Kosztolanyi, Deszo

Kosztolányi, Desző 

Born Mar. 29, 1885, in Szabadka, now Subotica, Yugoslavia; died Nov. 3, 1936, in Budapest. Hungarian writer. Son of a director of a Gymnasium.

Kosztolányi’s progression from modernist motifs to a humanist world view can be traced in his collections of poems, Within Four Walls (1907), The Complaints of a Poor Child (1910), The Complaints of a Sad Man (1924), and Stark Naked ( 1931). Kosztolanyi depicted the life of unfortunates in his realistic short stories—for example, the collections The Fools (1911), Cain (1918), Figures (1929), and Esti Kornel (1933)—and his novels and novellas—for example, The Skylark (1924; Russian translation, 1972) and Wonder Maid (1926; Russian translation, 1972). Kosztolányi’s prose conveys the oppressive atmosphere of Hun-gary under Horthy.

WORKS

összegyiijtött versei, vols. 1–2. Budapest, 1962.
Novellák, vols. 1–3. Budapest, 1957.
In Russian translation:
[Novelly.] In the collection Vengerskaia novella. Moscow, 1965.

REFERENCES

Klaniczay, T., J. Szauder, and M. Szabolcsi. Kratkaia istoriia vengerskoi titeratury XI-XX v. [Budapest, 1962.]