Károly Kisfaludy (5 February 1788 – 21 November 1830) was a Hungarian dramatist and artist, brother of

Sándor Kisfaludy Sándor Kisfaludy (27 September 1772 – 28 October 1844) was a Hungarian lyric poet, ''Himfy's Loves'' his chief work, was less distinguished as a dramatist. He is considered to be the first romantic poet from Hungary. He was the brother of K ...

. He was the founder of the national drama.

Early life

The youngest of eight children, his mother died in childbirth, and he had a troubled relationship with his father. Kisfaludy began writing poems and songs while in the army from 1804 to 1811. He saw active service in the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

in Italy, Serbia and Bavaria. After his return in 1810 he courted a girl named Katalin Heppler, but did not marry. His resignation from the army alienated his father, and he took refuge at his sister Teréz's house in Vas County.

Education

He studied art, travelling to Vienna in 1812 and Italy in 1815, but had no luck with either writing or painting until April and June 1819, when his tragedies ''A tatárok Magyarországon'' ("The Tatars in Hungary") and ''Ilka, vagy Nándorfehérvár bevétele'' ("Ilka, or the Capture of Belgrade") were a great success. He followed them up immediately with other dramas he had written: ''Stibor vajda'' ("The Voivode Stiber") and ''A kérők'' ("The Suitors"), in September, and ''A pártütők'' ("The Insurgents") in November; and the next year wrote three more.Stanley Hochman. ''McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of world drama.'' McGraw-Hill, 1984. His plays were translated into German, and performed in Vienna.

Personal life

In 1822, he founded the periodical ''

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

'', for which he was awarded the Marczibányi Prize in 1826, the same year that his father reinstated him in his will. He fell in love with a woman named Nina Löffler, but because she was Jewish he could not marry her. He wrote prolifically for ''Aurora'' until his death from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

in 1830. The

Kisfaludy Society The Kisfaludy Society (Hungarian: ''Kisfaludy Társaság'') was a literary society in Pest, founded in 1836 and named after Károly Kisfaludy, who had died in 1830. It held monthly meetings and was a major force in Hungarian literary life, givin ...

was created in his honour in 1836. He is remembered for his plays and epigrams, and for poems like his elegy ''Mohács'' (1824), on the subject of the battle of 1526. His life was fictionalised by

Mór Jókai Móric Jókay de Ásva (, known as ''Mór Jókai''; 18 February 1825 – 5 May 1904), outside Hungary also known as Maurus Jokai or Mauritius Jókai, was a Hungarian nobleman, novelist, dramatist and revolutionary. He was an active participant ...

in ''Eppur si muove'' (1872).

References

External links

*Some o
Kisfaludy's paintings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kisfaludy, Karoly 1788 births 1830 deaths People from Tét Hungarian writers Burials at Kerepesi Cemetery 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Hungary Magazine founders Karoly