Kovács Ferenc et al.: Fardagály és kámvás rokolya. Divat és illem a 19. században (Budapest, 2010)
A 19. századi divatlapok és divatképek
Fashion Periodicals and Fashion Plates or the 19th Century hanem vannak közöttük magyaros divatot bemutató hazai képek is. A Pesti Divatlap mindig a felszínen tartja a magyar nyelv, a magyar társasélet és a magyar szokások ügyét. Az első szám közli Garayjános A magyar hölgy című költeményét, melynek bevezető sorait később gyakran idézik: „Magyar hölgynek születtél, Áldd érte sorsodat..." Miután Vahot mintegy lekötötte Petőfi Sándort lapja számára (megállapodott vele, hogy egyedül ott közölheti a verseit), a Pesti Divatlap elérte a 3000 előfizetőt, ami abban az időben páratlan eredmény volt. Biztosra vehetjük, hogy a Petőfi-rajongó nőolvasók tettek ki ennyire magukért. A Honderű Petőfi elleni támadásai alkalmával a szerkesztő kiállt a költő mellett, ám ő 1845 áprilisában mégis megvált a laptól. Kapcsolatuk később, amikor a Tízek Társaságába tömörült fiatal írók elhatározták a divatlapok bojkottját, meg is rom-4 FAII SAX(11 DIVATUK H. MONASZTERLY És KUZMIK „Xcfeli'jls Divatkép, Nefelejts, 1863 Fashion Plate. Nefelejts, 1863 poems and writings there), the Pesti Divatlap reached 3000 subscribers, which was an unparalleled result at the time. We can be sure that the female fans of Petőfi were responsible for the huge increase. When the Honderű (Homeland Cheer) began attacking Petőfi, the editor stood up for the poet, but he nevertheless left the paper in April of 1845. Later, when the group of young writers known as the Company ofT en decided on the boycott of fashion periodicals, their relationship became strained. Publication of the periodical continued in 1848 under the name Budapesti Divatlap, then ceased at the end of the year. On page 1200 ofits 1842 editions the Regélő announced that Adolf Frankenburg was to publish “extremely low-priced reading” under the name Magyar Életképek (Pictures of Hungarian Life). Adolf Frankenburg a clerk at the magistrate’s office, had indeed petitioned for a licence to publish a literary fashion periodical in 1842. Since the permit was late in arriving he began publishing Magyar Életképek in pamphlet form, not resembling a periodical. In 1844, now in possession ofhis fresh licence, he published it first twice monthly, and then as a weekly periodical under the name Életképek. To fill the pages of the publication, he mustered the greatest writers of the day, to whom he paid a fair royalty. His colleagues included Ignác Nagy, János Garay, János Erdélyi, Károly Bérczy, Jókai and Petőfi. Readers liked the periodical and the number of subscribers soon reached eight hundred, then one thousand four hundred. Frankenburg also placed emphasis on trying to appeal to and “educate" women readers. In addition to fashion plates, Életképek also provided “fashion gossip” from the pen of"Sarolta ”, and paid much attention to news from society life. It catered mainly to the tastes of Hungarian middle-class citydwellers, and propagated the urban, bourgeois life-style. A significant event in the life of the fashion periodical occurred in 1846, when the Company ofT en, a group of ten young writers united around Petőfi, having turned against Imre Vahot’s journal but not having received permission to start up their own publication, joined Életképek. This step on the part of Frankenburg who happened also to be a government official, was not looked upon kindly in Vienna. And so the next year, he was forced to hand over his job as editor to Mór Jókai, the great Hungarian writer. Jókai starts up a new column called “Ladies' Salon”, one of the more interesting aspects of which was the diary of Mrs. Petőfi: notes from the unmarried and youthful days of Júlia Szendrey. Júlia later also writes about women for women in the “Ladies' Salon” as a full employee of the paper. The periodical ceased to exist on December 31,1848, after the fall of Buda. The third characteristic fashion periodical of the 1840s, the Honderű (Homeland Cheer), was established at about the same time as the Életképek. Its edi-
