Preface

When the Hungarian Chair was established at the University of Toronto in 1978, I was encouraged to introduce a course on Hungarian civilization. After short-lived success, the course had to be cancelled because there were no primary texts available in English to represent Hungarian culture in a challenging and interesting way. This was a painful recognition which I intended to remedy somehow. Two of my language courses gave me an opportunity to introduce practical translation into the curriculum. The students received excerpts from writings of outstanding Hungarians. The length of the selections was not demanding, yet the qualitative criteria were rigorous. While working on these interesting texts, the students gradually developed the first reader of Hungarian culture in English. The names of the students, and the year in which they attended the Hungarian language courses, are listed with appreciation on the next page (p. iv). They have performed a service of which Hungarians should be proud. Since our world is a colourful mosaic of cultures, among which the Hungarian one is little known, interested English speakers to whom this culture has now been made accessible will appreciate the achievement of these young men and women.

Hungary has many people, past and present, whose ideas should interest the world. Some of them are featured in this volume. Many others would also deserve to be included. The purpose of this collection is not to overwhelm the reader, nor to catch up in one leap with long decades of missed opportunities to represent Hungarian culture. One can but hope that this first attempt will not be the last one.

George Bisztray
Toronto, 2000

Students who have helped to develop this reader:

Ildikó Balogh
Alex Dongó
Kathy Kékesi
Yvette Lieszkovsky
Judith Meisels (during the academic year 1983-84);

Tamás Hajós
Krisztina Horváth
Steven Küzdényi
Stephen Sátory
Ernesztina Skerlán (during 1984-85);

Bea Balogh
Péter Boros (in 1988-89);

Róbert Bóczi
Susan Hanak
Béla Hegedűs
Gabriella Szántó
Attila Tárnok (in 1990-91);

Timea Belej
E. Gabriela Nagy
János Novák
László Siki
Gyöngyi Stranszky (in 1992-93).

Additional acknowledgements:

The copy editing of this volume was financially supported by the Faculty of Arts and Science of the University of Toronto, the Széchenyi Society (Calgary, Alberta), and the United Hungarian Fund (Toronto, Ontario).