by Adrienn Scheffer
The
21th century brought along a new Austenism in Hungary - Jane Austen, a late
18th, early 19th century English novelist is highly popular today. Her volumes
are still sold in high quantity, her biographies and almost all the contemporary
novels featuring her characters have been translated from English into
Hungarian, two pieces of her have been put on stage in the last few years, and
the numerous blogs and forums on Austen's life and work show an enormous amount
of Austen fans in Hungary. In other words, it seems that the Hungarian reading
public is also present in the "Austen cult", which the new Hungarian
retranslations of Austen's novels highlight, published nearly year by year
since the early 2000s. Between 2000 and 2003 seven, in 2004 three, in 2005
five, in 2006 seven, in 2007 eight, in 2008 five, in 2009 four, in 2010
thirteen, in 2011 two, and 2013 one new editions of her novels were released in
Hungary. Interestingly, different translations of certain pieces from different
publishing houses appeared in the market in the same year (e.g.: Pride and Prejudice as Büszkeség és Balítélet translated by
Dezső Bánki in 2006 by Kossuth Kiadó[1],
and Vera Loósz in 2006 by Ulpius-Ház[2]). At
this point, a relevant question occurs: why would the Hungarian reading public
need two different editions of the same novel within the same year? Either Austen's
popularity is the reason, or the translations are not good enough? Should we
seek the answer somewhere else? The aim of this essay is to find the reason of
Jane Austen's popularity in Hungary in the early 2000s while giving an overview
of her reception.
In the 1960s, one could only find a couple of Austen
novels in Hungarian on the bookshelves. Recently, the Hungarian reading public is
covered by Austen-books. Generally speaking, Austen is famous for her good
insight into the characters of her society, and her social criticism and
entertaining parodies in her novels. In general, her popularity may rely on her
still entertaining novels. Nevertheless, due to the main themes of her novels,
love and marriage, her volumes are pretty much regarded as sentimental girl's
novels in the eye of Hungarian readers, and generally it is hard to find a man
in Hungary who reads Austen these days. It may be originated to the
generalization of Austen's themes. Naturally, it cannot be declared that
"Austen is only for women", but if in Hungary in 2015 a man checks
the content of an Austen novel before reading it, it is not really likely that
reading about young (usually middle-class) ladies seeking for love and the
perfect match in 19th century England would intrigue him.
Now, it is acknowledged that Austen's work should not
be framed within the sentimental novel, but rather within the naturalist novel,
since her novels may be preferably seen as realistic than sentimental, though
the characters and twists of the plots often make her stories romantic.
Accordingly, Nóra Séllei, a contemporary Hungarian Austen-scholar adds that the
criticism of Antal Szerb and Mihály Babits (prominent Hungarian poets and
writers) on Austen were relevant in her reception in Hungary:
"[f]urthermore, Babits claims that Austen assisted in establishing a genre
that women writers seem to have a special talent for: what he calls the
'naturalist novel' [...]" (Séllei 243). The naturalist Austenian novel
might be called emblematic because of the realist and social aspects which her
pieces reflect, e.g.: the realistic depiction of the social classes' everyday
life of her time, gender roles, man-woman relationships, entwining with an
often witty and satirical style.
Actually, Jane Austen's reception in Hungary began in
the 20th century. Her novels found their place in Hungary relatively late, in
the 20th century. As Nóra Séllei is writing in her article, Jane Austen: Our Contemporary in Hungary in
"The Reception of Jane Austen in Europe",
the first translation of an Austen-novel, Pride
and Prejudice, 1813 (as A
Bennet család "The Bennet family") - translated by Sándor Hevesi - was published in Hungary between 1934
and 1936 in serialized publication in a monthly journal, Budapest Szemle, and by 1986 the translations of her novels were
accessible in book formats in Hungary (Séllei 240). Sense and Sensibility, 1811, was first translated by Mária Borbás in
1976 (published by Magyar Könyvklub), then by Emőke Sillár in 2006 (Ulpius-ház),
Emőke Hegedűs in 2007 (published by Rebeka és Panni [3]Könyvkiadó),
and by Gerda Barcza in 2009 (Lazi[4]). Mansfield Park, 1814, has got only two
translations: as A Mansfieldi Kastély,
it was published in the translations of Ádám Réz in 1968 (published by Európa[5])
and Ágnes Simonyi in 2008 (Ulpius-ház). Emma,1815,
as Emma also has got only two
Hungarian translations by Dóra Csanak in 1969 (Európa) and Gábor Tomori in
2008 (Ulpius-ház). Persuasion, 1818,
as Tartózkodó Érzelem was translated
by Ilona Róna in 1980 (Európa), and as Meggyőző Érvek by Tomori Gábor in 2007 (Ulpius-ház). Northanger Abbey, 1818, as A Klastrom Titka was translated by Mária Borbás
in 1983 (Európa), Ágnes Latorre in 2007 (Ulpius-ház), and Csilla Béresi in 2010
(published by Lazi).
The first Hungarian book format of an Austen novel was Pride and Prejudice translated by
Miklós Szenczi, an Austen-scholar, published in 1958 with the title Büszkeség és Balítélet (pride and misjudgement)
(Séllei 246). This was the title under which all the later translations of this
novel were published. Although seemingly this Hungarian title does not definitely
mirror the meaning of prejudice, the title Büszkeség
és Balítélet contains the alliteration just like the original English
title, and it has been popular in the eye of the Hungarian audience.
After having conversations about Austen with Hungarian
people with non-literary background, I have come to the conclusion that those
who do not read Austen-novels but have heard of her, correlates her name with Pride and Prejudice. Hence, currently Pride and Prejudice is the most popular
Austen novel in Hungary. Between 2006 and 2013, four translations of Pride and Prejudice were published in
Hungary with the title Büszkeség és
Balítélet. The translators and publishing houses are the followings: Dezső Bánki
(2006, Népszabadság Kv), Vera Loósz (2006, Ulpius-Ház), Emőke Hegedűs (2007,
Rebeka és Panni), Böbe Weisz (2013, Alinea Könyvkiadó[6],
200 years jubilee edition). Based on the above mentioned examples, the question
of why have so many Austen retranslations been released in the early 2000s is
reasonable to ask. This question may have more answers, which correlate to one
another.
Firstly, one may assume that the need for Austen's
actualization may be the cause of the retranslations. Since she was born in
1775, her language could be modernised from time to time in order to bring her
world closer to the readers. Notwithstanding, despite her often lengthy
sentences, her language in English is clearly understandable and pretty modern.
In case of Austen's Hungarian translations, whether to actualize her is an
important question. Furthermore, which register should the translator use? How
archaic the text should be? Naturally, it all depends on the assumption what
the reading public would enjoy, which always differs country by country. At
this point, Eugene A. Nida's notion of dynamic
equivalence in Translation Studies may be a crucial theory to understand
the translators' challenge of choosing the register for translating Austen into
Hungarian. Kinga Klaudy, one of the founders of Translation Studies in Hungary
is speaking about this theory of Nida in her 2014 lecture, Az ekvivalencia - Bevezetés a fordítás elméletébe (Equivalence - Introduction to the
Theory of Translaion), available on Youtube, that literary translation is
itself dynamic equivalence, meaning,
that the translated text is the closest equivalence of the original text in
every sense: in content, in language and style. In other words, dynamic equivalence is present when the
mother-tongue readers do not realize that the translated text is not originally
written in the receptor language. Moreover, the main goal of dynamic equivalence is reader response.
Hence, during translation, the translator keeps in mind how the reader would react
to every single sentence of the text, instead of simply translating words.
Regarding the time of Austen, I argue that a
translator should provide the audience the atmosphere of Austen's time by the proper style. Ostensibly,
all the Hungarian translators of the Austen novels succeeded in it to some
extent. Amongst the Austen fans in Hungary, Pride
and Prejudice appears as the favourite novel, and they often write on
forums and blogs that the translation of the first sentence of Pride and Prejudice ("[i]t is a
truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good
fortune, must be in want of a wife" (Austen 3) is always crucial in the
eyes of the devoted Austen fans. In case of the language register, it would be
interesting to compare this sentence to Szenczi's translation, the first Hungarian
version of Pride and Prejudice in
book format, 1958, and the latest one in Böbe Weisz's translation as Büszkeség és Balítélet, 2013. Szenczi's
sentence is the following: "[á]ltalánosan elismert igazság, hogy a
legényembernek, ha vagyonos, okvetlenül kell feleség" (Büszkeség, Szenczi 1), while Weisz is
writing that "[á]ltalánosan elfogadott igazság, hogy egy vagyonos, ám
nőtlen fiatalembernek mindenképp asszonyra van szüksége (Büszkeség, Weisz 5)". Little differences can be found between
the two in terms of register. For instance, "single man" is
translated as "legényember" by Szenczi, and as "nőtlten
fiatalamber" by Weisz. In Szenczi's case, "legényember" is not the
best choice - although this word itself signs a "bachelor",
"legény" itself means "boy", but in Hungarian it is rather
used for the boy from the lower classes. Thus, Weisz's solution, "fiatalember",
meaning "young man" is much more elegant than "legényember".
Still, in the English sentence, there is only "single man", not
young. The translators added a plus meaning to the sentence. Moreover, Weisz's
solution, on the one hand appears as a bit archaic, while on the other hand, it
looks modernised, not like in the case of Szenczi. Based on the first sentence,
it would be worthwhile to compare all the translations of the novels in terms
of their registers.
Böbe Weisz is regarded as an excellent translator in
Hungary. She translated True Blood
and many other best sellers into Hungarian, so her translations are usually
predicted to succeed in Hungary. Weisz's translation of Pride and Prejudice published by Alinea for the novel's 200 years
anniversary is held as a gifted one by the readers, but many comments on forums
add the question: why does the Hungarian book market need another Büszkeség és Balítélet if there are
really good translations? Seemingly, this publishing house intended to have financial advantages (by the supposedly
high seller ranks) - the Austen fans would certainly buy the new book, and the
name of a good translator is a good gimmick. This idea can be supported by the
Austen-products of Alinea which the publishing house advertises on its official
web page. Alinea sells Büszkeség és
Balítélet-mugs and fridge magnets with quotations from the novel in Weisz's
translation. Moreover, there are even packages available on this web site, e.g.
the novel and a mug, or the novel and the fridge magnet. Thus, we might
declare: Jane Austen has a market in Hungary.
Secondly, In her 2007 article, "A Jane
Austen-hadművelet" (The Jane Austen action) on Magyar Narancs Online,
Judit Kádár is giving a clue to the rapidly growing retranslations of the
2000s. According to Kádár, Ulpius did
not get the right to re-publish the previous Hungarian translations of Austen's
novels, so they had the novels retranslated, although the approximately thirty
years old translations of Ilona Rónai and Miklós Szenczi would be enjoyable to
read today as well. Though there are some gaps in the terminology of the
translations of Rónai and Szenczi, Kádár claims that with footnotes these
translations would be fine today (Magyar Narancs). As a result, a sort of Austen-industry has
been built in Hungary the last two decades. Novels based on Jane Austen's
stories inspired by her plots, characters and her life, using her venues and
characters, have been being published over and over. An enormous amount of
novels have appeared in the publishing industry from the early 1990s till today
in English, the translation of these books into Hungarian mainly began in the
early 2000s. It seems that a whole new industry has been built on Austen's
heritage, and lately it is definitely fashionable to continue Austen's pieces
or write new ones adapting her style. According to the high seller ranks of
these novels in Hungary, it can be declared that Jane Austen is fashionable in
Hungary. Almost all these newly-written books have been translated into
Hungarian which indicates that there is a need in Hungary to publish these sort
of books. Her life also inspires readers and writers. The data on her life are
not as wide as her fans would wish, which still attracts their imagination as
one can see it by the list of the Austen-inspired books. Notwithstanding, her
biographical books have been translated into Hungarian as well: The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen
by Syrie James, 2007 as Jane Austen Naplója
(translated by Anikó Gergely, published by Kelly Kiadó[7],
2008), Jane Austen: A Life by Claire
Tomalin, 2000 as Jane Austen Élete
in Hungarian (translated by Katalin Sipos, published by Európa in 2010).The
list of Austen-inspired books published in Hungary is the following:
Mansfield Revisited by Joan Aiken in 1984, the
continuation of Mansfieldi Park, translated by Marianne Kiss in 2007 as Visszatérés a mansfieldi kastélyba,
published by Lazi in Hungary.
Jane Fairfax by Joan
Aiken in 1990, the continuation of Emma, translated by Enikő Mohácsi in 2007 as Jane Fairfax, published by Lazi in
Hungary.
Elinor and Marianne by Emma Tennant in 1996,
the continuation of Sense and Sensibility,
translate by Mária Borbás in Hungary published by Palatinus in 2005 as
Elinor és Marianne.
Uninvited Guests by Jane Gillespie in 1994, the
continuation of Northanger
Abbey translated by Zsuzsa N. Kiss as Hívatlan vendégek, in Hungary published by Palatinus in 2005.
Presumption by Julia Barrett in
1993, the continuation of Pride and
Prejudice, translated by Ildikó Arbanász as Önteltség és önámítás, published by Lazi in Hungary, in 2008
and 2001.
The Third Sister by Julia Barrett in 1996,
translated by Ildikó Arbanász as A harmadik nővér published
by Lazi in 2008, 2006 and 2002.
The Pemberley Chronicles by Rebecca Ann Collins,
the continuation of Pride and
Prejudice in 2008, translated
by Tímea Fügedi as Pemberley-krónikák, published in
Hungary by IPC in 2010.
Lady Catherine's Necklace by Joan Aiken in 2000, the continuation of Pride and Prejudice, translated by Bence Mártha as Lady
Catherine nyakéke, published in Hungary by Lazi, in 2008.
Woman of Pemberley by Rebecca Ann Collins, the
continuation of Pride and Prejudice in 2008, translated by Zsuzsanna Miklósi ad Pemberley asszonyai in 2011, published by
IPC.
The Ladies of Longbourn by Rebecca Ann Collins in
2008, the continuation of Pride and Prejudice translated by Ágnes Stier
as A longbourni hölgyek, published in Hungary by IPC i 2013.
Netherfield Park Revisited by Rebecca Ann Collins 2008, the continuation of Pride and Prejudice translated
by Ágnes Stier as Visszatérés a
Netherfield Parkba, published in Hungary in by IPC in 2012.
Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James in 2011, the contuniation of Pride and Prejudice translated byÁgnes Simonyi as A halál jár Pemberley-ben published
by 21. század, in 2012.
Longbourn by Jo Baker in 2013,
translated by Tímea Fügedi as Longbourne
árnyékában, published by IPC in 2013.
The Missing Manuscript of Jane Austen by Syrie James in 2012 as
Az elveszett Jane Austen-kézirat, published by Cor Leonis in Hungary
in 2013.
Pride
and Prejudice and the Zombies, a
2009 parody novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, translated by Ádám Berta as Büszkeség
és Balítélet és a Zombik, published
by Athenaeum Kiadó in 2009.
The Lost Memoirs of Jane Austen by Syrie James in 2008, translated by Anikó Gergely as Jane Austen naplója, published by
Kelly in 2009 and 2008.
Jane and the Man of the Cloth by Stephanie Barron, 1996, a detective novel translated by Eszter Fazekas as A titokzatos Tiszteletes,
published by IPC in 2013.
Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor by Stephanie Barron in 1996, a detective novel translated by Eszter Fazekas
as Az udvarház rejtélye,
published by IPC in 2012.
Jane and the Wandering Eye by Stephanie Barron, 1998, a detective novel translated translated by Eszter Fazekas
as Egy boszorkány portréja,
published by IPC in 2014 in Hungary.
Besides
the Austen-influenced novels, it is highly important to take her novels' film
adaptation into account when arguing her reception in Hungary. There are plenty
of blogs and forums on the Internet where one can encounter comments and
articles from Hungarian fans, showing their devotion or opinion about the
films. Though film adaptations had been also made before the 1990s, still, the
1995 Pride and Prejudice (TV series
of six) by BBC, directed by Simon Langton, featuring Jennifer Ehle (as Elisabeth) and Colin Firth
(as Mr Darcy) carried all before one, and to all appearances that this film had
such an overwhelming impact on the audience in Hungary that the interest in
Austen reinforced. In her article on the website Origo, "Melyik a legjobb Jane Austen-film?" (Which Jane
Austen-film is the best?), Ági Dömötör gives a rank of the best ten Austen-films,
and claims that Mr Darcy as Colin Firth became a public treasure because of his
extremely handsome look and breathtaking acting. She adds that the scene when
he comes out of the lake wearing a wet shirt holds the audience spellbound
(Dömötör). Moreover, this film's script is the closest to the texts of Austen's
novels, most of the film's sentences are directly taken from the novel itself,
word by word, so this can also be a reason why the audience is fond of this
film.
However, the 1995 Pride
and Prejudice film only takes the seventh place in Dömötör's list, since Elisabeth's
character is not well formed by the actress (and some other disagreements),
Dömötör suggests. A new PP has been
filmed in 2005, which Dömötör regards to be the best Austen-film ever,
featuring Keira Knightley as Elisabeth, and Matthew Macfadyen as Mr Darcy. The 2005 PP
film had a great success, and takes the first place on Dömötör's list, but to
the average of Austen-fans, nobody can replace Colin Firth. I am convinced that
Colin Firth as Mr Darcy on the screen took a great part in the development of
the Hungarian Austenism in the early 2000s. Although no one says so directly,
we apparently assume considering the dates of the Austen-related novels'
publishing in Hungary that the "Colin Firth effect" may have raised
the interest in Austen in Hungary after 1995 due to his romaticised figure. Mr
Darcy's impact on the Hungarian female hearts was obviously reinforced by the
2001 film adaptation of contemporary Helen Fielding's romantic novel, Bridget Jones Diary, in which one of the
main male characters' name is Darcy (Mark Darcy), played by Colin Firth again.
A parallel can be found within Pride and
Prejudice and Bridget Jones Diary:
the love which seems to have no chance succeeds. Thus, Colin Firth warmed the
heart of the audience again, and since Bridget
Jones Diary was a hit in the early 2000s, I would like to argue that it may
have added plus interest to the figure of the original, Austen's Mr Darcy. Besides
Bridget Jones Diary, the film
industry has produced a lot of Austen-inspired films, or novel adaptations in
the 2000s (e.g. Lost in Austen, 2008,
Becoming Jane, 2007, Austenland, 2007, Scents and Sensibility, 2011, The
Lizzie Bennet Diaries, 2012 TV series, etc.). Based on these examples, one
might suppose that Jane Austen is highly interesting and fashionable in the
film industry as well. Amongst these films, Becoming
Jane as Jane Austen Magánélete in
Hungarian (Jane Austen's private life) was a great success in Hungary,
featuring Anne Hathaway
(as Jane Austen) and James McAvoy
(as Tom Lefroy, Jane's love), presenting the life of Jane Austen with a love
story. According to the forum comments on the website Interaktív Filmkataógus (Interactive Film Catalogue), the average of Hungarian Austen fans
are fond of this film.
Jane Austen's popularity expanded so much in the early
2000s that two of her novels, Pride and
Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility were
dramatized and taken into theatre in Hungary. Pride and Prejudice as a comedy was played in the 2000s in Budapest
with the title Büszkeség és Balítélet
in 2009, in Karinthy Színház (Karinthy Theatre), with distinguished Hungarian
actors and actresses, such as Vera Venczel or Kitti Kéry. On www.jegy.hu, a web
page which sells theatre tickets, one can read about this performance that it
was to show the audience the important points in life, not only to present a
romantic story. They claim that this story of Austen on stage may generate more
questions now about women's place in society and modern democracies than it did
at the time when Pride and Prejudice
was written (jegy.hu). Consequently, this performance was a hit in Hungary.
There are plenty of comments from the audience on this play on Magyar Színházi Portál - Színház.hu
(Hungarian Theatre Portal), explaining that it was an amazing and entertaining
experience for the audience, and many of them had seen it more times. A fan commented
that he had seen it around fifty times in 2012. Sense and Sensibility as Értelem
és Érzelem was first put on stage in Hungary in 2011 by Petőfi Színház
(Petőfi Theatre), in Veszprém, with popular actors and actresses as in the case
of Pride and Prejudice, and it was
also a great success.
There is a Jane Austen cult in Hungary, which can be
recognized by the retranslations of her novels published one by one, year by
year, the strong presence of the Austen-inspired books in the Hungarian book
market, the dramatized versions of her novels on stage, the Austen-products
available on the Internet, the book blogs which frequently present articles
about topics within Austen, and the forums giving current feedback about the
Austen novels. The film adaptations, mainly the acting of Colin Firth may have reinforced
the interest in Austen in Hungary in the early 2000s. However, the Hungarian Austen-mania is rather
due to that her works are still enjoyable, and that people today need that
experience which a Jane Austen novel can provide us - romance with parody,
emotions and realistic social depictions.
Works Cited
Austen, Jane. Büszkeség
és Balítélet. Translated by Miklós Szenczi. Európa.1975. Print.
Austen, Jane. Büszkeség
és Balítélet. Translated by Böbe Weisz. Alinea. 2013. Print.
Dömötör, Ági. Melyik
a legjobb Jane Austen-film? Origo. Web. 2nd January 2015. http://www.origo.hu/archivum/20100906-a-tiz-legjobb-jane-austenfilm-buszkeseg-es-balitelet-ertelem-es.html
Katherine's Bookstore. Érzelem és
értelem - Könyvek Jane Austen életéről. 30th 2011 December. Katherine's Bookstore. Web. 9th
January 2015. http://katherines-bookstore.blogspot.hu
Katherine's Bookstore. Jane Austen
bibliográfia. Katherine's
Bookstore. 28th December 2011. Web. 8th January 2015. http://katherines-bookstore.blogspot.hu
Kádár, Judit. A
Jane Austen-hadművelet. Magyar Narancs Online. Web. 30th December 2014. http://magyarnarancs.hu/kepzomuveszet/a_jane_austen-hadmuvelet-68088
Séllei, Nóra. Jane
Austen: Our Contemporary in Hungary in "The Reception of Jane Austen
in Europe" ed. Anthony Mandal adn Brian Southam. Continuum. London: 2007.
Web. Google books. 20th December 2014.
Photo: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/
