Elena Maróthy-Šoltésová (6 January 1855 – 11 February 1939) was a Slovak writer and editor. She was also a leading figure in the women's movement in Slovakia.

Biography

The daughter and the eldest child of the Lutheran Reverend Daniel Maróthy and Karolina Hudecová, Maróthy-Šoltésová was born in

Krupina Krupina (, ) is a town in southern central Slovakia. It is part of the Banská Bystrica Region and has approximately 8,000 inhabitants. Etymology The name is probably derived from Slavic root ''krup''. Proto-Slavic: ''krǫpъ'', ''krǫpъjь'' � ...

on 6 January 1855. She grew up in the Ľuboreč village, where he father served as a pastor. Her father worked closely with national revival figures around

Ľudovít Štúr Ľudovít Štúr (; 28 October 1815 – 12 January 1856), also known as Ľudovít Velislav Štúr, was a Slovak revolutionary, politician, and writer. As a leader of the Slovak nationalism, Slovak national revival in the 19th century and the c ...

and wrote nationalist poetry under the pseudonym Vrahobor Maškovský. Her mother died while she was still young. After seven years of education in Hungarian and German in

Lučenec Lučenec (; ; ; ; Lelkes György (1992), Magyar helységnév-azonosító szótár, Balassi Kiadó, Budapest, 508 p.) is a town in the Banská Bystrica Region of south-central Slovakia. Historically, it was part, and in the 18th century the capital ...

, Maróthy-Šoltésová was compelled to end her schooling to assist her stepmother in caring for her younger siblings. Although her parents introduced her to nationalist circles, they disapproved of her pursuit of intellectual interests, which they considered unsuitable for a woman. At the age of 20, she married Ľudovít Michal Šoltés, a merchant she had met a year earlier at a

Matica slovenská Matica Slovenská (en. Slovak Matica) is the oldest Slovakia, Slovak national, Culture, cultural and scientific organization. The headquarters of Slovak Matica is the town of Martin, Slovakia as the center of the national culture of Slovak ...

assembly. The marriage, to a man significantly older than herself, appears to have been motivated by her desire to gain independence from her parental household but Maróthy-Šoltésová held her husband in great affection. The likely reasons was that in contrast to her parents, her husband was highly supportive of her intellectual ambitions. The couple settled in

Martin Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...

, his hometown and a prominent hub of Slovak nationalist intellectual life. They had two children, both of whom predeceased their parents — a daughter who died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

at the age of eight, and a son who passed away at 33. In

, Maróthy-Šoltésová quickly emerged as a prominent Slovak-language author of realist fiction and was also active as a literary critic. The profound grief caused by the untimely deaths of her children became a recurring theme in her writing, though she consistently refrained from overt sentimentality. Another central concern in her work was the portrayal of social issues. Literary critics have noted that the strong social orientation of her writings bears resemblance to the themes developed by the Norwegian author

Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson ( , ; 8 December 1832 – 26 April 1910) was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished ...

. In 1880, Maróthy-Šoltésová became a member of the committee for the Živena women's society in 1880 and served as its chair from 1894 to 1927. From 1912 to 1922, she was editor of the '' Živena'' magazine, which she helped found. Maróthy-Šoltésová also helped establish higher education for women in her country, including the Milan Rastislav Štefánik Institute. In her activities facilitating advancement of the Slovak national cause and emancipation of women, she collaborated closely with the president of newly independent

First Czechoslovak Republic The First Czechoslovak Republic, often colloquially referred to as the First Republic, was the first Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak state that existed from 1918 to 1938, a union of ethnic Czechs and Slovaks. The country was commonly called Czechosl ...

Tomáš Masaryk Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (7 March 185014 September 1937) was a Czechoslovaks, Czechoslovak statesman, political activist and philosopher who served as the first List of presidents of Czechoslovakia, president of Czechoslovakia from 191 ...

and his daughter

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

Death

She died in

at the age of 84. She's buried at the

National Cemetery in Martin The National Cemetery () in Martin, Slovakia is the final resting place of many important personalities of Slovak history. The list includes writers, poets, national activists, pedagogues, etc. The reason why Martin was selected as the site for t ...

Works

Source: * ''Na dedine'' (In the Village), novella (1881) * ''Umierajúce dieťa'' (The Dying Child), short story (1885) * ''V černickej šole'' (In the Černica School), prose (1891) * ''Proti prúdu'' (Against the Current), novel (1894) * ''Prvé previnenie'' (The First Offense), prose (1896) * ''Popelka (Cinderella)'', prose (1898) * ''Za letného večera'' (On a Summer Evening), prose (1902) * ''Moje deti'' (My Children), diary (1923–24) * ''Sedemdesiat rokov života'' (Seventy Years of Life), memoirs (1925) * ''Sobrané spisy Eleny Maróthy Šoltésovej'' (Collected Works of Elena Maróthy Šoltésová) 1 – 6 (1921 – 25) * ''Pohľady na literatúru'' (Perspectives on Literature), essays released posthumously (1958)

References

External links

''Šesťdesiatročná pamiatka Živeny, spolku slovenských žien''
Turč. Sv. Martin: Knihtlač. uč. spolok, 1929. 15 p. - available at ULB's Digital Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Marothy-Soltesova, Julia 1855 births 1939 deaths Writers from Austria-Hungary Slovak feminists Slovak novelists Slovak journalists Slovak Lutherans 19th-century Slovak women writers 19th-century Slovak writers People from Krupina Burials at National Cemetery in Martin 20th-century Slovak women writers 20th-century Slovak writers Slovak women novelists Slovak women journalists