Selected Writings (1839-1849)

Zsigmond Beöthy was a member of the famous Beöthy family of Komárom, which produced many important personalities, and the father of the literary historian Zsolt Beöthy. His literary work published in the volume naturally lasts much longer than the chronological boundaries we have defined, and covers many more genres (for example, he was also a well-known poet to his contemporaries). The period up to 1849 naturally forms a separate unit in his career: this is not just an arbitrarily drawn boundary line, but is highlighted by the fact that the otherwise young author undertook to write his autobiography around this time. Since Beöthy himself highlighted the '49 boundary point with his attention, we have assigned to this text other pieces of Beöthy's work from the reform era, mostly those that he himself described as noteworthy in his autobiography: his newspaper articles and drama, as well as his letters, which make visible the very system of relationships that he also outlines in his autobiography.