Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/292

278 inspire men in a prosaic age, or perhaps he may have been oppressed by the greatness of his father's memory. His chief work, The Mirage Pursuer, was published anonymously, and he refused to allow a second edition to appear, although the first was rapidly sold out. In composition it reminds us of Pushkin's Onyegin, but in language of John Arany. The hero is a well-drawn specimen of a type that was common in the sixties, a sort of Hungarian Don Quixote. He is a good fellow, and loves his country sincerely, but has many faults. His enthusiasm is like a fire of twigs which blazes up in a moment and quickly expires. He loves to build castles in the air, but lacks persistence. He goes abroad, fights for Italian liberty under Garibaldi, then rambles about Europe and at length returns to Hungary. Here in his patriotic fervour he seeks to initiate a variety of reforms, but he soon comes to see the selfish interest that often hides behind the mask of patriotism, and that politics often means merely business, and so his desire for reform evaporates. His career is still more marred by the circumstance that once, when excited by the revelry at a banquet, he offended a lady whom he had loved as a girl.

Ladislas Arany was the type of a true Hungarian gentleman. Though widely cultured and acquainted with many lands, he retained a fervent love for his race, and that sentiment inspired his best poems.

In contrast with the little circle whose guiding star was John Arany, stood two pessimistic lyric poets, who, ignoring the traditions of Hungarian lyrical poetry, fol­lowed an eccentric line of their own. They were John Vajda and Gyula Reviczky, who died young.

Author:John Vajda (1827- 1897) was a passionate writer who loved to be unique. In 1848-9 he was an officer in the