author
István Toldy
1844–1879
A sharp, reform-minded Hungarian writer and journalist of the 1860s and 1870s, he brought liberal ideas and a modern urban outlook into his fiction and plays. His career was brief, but his work stands out for its clear social focus and energy.
1 Audiobook
Anatole: Regény
by István Toldy
About the author
Born in Pest on June 4, 1844, István Toldy was a Hungarian writer, journalist, and lawyer. He was the son of the literary historian Ferenc Toldy, grew up in an intellectually active household, and studied law at the University of Pest.
He became known as one of the distinctive younger voices of the period after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise. Contemporary literary histories describe him as strongly committed to bourgeois liberal values, with fiction and drama that turned toward public life, social change, and the habits of the Hungarian middle class and gentry. He also worked in journalism and was elected a member of the Kisfaludy Society.
Toldy died in Budapest on December 6, 1879, at only 35 years old. Even with such a short life, he left behind novels, plays, and essays that mark him as an important figure in 19th-century Hungarian literary life.