Background
Zsigmond Móricz was born on June 30, 1879 in Tiszacsécse, Hungary to Bálint Móricz and Erzsébet Pallagi.
From 1891 to 1893 Zsigmond Moricz studied law as well as theology at Debrecem Reformatus Kollegium.
From 1891 to 1893 Zsigmond Moricz studied law as well as theology at Debrecem Reformatus Kollegium.
(The stifling atmosphere of a small town, the binding powe...)
The stifling atmosphere of a small town, the binding power of social expectations, the discrepancy between social status and financial backup and a well-intentioned but powerless man's disillusionment are the main themes of Móricz' later novel Relations. It describes the rise and fall of an innocent, Kopjass, who is accidentally promoted from a minor civic post to a major one, that of Town Clerk in a fictitious small town on the Great Hungarian Plain in the late 1920s, 'Zsarátnok', a town which does not exist on the map but whose name suggsts elements of 'blackmail', 'offialdom' and 'burning' and functions here as a metaphor for what Móricz saw as the corrupt and nepotistic state of the nation.
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1932
(Be Faithful unto Death is the moving story of a bright an...)
Be Faithful unto Death is the moving story of a bright and sensitive schoolboy growing up in an old-established boarding school in the city of Debrecen in eastern Hungary. Misi, a dreamer and would-be writer, is falsely accused of stealing a winning lottery ticket. The torments through which he goes – and grows – are superbly described.
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1920
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1988
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/9631108368/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p2_i1
Zsigmond Móricz was born on June 30, 1879 in Tiszacsécse, Hungary to Bálint Móricz and Erzsébet Pallagi.
Moricz was sent to Calvinist schools in the hope that he would become a minister. Between 1891 and 1899 he studied law as well as theology at Debrecem Reformatus Kollegium and Sarospataki Kollegium. He also became interested in journalism, and undertook courses in philosophy, linguistics, and literary history at the University of Budapest while contributing both fiction and nonfiction to newspapers and literary periodicals.
In 1903 Moricz joined the editorial staff of the Budapest daily newspaper Az Ujsag. Committed to promoting and preserving native Hungarian culture, he frequently traveled in remote areas of his country during the next five years to record folk tales, songs, and legends; these experiences became the basis for his depictions of rural Hungarian society. Moricz earned little public attention until the appearance of his short story “Het krajcar” (“Seven Pennies”) in the prominent literary periodical Nyugat in 1909. This moving tale of a poor family’s struggle to meet their barest needs earned Moricz instant acclaim. became widely popular with Nyugat readers, despite the marked difference between his straightforward, energetic prose and the aestheticism usually promulgated in the magazine. Moricz developed a close association with Nyugat and with the journal’s leading poet, Endre Ady, who shared Moricz’s progressive social views. Moricz continued to publish widely in literary journals, and in 1911 his First novel, Sararany, was published.
During World War I Moricz worked as a foreign correspondent. Initially sending dispatches that com-mended the bravery of the common soldier, as the War continued Moricz began to write about the suffering experienced in the trenches and to call for Peace. During and after the war Moricz continued to champion progressive causes—most notably the redistribution of land to the peasants—and he enthusiastically supported the short-lived socialist revolution of 1918. As a result, after the counterrevolution that followed, Moricz was harassed by government authorities and his works were boycotted by many Hungarian periodicals. Despite the boycott, Moricz’s works were popular with critics and readers, and w>thin a few years he was generally regarded as one °f Hungary’s most distinguished authors. He continued to grow in fame and popularity throughout his lifetime, although he occasionally aroused nearly as much controversy as critical acclaim for the unrelentmg realism of such works as the short story “Tragedia” and the 1917 novel Szegeny emberek, which seemed to some commentators to dwell almost exclusively on poverty and brutality.
Moricz’s first short stories and novels were distinguished by their realistic portrayal of the peasantry. As his career, progressed Moricz introduced more explicit social criticism into his fiction. The novels Kivilagos kivirradtig and Uri muri, for example, effectively contrast the extravagant lives of the upper classes with the overwhelming poverty of the peasantry, condemning the decadence of the modern gentry and of past generations of Hungary’s privileged classes. Moricz devoted years of research to this account of seventeenth-century Transylvania, that combines rich historical detail with a sense of fierce national pride. A second novel cycle left uncompleted at his death in 1942 was based upon the Hungarian folk hero Sandor Rozsa, and the two completed volumes, Rozsa Sandor a lovat ugratja and Rozsa Sandor osszevonja a szemoldoket, portray the colorful nineteenth-century Lowlands outlaw against a vivid historical background.
Within Hungary Moricz is still considered the literary “voice of the people” for his compassionate and extensive examination of the concerns of Hungary’s least-privileged classes. His fiction has been translated into more than twenty-one languages, his novels have found their most appreciative foreign audience in eastern European countries, where social and political situations have historically resembled those of Hungary.
(The stifling atmosphere of a small town, the binding powe...)
1932(Be Faithful unto Death is the moving story of a bright an...)
1920Quotes from others about the person
Peter Nagy: "Zsigmond Moricz became Hungary s greatest novelist because his works mark a high point of both social and psychological realism. Of all Hungarian writers, Moricz was unrivaled in showing me a life of his own and preceding eras intangibly setting forth the material, human and spiritual position of diverse classes and levels of society."
In 1905 Zsigmond Moricz married Eugénia Holics. She committed suicide in 1925. He married for a second time in 1926 to Mária Simonyi. Zsigmond had five children - Erzsébet Littkey, Virág Móricz, Imre Móricz, Lili Móricz and one son.
