Az Egri Ho Si Minh Tanárképző Főiskola Tud. Közleményei. 1984. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 17)
I. TANULMÁNYOK A TÁRSADALOMTUDOMÁNYOK KÖRÉBŐL - Lehel Vadon: The Reception of Upton Sinclair's Works in Hungary
24. The lesser-known novel of Sinclair, Co-op (1936) was translated by János Sándor and Kornél Tábori, and published by Nova Publishing House in 1944. The book did not enjoy a critical reception in Hungary. 25. The Flivver King (1937) came to be published in 1944 by Fővárosi Könyvkiadó in the translation of Jenő Vértes. There was no critical response. 26. Nova edited Little Steel (1940) in 1944, translated by János Sándor and Kornél Tábori. Hungarian periodicals published neither review or criticism. 27. In 1939 Upton Sinclair began a novel-cycle, which was planned to be one of the longest in world literature. This was the 11-volume, 7364-page Lanny Budd which reached a very large circulation and achieved durable success on the bookmarket the world over. As a literary work it was worse than the best of Sinclair's art, but in spite of this, the readers greedily devoured the newest, massive volumes, which appeared annually and which were written on the basis of historical facts. Important periodicals, famous critics and writers praised and devoted considerable space to the evaluation of the novel-cycle. The Lanny Budd books were very successful in Hungary, too, but criticism was either very non-committal or aggressive from first to last. The Hungarian groups of nazi-sympathizers considered the book to be anti-nazi, which is why during the German invasion censorship savagely pruned much of the cycle. However, during the fifties because Sinclair had attecked Stalin and his policies both the cycle and its author pronounced to be anti-soviet and reactionary. Literary criticism of those days, which very much served political aims, evaluated the novels with very contrary and superficial statements. An analytical essay has not been written about the cycle in Hungary up to this day, and altogether only four reviews have appeared in our newspapers and periodicals. But the Lanny Budd series is known in Hungary today, and is one of the pieces of literature in most demand on the Hungarian bookmarket. Népszava reviewed three of the books in the cycle: World's End (1940), Wide Is the Gate (1943), Presidential Agent (1944). The articles discussed mainly the content, appreciating the novels as very successful, important works, chiefly because of the choice of theme and Sinclair's literary skill. 7 8 In Irodalmi Szemle, in 1947, we can read that in Lanny Budd Upton Sinclair created the most monumental novel of his age. 7 9 In the same year, István Elek wrote of the American success of the newest volume of the worldpopular cycle, the title of which was Presidential Mission (1947). 8 0 In 1948 Tamás Aczél published in Irodalmi Szemle the results of a test which examined the literary tastes of Hungarian intellectuals. The test was carried out in library of the Free Trade Union of Hungarian Employees of Private Enterprises. According to the data compiled from the test, Anglo-Saxon literature was the most popular, and in the enumeration of favourite books, Lanny Budd occupied the top place. 8 1 In 1948, Vilma H. Boros wrote about the Lanny Budd series in the catholic periodical Vigilia. In the article it was stated that in the later novels of the cycle, Sinclair invariably repeats himself, and that the interesting report series becomes progressively pale and lifeless. 428
