The Voice from Outside [antikvár]

PREFACE The idea of writing about Georg Brandes and his reception in Hungary first came to me in 1981, when I was looking through the Brandes Archive at the Royal Library. It turnéd out that an amazing number of Hungarians had been in contact with the Danish critic over the years. There were even somé 'big names' in Hungárián intellectual circles among these correspondents. In 1984,1 was awarded a travel grant to visit Hungary, and on that occasion I managed to uncover somé of Brandes' replies from various archives in Budapest. Luck was alsó on my side when it came to locating reviews, articles and memoirs in various newspapers and periodicals. In 1985, a grant from the Danish Research Council for the Humanities enabled me to carry out concentrated work on the material that I had collected. Digging out old documents and reading faded letters has proved an exciting experience. It has taken many years to complete this study and there are many people who deserve to be thanked. My first thanks must go to the Danish Research Council for the Humanities, whose financial support made it possible for me to spend nine months working exclusively on this project and to have my book translated into English. The invitation from MTA Irodalomtudományi Intézete (The Literary Institute of the Hungárián Academy of Science) helped me in my search through the various archives and collections. While working on this book, I received help and encouragement from many quarters. Special thanks are due to - my supervisors at Lund University, Oscar Lazar and Per Ryden, for their helpful advice, - Geir Kjetsaa, University of Oslo, for his enduring interest and constant encouragement, which kept me going, - Per Dahl, University of Aarhus, for his valuable bibliographical information, for his constructive criticism of my work and for his great assistance prior to the translation into English, - Lars-Gunnar Larsson, University of Uppsala, for helping me to have my book published in an English version, - my mother, Ilona Faragó, who collected material for me from libraries and supplied invaluable photocopies, - István Heimlich, who has in effect provided me with a reference library over the years,