Poetry
A délibábok hőse
Not translated into English
László Arany · 1873
Synopsis
Hübele Balázs, an orphan, heir to an old name of the lesser nobility, comes out of his law studies with his head full of dreams. He tries his hand at literature, leaves for Italy to serve Kossuth's cause in the war between Austria and Italy, then makes his way to England to discover the modern world. Each undertaking begins in enthusiasm and ends in disillusion, and the poet who narrates comments ironically on his hero's impulses.
Context
The manuscript, sent in without the author's name, won the prize of the Kisfaludy Society's competition in 1872, and the book appeared in 1873, still anonymous. This verse narrative follows the tradition of Byron and Pushkin, whose Don Juan and Eugene Onegin served as its models, and takes as its target the disillusioned generation that followed the Compromise of 1867. The hero, whose name is meaningful, forms a new figure in Hungarian letters: the Hungarian without purpose, who hides his weakness behind illusions.
Who it is for
A long narrative poem, ironic, whose allusions target Hungary in the 1860s and 1870s; no French or English translation has been located.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the high points of Hungarian realism, and as the major book of its author.
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