Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Rogan Taylor & Klára Jamrich
(eds)
Puskás on Puskás.
This splendid book not only de-
picts the life of one of Hungary's - and the world's - greatest footballers, but also provides
an intriguing insight into postwar Communist Hungary.
Nick Thorpe
The Danube: A Journey Upriver from the Black Sea to the Black Forest
(Yale). The BBC's Central European Correspondent, Thorpe (who lives in Budapest) has
both the background knowledge and the journalist's eye to put together a fascinating volume
that presents the living river in its historical setting.
LITERATURE
Hungary's fabulously rich
literary heritage
has been more widely appreciated in recent
years thanks to the success of authors such as Antal Szerb, Sándor Márai and the Nobel
Prize-winning Imre Kertész. A useful starting point is
Hungarian Literature
(Babel Guides,
2001), an informative guide to the best Hungarian fiction, drama and poetry in translation,
with selected excerpts. There are also numerous collections of short stories published in Bud-
apest, though the quality of translations varies from the sublime to the ridiculous. Works
by nineteenth-century authors such as Mór Jókai are most likely to be found in
secondhand
bookshops
. The list of volumes published by Bloodaxe has done much to spread the word
about Hungary's poets.
ANTHOLOGIES
Loránt Czigány
(ed)
The Oxford History of Hungarian Literature from the Earliest Times
to the Present.
Probably the most comprehensive collection in print to date. In chronological
order, with good coverage of the political and social background.
György Gömöri and George Szirtes
(ed)
Colonnade of Teeth.
In spite of its strange title,
this is a good introduction to the work of young Hungarian poets.
Michael March
(ed)
Description of a Struggle.
A collection of contemporary Eastern
European prose, featuring four pieces by Hungarian writers including Nádas and Esterházy.
George Szirtes
(ed)
An Island of Sound: Hungarian Poetry and Fiction Before and Beyond
the Iron Curtain.
This anthology features the cream of Hungarian prose and poetry from the
end of World War II through to 1989.
POETRY
EndreAdy
PoemsofEndreAdy.
RegardedbymanyasthefinestHungarianpoetofthetwen-
tieth century, Ady's allusive verses are notoriously difficult to translate.
AttilaJózsef
TheIron-BlueVault.
József'spowerfulverse,whichmadehimenemiesonboth
the left and right, is some of the finest poetry in Hungarian.
Miklós Radnóti
Forced March
(Enitharmon) There are several translations of Radnóti's
sparse, anguished poetry. This collection of his final poems, found in his coat pocket after he
