H. Szilasi Ágota - Várkonyi Péter - Bujdosné Pap Györgyi - Császi Irén (szerk.): Agria 50. (Az egri Dobó István Vármúzeum Évkönyve - Annales Musei Agriensis, 2017)
Sz. KirályJúlia: Gárdonyi utolsó levelei
Júlia Sz. Király GÁRDONYI’S LAST LETTERS The fear of subsistence, desire for tranquility and peace drove Gárdonyi to Eger and held him within the fortification until the end of his life. After relocating here he soon calmed, settled down and developed his work schedule, cultivated his worthy old relationships and made numerous new friends. He was well read, travelled frequently, regularly wrote and had ideas for several novels and short stories in mind. War broke into Gárdonyi’s quiet, self-made, organised environment hardly unexpectedly but with rather more intensity. Gárdonyi’s opinion on war was already progressive at the time of its outbreak. His radical deliverances were bom due to his bittemess, apprehension, fears and his deep, sincere worries about the fate of humanity. He was looking for causes, reasons and those responsible, and demanded accountability. With his own, carefully picked writer s instruments he revealed and unveiled the motives of war, defined them and warned about the irreversible distortions. He writes the most bereft of all hope in his short stories I want to Suffer, Military Law on the Other World, Before Dawn and Looking for a Wife. He could only protest against the war with his revealing, bitter statements. No idyll can bring relaxation, only temporary relief His heroes become resigned to their fates and attempt to find their own places in the freak situation. The last years of Gárdonyi s life were surrounded by several false clichés and myths. After the First World War the writer, who was known all over Hungary, decided to retire and his voluntarily chosen solitude and silence were explained by reasons that were mostly false. A unique collection was auctioned by the Nyugat Antikvárium at the end of November 2013. It contained his letters, documenting his last years. They reveal that Gárdonyi faced hardships during the troubled years after the First World War. Fiis health also deteriorated and he found it very hard to work in such a state. From the professional point of view, it is a great achievement of the Gárdonyi Memorial Year that the Dobó Castle Museum was able to purchase this treasured collection. In my study I publish the whole text of these letters, which I then compare with information on the period, thus providing the full picture of the events of the writer s last years. 280
