József Kármán (14 March 1769 in Losonc – 3 June 1795 in Losonc), sentimentalist Hungarian author, was born at Losonc (today Lučenec in Slovakia) in 1769, the son of a Calvinist pastor. He was educated at Losonc and

Pest Pest or The Pest may refer to: Science and medicine * Pest (organism), an animal or plant deemed to be detrimental to humans or human concerns ** Weed, a plant considered undesirable * Infectious disease, an illness resulting from an infection ** ...

, whence he migrated to Vienna. There he made the acquaintance of the beautiful and eccentric Countess Markovics, who was for a time his mistress, but she was not, as has often been supposed, the heroine of his famous novel ''Fanni hagyományai'' ("Fanny's testament"). Subsequently, he settled in Pest as a lawyer. His sensibility, social charm, liberal ideas (he was one of the earliest of the Magyar

freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

s) and personal beauty opened the doors of the best houses to him. He was generally known as the Pest

Alcibiades Alcibiades ( ; grc-gre, Ἀλκιβιάδης; 450 – 404 BC) was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last of the Alcmaeonidae, which fell from prominence after the Peloponnesian War. He played a major role in t ...

, and was especially at home in the salons of the Protestant magnates. In 1792, together with Count Ráday, he founded the first theatrical society at

Buda Buda (; german: Ofen, sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Budim, Будим, Czech and sk, Budín, tr, Budin) was the historic capital of the Kingdom of Hungary and since 1873 has been the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest, on the ...

. He maintained that Pest, not Pozsony should be the literary center of Hungary, and in 1794 founded the first Hungarian quarterly, ''Urania'', but it met with little support and ceased to exist in 1795, after three volumes had appeared. Kármán, who had long been suffering from an incurable disease, died in the same year. The most important contribution to ''Urania'' was his sentimental novel, ''Fanni hagyományai'', much in the style of ''La nouvelle Héloise'' and ''Sorrows of Young Werther'', the most exquisite product of Hungarian prose in the 18th century and one of the finest psychological romances in the literature. Kármán also wrote two satires and fragments of an historical novel, while his literary program is set forth in his dissertation ''A nemzet csinosodása'' ("Beautification of the Nation").

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Karman, Jozsef Hungarian writers 1769 births 1795 deaths People from Lučenec