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Imre Madách de Sztregova et Kelecsény (20 January[1] 1823 – 5 October 1864) was aHungarian aristocrat, writer, poet, lawyer and politician. His major work isThe Tragedy of Man (Az ember tragédiája, 1861). It is adramaticpoem approximately 4000 lines long, which elaborates on ideas comparable toGoethe'sFaust andMilton'sParadise Lost. The author was encouraged and advised byJános Arany, one of the most famous of the 19th-century Hungarianpoets.
Madách was born in his family castle inAlsósztregova, theKingdom of Hungary (today Dolná Strehová,Slovakia) in 1823 at the heart of a wealthy noble family. From 1829 Madách studied at thePiarist school ofVác.[2] During acholera epidemic he stayed inBuda in 1831. In 1837 he began his studies at the university ofPest. In 1842 he officially became a lawyer.
He took part in theHungarian revolution of 1848–1849 and was imprisoned; on his return to his small estate in thecounty of Nógrád, he found that his family life had meanwhile been completely wrecked. This only increased his natural tendency to melancholy, and he withdrew from public life till 1861, devoting his time mainly to the composition of his chief work,Az ember tragédiája ("The Tragedy of Man").[3] He died in Alsósztregova.
The dramatic poemThe Tragedy of Man is Madách's major and most enduring piece of writing. The tragic events of the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1848/49 in addition to the deaths of close family members such as his sister and her husband, captainKarl Balog de Mánko-Bük, and his temporary stay in prison fueled the emotional status in which he completed his work. Today it is the central piece of Hungarian theaters' repertoire and is mandatory reading for students in secondary school. Many lines have become common quotes in Hungary. Madách, then a country nobleman with virtually no literary experience, sent the work to the poet Arany who enthusiastically encouraged him and suggested some emendations to the text. The piece was at first only published in printed form, not staged, because the many changes of scene (15 scenes) were hard to come by through the technical standards of the day.
The main characters areAdam, Eve andLucifer. The three travel through time to visit different turning-points in human history and Lucifer tries to convince Adam that life is (will be) meaningless and mankind is doomed. Adam and Lucifer are introduced at the beginning of each scene, with Adam assuming various important historical roles and Lucifer usually acting as a servant or confidant. Eve enters only later in each scene.The Tragedy of Man contains fifteen scenes, with ten historical periods represented.
A postage stamp was issued in his honor by Hungary on 1 July 1932.[4]On 23 June 2010,The Tragedy of Man is 150 years old - Miniature Sheet issued by Hungary.[5]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Temesvári Pelbárt Ferences Gimnázium.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Madách, Imre".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 269–270.