Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T14:47:58.290Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Kálmán Mikszáth (1847-1910)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2018

Extract

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Hungarian literature, an era of optical illusions and wasted lives, the works of Kálmán Mikszáth represented an outlet for socially significant, humorous and satirical energies. Mikszáth was not only accepted, but acclaimed by the Hungarian ruling classes. In their estimation no apparent damage had been done to their social status by his novels, stories and sketches. Although he saw how badly things were going, and though his level-headed judgement was immune to self-deception, he identified himself with his own social stratum, which was that of the gentry. Richard Chase's criterion of “ordealist criticism,” that is, “being interested in the suffering and failure of the artist and his estrangement from society,” could not be applied to the life and works of the Hungarian humorist, although it would be applicable to several of his contemporaries. Mikszáth was not an “accursed” creator or a spiritual exile.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1949

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Chase, Richard, “New vs. Ordealist,” Kenyan Review (Winter, 1949), p. 11.Google Scholar

2 Palóc is a Hungarian dialect spoken on the Slovakian frontier.

3 Szerb, Antal, Magyar irodalamtörténet (Budapest, 1934), p. 413.Google Scholar

4 Riedl, Frederick, A History of Hungarian Literature (New York, 1906), p. 282.Google Scholar

5 Pintër, Jenö, A magyar irodalom története (Budapest, 1938), II, 519.Google Scholar

6 Benedek, Marcell, ed., lrodalmi lexikon (Budapest, 1927), p. 773.Google Scholar

7 Ványi, Ferenc, ed., Magyar irodalmi lexikon (Budapest, 1926), p. 569.Google Scholar

8 Schöpflin, Aladar, A magyar irodalom története a huszadik században (Budapest, 1937), P. 44.Google Scholar

9 Smith, Horatio ed., Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature (New York, 1947), P. 540.Google Scholar

10 Kuruc: “Name given to insurgents fighting under Ferenc Rákóczi and Imre Thökölya gainst the Austrian imperialists.” Yolland, Arthur B., A Dictionary of Hungarian and English Languages (Budapest, 1924), p. 574.Google Scholar

11 Zsolt Harsányi also dramatized Mikszáth's novel, A vén gazember (The Old Scoundrel).

12 Farkas, Gyula, Az asszimiláció kora a magyar irodalomban (Budapest, 1938), p. 82.Google Scholar

13 Farkas, Gyula, A magyar irodalom törtécnte (Budapest, 1934), p. 297.Google Scholar

14 Révay, József and Köhalmi, Béla, ed. Hungaria irodalmi lexikon (Budapest, 1947), p. 366.Google Scholar