Lably
Skip to content

Miklós Szentkuthy

  • 7 min read
  • 4 chapters

Related on Lably

Through Martin Luther and William Shakespeare

Style

Szentkuthy composed an oeuvre both imposing and complex, centered on the conflict between art and life, or the aspiration for holiness and eroticism. It includes fictionalized biographies of musicians such as Handel, Haydn, and Mozart, artists like Dürer and Brunelleschi, writers Goethe and Cicero, and historical figures Superbus and Luther, etc., written in the form of collections of fragments or notes with a wealth of audacious metaphors. For the experimental side and erudite aspect of his work, he is sometimes compared to the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges. However, in My Career, Szentkuthy stated that he "never, in any shape or form, considered Prae to be a work that belonged to an avant-garde. [...] When people pigeonholed the book with ‘surrealism’ and other ‘isms’ I felt a bit like Molière's Bourgeois Gentilhomme, who on being taught the difference between poetry and prose, exclaims in astonishment, 'Good Heavens! For more than forty years I have been speaking prose without knowing it!' It was also on the basis of an honorable misunderstanding of Prae that I was invited to what was catalogued as the avant-garde “European School” – perhaps more to address them as a speaker than a proper member – and there I delivered talks on Dickens, Shakespeare, and a host of old classics, amply demonstrating that what the school fondly imagined were revolutionary innovations had also played a part, to a greater or lesser extent (better too), in the history of the arts."

Sign in to keep reading

3 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Religious figures

JesusFirst-century Jewish preacher and religious leaderMuhammadFounder of Islam (c. 570–632)The BuddhaFounder of BuddhismMary, mother of JesusMother of JesusPaul the ApostleChristian apostle and missionary (c. 5 – c. 64/65)Pope John Paul IIHead of the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005