Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1994. [Vol. 2.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 22)
BOOK REVIEWS - Csilla Bertha: Tribute to the Scholar, Teacher and Man, László Országh. Vadon, Lehel: Országh László. Eger: Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Nyomdája, 1994. 93 pp
recommended and also emphatically requested in his last, "testament-like" conversation with the author. Vadon's bias for American studies does not make him neglect the significance of Országh's work in English literature, especially his essays on Shakespeare and on the sources and development of the English novel. Neither does he forget about his researches in cultural studies, in the English —Hungarian and American —Hungarian cultural relationships, and even mentions some of the lesser-known results of those researches such as Hungarian subjects, figures, events occuring in some English Renaissance plays. With these details along with revealing that Országh's first important essay was written on a Hungarian writer, the author throws light on another side of Országh's image: that he, while doing the greatest service to spreading and improving the study of English and American culture, was in no way advocating "anglomania", a turning away from and looking down upon one's own culture —a common disease in Hungary. For those interested in English and American studies in Hungary and in the work of this formidable scholar, Dr. Vadon's book is invaluable in summing up the scholarly career of Professor Országh grouped according to the subjects: Americanist, English scholar, cultural historian, lexicographer, lexicologist, scholar-teacher. He nevertheless, emphasizes the synthesis of these disciplines: "László Országh was the very last member of that generation of great scholars who had to cover full fields of national and international disciplines of philology" and that "he was the only scholar to gain an academic degree in two disciplines, literature and language". Országh's many-sided interest can also be seen from the conscientiously compiled and very welcome full bibliography with which Vadon completes his summary of his professor's work. All through the evaluation the author points out the precision and thoroughness of Országh's meticulous research in any subject, his enormous knowledge, the originality of his thinking and the significance of his pioneering, introductory and founding work. He successfully combines objectivity, scholarly precision and concreteness as biographer and reviewer, with personal observations and heart-felt warm memories of the onetime student, although the personal memories are 156
