary's finest
contribution to Holocaust writing".
 The memoir is noted for its black humor and the author "a cool,
urbane guide to the horrors".
 Zsolt's text can be difficult to follow in its examination of
the history of Jews in Hungary for readers unfamiliar with the
history

 The most prominent female writer in 20th century Hungary
 Magda Szabó’s career was truncated by the communist authorities’
refusal to allow her work into print
 Many consider her best work to be The Door, a semi-autobiographical
account of the relationship between a writer who has floundered in
obscurity for many years and her caretaker.
 Szabó uses the complicated dynamics of this relationship to
interrogate the place of creativity in a woman’s life when she is
burdened by society’s expectations of domesticity and demureness.
 Abigél, a schoolgirl adventure set during the war, which was made
into a hugely popular television series.

 One of the most prominent Hungarian exponents of Modernism in
the early 20th century
 He has been compared to both Proust and James Joyce in his
stylistic and thematic focus, and his works are now considered part
of the canon of Hungarian literature.
 His initial success came with Sinbad’s Youth, a quixotic depiction of
the life of Krúdy’s alter ego, who would return again and again in
his fiction.
 His novels Sunflower, Life is a Dream and Ladies Day have also
been highly acclaimed for their depiction of life in early 20th
century Budapest.
 His works were largely forgotten until they were resurrected by
Sándor Márai, who published Sinbad Comes Home, a fictionalised
account of Krúdy’s last day, which brought him renewed acclaim
with the Hungarian public.

 Marai authored 46 books. His 1942 book Embers (Hungarian
title: A gyertyák csonkig égnek, meaning "The Candles Burn Down
to the Stump") expresses a nostalgia for the bygone multi-ethnic,
multicultural society of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, reminiscent
of the works of Joseph Roth.
 fter living for some time in Italy, Márai settled in the city of San
Diego, in the United States. Márai joined with Radio Free
Europe between 1951-1968
 Márai was extremely disappointed in the Western powers for not
helping the Hungarian Revolution of 1956
 After his wife died in 1986, Márai retreated more and more into
isolation.
 In 1987, he lived with advanced cancer and his depression
worsened when he lost his adopted son, John.
 He ended his life with a gunshot to his head in San Diego in 1989
 Translated into English: The Rebels, Esther's Inheritance,
Casanova in Bolzano, Portraits of a Marriage, Embers, Memoir of
Hungary, The Withering World: Selected Poems by Sandor Marai

 Originally published in Hungarian in 1942 but only releasing in
English in 2001
 n Embers Márai wanted to express a longing for the diversity of
the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the changing boundaries of his
home country remaining a sticking point throughout his writing.
 It is a story of a general who invites an old military friend
around for dinner, a friend who had mysteriously disappeared 41
years prior.
 It’s a declaration and commentary on friendships, and the nature
of two interacting – and perhaps clashing – personalities.

 A rediscovered masterwork from famed Hungarian novelist Sándor
Márai, Portraits of a Marriage tracks the lifelong entanglement of a man
and two women haunted by class differences and misdirected longings.
 Peter and Ilonka are a wealthy couple whose outwardly perfect marriage is
undone by secrets.
 The insecure Ilonka believes she can never be elegant and refined enough
for her husband, while Peter has long been tormented by his forbidden love
for Judit, a peasant and servant in his childhood home.
 What Judit longs for most, however, is freedom from the constraints of the
society that has ensnared all three in a vortex of love and loss.
 Set against the backdrop of Hungary between the wars, in a world on the
verge of dramatic change, this exquisite novel offers further posthumous
evidence of Marai’s brilliance.
 “Portraits of a Marriage is brilliant in the acuity of its observations, its
unremitting intelligence. . . . Marai gives voice to a vanished world in a
chorus that is both eulogy and manifesto.” —The New York Times Book
Review

 The book covers World War II, Nazis and the Holocaust in grim
detail, a topic and style that features in the majority of his
writing
 In 2002 Kertész won the Nobel Prize for Literature and is the
only Hungarian to have done so, though he has won numerous
other awards throughout Hungary and Germany (where much of
his recognition was born)
 Fatelessness' power lies in its refusal to mitigate the
unfathomable alienness of the Holocaust, the strangeness is
compounded by Georg's dogmatic insistence on making sense of
everything he witnesses.

 Jókai is one of the most famed Hungarian writers, a prolific novelist
and dramatist of the late 19th century that is well revered as one of
the classic Hungarian authors.
 His most recognizable book is The Man With The Golden Touch, or Az
arany ember, and is considered a true literary classic.
 It is the story of Mihály Timár.
 Chance brings him into a fabulous fortune, and from then on, he
succeeds in all ventures he undertakes, and everything he touches
turns to gold: his only failure, and one which comes to turn his riches
to dross, is his marriage.
 In his search for happiness, he comes to hate his wealth. He finally
escapes from his double life, and finds refuge on a wild island in the
Danube where the love of a young girl, Noémi, gives real meaning to
his existence.
The Man with the Golden Touch is a jewel of both Hungarian and
world literature, and is indeed one of the most beautiful romantic
novels

 was a noted Hungarian scholar and writer. He is generally
considered to be one of the major Hungarian writers of the
20th century.
 Szerb is best known for his academic works on literature.
 In the ten years before the Second World War, he wrote
two monumental works of literary criticism, characterized
by a brilliant and ironic style intended for an educated
reader rather than an academic public
 The Pendragon Legend, Traveler and the
Moonlight and The Queen's Necklace: the author gives
importance to the exotic in these novels, with a meta-
literary outlook.
 In these three novels, the stage of the narrative action is
always a Western European country: leaving quotidian
Hungary allows the writer to transfigure the actions of his
characters.

Hungary′s most famous authors

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