Gál Éva: Margaret Island - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2000)

he liked to spend some time Under these oaks /1 like to tarry / Far from noisy/ Big-town flurry. (“The oaks of János Arany” still stand; beneath them a bust of the poet by Alajos Stróbl was unveiled in 1912.)

Regular guests at Arany’s customary table in the restaurant on the upper island were Ferenc Pulszky, director of the National Museum at the time, and historian Sándor Szilágyi. Many actors, actresses, painters, sculptors and musicians of the period were frequent visitors to the island; to mention but the best known, Mari Jászai, Teréz Csillag, Károly Lotz, architect Emil Tory, and Kornél Ábrányi, professor at the Academy of Music, were all returning day guests or “resident” customers. In later years regular visitors to the island included writers Gyula Krúdy, Sándor Bródy, Aurél Kárpáti, Ernő Szép, Ferenc Molnár, and Sándor Márai.

In the 1880s and 1890s, the social composition of the visiting public slightly altered, the balance shifting from the gentry and the aristocracy to the affluent bourgeoisie. According to a news report of 1885, some time ago the high society of the capital, the cream of the crop, would come to the island in large numbers three or four

The upper island restaurant

28