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Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/181

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TH E NOVEL the heginning of the seventeenth century, when there had heen no national Court in Hungary for ages. Báróczy made use of the language which he had heard in Transylvania, and was thus enabled to translate the n ovel as weil as he did. The sentimental novel was another phase in the evolu­ tion of the novel. Richardson, Rousseau and Goethe hecame world-farned for that kind of literature . The effect they produced has hardly ever been equalled. When Pamela was read aloud to a small circle of listeners in an English country town they set the church bells ringing wh en it became known that the beautifui and virtuous heroi ne was going to be married. When Napoleon went into exile, he left behind hím aU his power and his dreams of greatness, but he took with him Goethe's We rther. Fro m no Iess a distance than China, Goethe receíved a teacup with Werther and Lotte painted upon it, dressed in Chinese garments. In H ungarian literature the sentimental novel is best represented by JosEPH KÁRMÁN (1769- 1795) in his book entitled Fanny's Memoirs. It is a story of the gradual pining away of a pure and deli cate young girl. Her parents do not understand her. Her lover cannot be u nited with her, and she dies of grief. The cielicacy and refinement of the author's prose were a revelation. Kármán died at the early age of twenty-six. He was the editor of a magazine called Uránia. His wish was to create a literary centre and an organ for authors, and to provide the public with reading of universal i nterest. But his fate was that of so many pioneers, people did not understand him. Kazinczy also wrote a sentimental novel, in imitation of We rther, entitled The Sorrows of Bácsmegyei.