Hungarian Studies Newsletter, 1977 (5. évfolyam, 13-15. szám)
1977 / 14. szám
the Hungarian economy (industry, agriculture, transportation) and a page on Hungarian ethnic groups in “The ethnic quilt,” Hungary and Hungarians received over forty references in the text, and several references among the 49 figures and 14 tables. This volume will be welcome as a general introduction to the region for area studies, and as background reading for any student interested in specific countries of Eastern Europe. Dr. Mellor is Prof, of Geography at the U. of Aberdeen. His publications include Comecon: Challenge to the West (1972). Pilinszky, János. SELECTED POEMS. Translated by Ted Hughes and János Csonkíts. Carcanet New Press, 330 Corn Exchange Bldgs., Manchester, England M4 3BG.67 pages. £2.25 cloth. Hungarians tend to place Pilinszky (born in 1921) and his poetry somewhat outside of the main stream of Hungarian poetry, mainly because of his strong spiritual position. “His poems confront the reader with a ‘private, existential challenge’,” says Hughes. But Sándor Weöres calls him “our greatest.” His greatness “is not a greatness of imaginative and linguistic abundance. It has more to do with some form of spiritual distinction.” Hughes goes on to say that “he recognizably belongs to that generation of East European poets which includes Herbert, Holub and Popa...” Pilinszky published his first collection of poems in 1946. His second book, containing thirty-four new poems and some old ones, appeared in 1959. Three more volumes were published in 1971, 1974 and 1975. The translators selected forty-four poems from all volumes, providing an even and representative sample of Pilinszky’s work to the English speaking reader. Another volume published by Carcanet New Press is Selected Poems of Attila József, trl. by John Batki. Winters, Stanley B. and Joseph Held eds. (In collaboration with István Deák and Adam Wandruszka) INTELLECTUAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE HABSBURG EMPIRE FROM MARIA THERESA TO WORLD WAR I. Essays Dedicated to Robert A. Kann. Columbia U. Press, 562 West 113 Street, New York, NY 10025, 1975. 304 pages. $15 cloth. No. 11 in the East European Monographs of the East European Quarterly. BOOKS (Continued) The volume, dedicated to Prof. Kann (Rutgers U.) on his 70th birthday, has two Hungarian-related chapters. The one by Dr. Held, was reviewed in HSN no. 11. The other by Bela K. Király is about Napoleon's Proclamation of 1809 and its Hungarian Echo. The paper describes Hungarian political thought at the end of the 18th century and raises the question whether the Hungarian estates looked at Napoleon as an enemy. After a fairly comprehensive treatment of the Jacobin Movement in Hungary, the author discusses Hungarian attitudes toward the French Revolution and Napoleon. The fact that Napoleon made a genuine offer to the Hungarian estates if they turn their back on the Habsburgs, seems to indicate that Napoleon's sources of information believed that the Habsburg Empire stood or fell with the Hungarians. Király believes, that “had the Hungarians flocked to his [Napoleon’s] side in 1809, his later actions might have been different.” Király concludes that there were Hungarians on both sides of the issue, and that “the literature, commentaries, and belles-letters that deal with the French Revolution and Napoleon are precious documents on Hungarian cultural life; they are the French Enlightenment in a Hungarian guise.” Xantus, John. TRAVELS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. Translated and edited by Theodore Schoenman and Helen Benedek Schoenman. Wayne State U. Press, Detroit, Ml 48202, 1976. 213 pages, illustr., maps, biblio. $12.95 cloth. (Original title: Utazás Kalifornia Deli Részeiben. Budapest, 1859.) No. 13 of the HSN (page 12) reported on Xantus’ Letters from North America, translated and edited by the same two writers as this volume. In this second book, Xantus relates his experiences as a surveyor in California and Baja California. Traveling by caravan from Los Angeles to FortTejon, he was accompanied by a motley crew of international criminals and political refugees. Driven by curiosity he penetrated areas not yet settled by Western man thereby giving a good description of the Tejon Indians in addition to his keen observations on flora and fauna. The noted Hungarian ethnologist, John Hunfalvy, considered the book so important that he added his own notes and observations to it. Also appended to the volume is a postscript by the editors on Xantus’ views on the issue of slavery and the Civil War. The Schoenmans have for years pursued interest in the writings of refugees coming to the U.S. after the abortive war of independence in 1848-49. Mr. Schoenman is a chemist and lives in retirement with his wife, Helen. DISSERTATIONS* Drosick, Sándor Desmond (Columbia U., 1976) “The Agrarian Socialist Movement in Hungary 1890-1899.” 270 pages. Microfilm and xerox order no. 77-8863. At the end of the nineteenth century the agrarian socialist movement in Hungary had two geographical foci: the Viharsarok (Storm Corner) in the vicinity of Szeged, and Szabolcs county in the northeast. Essentially it was a reformoriented movement led by the peasantry and the Social Democratic Party, and aimed at improving the economic and * Abstracts are usually based on those published in Dissertation Abstracts International. Microfilm and xerox copies of the original full dissertation may be obtained, when indicated, from Xerox University Microfilm, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106. When ordering, use the number shown. political position of the rural poor. The movement began in 1890, when the newly founded Hungarian Social Democratic Party initiated a proselytizing campaign in the countryside. With the aid of labor organizers a number of agrarian socialist leagues came into existence. A worker-peasant alliance under the banner of social democracy was the goal. This objective proved to be unrealizable. In 1891 and 1894 serious riots occurred in the farming towns of Orosháza, Békéscsaba, Battonya, and Hódmezővásárhely as a consequence of league activities. The government began an active policy of repression. The peasants then began to initiate activity on their own without approval of the party. In 1896 underthe leadership of István Várkonyi, the agrarian leagues in the Szeged area founded a newspaper, the Fo/cfmive/o^Agriculturalist). When (Continued on page 4) NO. 14, 1977 HUNGARIAN STUDIES NEWSLETTER 3
