Agria 37. (Az Egri Múzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2001)

Király Júlia: Jegyzetek és feljegyzések a Dobó István Vármúzeum Gárdonyi hagyatékában. II.

lären. Ein großes Glück für die Literaturgeschichte ist, dass diese Varianten für die Nachwelt größtenteils auch erhalten geblieben sind. Sie dienen sowohl zur Veröffentlichung der Gárdonyi-Monographie als auch zu der der textkritischen Ausgaben als eine wichtige Quelle. Júlia Király Notes and Observations on the Gárdonyi Estate at the István Dobó Castle Museum II. It is the aim of our study to provide some new ways of looking at some of the most important primary sources relating to the work of Géza Gárdonyi. It is hoped that by doing this we may be able to contribute to a more realistic picture of the author. Gárdonyi's best-known novel is "Eclipse of the Crescent Moon" (Egri csillagok), first published in book form almost exactly a century ago. In his life time the book went through four editions, and the changes which were made to the text can be found in the estate. By making a detailed examination of these one can trace the changes in Gárdonyi's written style. His son, József, also produced a new version of the novel after the death of his father, and it is this version of the novel which was published for a period of fifty years. Nowadays publishers tend to go back to the most reliable editions. The novel "Abel and Esther" (Abel és Eszter) was published in 1907. The estate also contains the draft of the novel, and by looking at it one can follow the writing process step by step. The various changes which took place in the text of the novel "Our Father Szunyoghy" (Szunyoghy Miatyánkja) are also extremely interesting. One sees that Gárdonyi started the novel in three different ways, settling in the end for a fourth version. Each of the versions can be found in the estate. Gárdonyi made a lot of corrections to his works. He was his own worst critic and was never satisfied. He devoted a great deal of attention to forming the characters, and this explains the extent to which some of the changes were made. Literary historians are indeed fortunate that the vast majority of the difference versions have survived for posterity, and that they can serve as an important source for both those interested in the man and those who are interested in his work. 446