The Tragedy of Man

" 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 Madach'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?"

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