The Tragedy of Man

Fülszöveg

The ​Tragedy of Man is the most controversial work in the long history of Hungarian literature. When it was first published in 1862, it was hailed as a great achievement, but at the same time it-gave rise to a multitude of questions, both literary and philosophical, that have been fiercely debated ever since. It is also one of the most surprising works in Hungarian: it appeared suddenly from the pen of an unknown author and had no obvious antecedents in the Hungarian literary tradition. Moreover, there is nothing, apart from a passing reference(…), to brand it as Hungarian – a unique phenomenon at a time when Madách's contemporaries were agonising over the failure of the revolution of 1848 and its repercussions on national life and expectations. How then did a Hungarian country gentleman who spent most of his short life at home and rarely travelled outside his native country come to write a dramatic poem that takes its place in a broad European tradition represented by such giant figures as Milton, Goethe, Byron and Ibsen? Translated from the Hungarian by George Szirtes - Introduction by George F. Cushing - Illustrations by Mihály Zichy