Old Hungarian Literary Reader

Fülszöveg

1TCRÁRY

Although a great many of 19th and 20th-century works of Hungarian literature have been translated into various languages, foreign readers still know very little of old Hungarian literature. The present publication is meant to serve a need, enabling readers interested in Hungarian literature to gain at least a sketchy picture of its initial eight centuries. The anthology embraces Hungarian literature from its beginnings in the nth century up to 1770. The selection and introduction are the work of Tibor Klaniczay, eminent scholar and researcher of the period. His choice of the most characteristic creations of old Hungarian literature throws light upon the process of literary history as well as the historical and social background.
The anthology begins with passages taken from medieval chronicles in Latin, songs about the royal saints Stephen and Ladislas, and legends. Religious literature in the vernacular is represented by the Funeral Oration, written down around 1200,... Tovább

Fülszöveg

1TCRÁRY

Although a great many of 19th and 20th-century works of Hungarian literature have been translated into various languages, foreign readers still know very little of old Hungarian literature. The present publication is meant to serve a need, enabling readers interested in Hungarian literature to gain at least a sketchy picture of its initial eight centuries. The anthology embraces Hungarian literature from its beginnings in the nth century up to 1770. The selection and introduction are the work of Tibor Klaniczay, eminent scholar and researcher of the period. His choice of the most characteristic creations of old Hungarian literature throws light upon the process of literary history as well as the historical and social background.
The anthology begins with passages taken from medieval chronicles in Latin, songs about the royal saints Stephen and Ladislas, and legends. Religious literature in the vernacular is represented by the Funeral Oration, written down around 1200, and the Lament of Mary which emerged around 1300. A survey of Hungarian Renaissance literature includes poems by its greatest figure, Janus Pannonius, who wrote in Latin; characteristic genres of the literature of the Reormaftion; a rich selection of Hungarian secular literature; and poems by Bálint Balassi, the first truly great lyric poet in the vernacular.
Baroque literature is represented by works written in the spirit of the Counter-Reformation; a long excerpt from the epic poem The Siege of Szigct by Miklós Zrínyi; I7th-i8th-century songs that have survived in manuscripts; and the most noteworthy representatives of memoir writing. The volume ends with a selection of letters by Kelemen Mikes, the greatest representative of the epistolary genre. Vissza