Lotze, Dieter P. Imre Madách. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981. 173 pp. (Twayne World Authors Series; no. 617)

Expanded table of contents

     About the Author

     Preface

     Acknowledgments

     Chronology

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1. Imre Madách’s Life and Times

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I.                    Hungary in the nineteenth century

II.                 Madách’s life: events and impacts

III.               Madách’s cultural world: Hungary and Europe

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2.  From the First Blossoms of a Lyre to a Fairy Dream: Madách’s Development as a Writer

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I.                    Romanticism and reality: Madách’s poetry

II.                 The frustrated storyteller: Madách’s prose narratives

III.               The making of a dramatist: Madách’s earlier works

IV.              Descent from the summit: Madách’s last plays

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3.  The Tragedy of Man: Madách’s Dramatic Masterpiece   

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I.                    From Eden to the dusk of mankind: a synopsis of the drama

II.                 The critics’ dilemma: “the comedy of the devil” or the salvation of a sinner?

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4. Three Dramas in One: The Levels of Action in Madách’s Tragedy

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I.                    Adam and Eve: the tragedy of the individual

II.                 The future as a bad dream: Madách, history, and Hegel

III.               Beyond the human sphere: the metaphysical framework

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5.  The “Hungarian Faust”? Madách and the Faust Tradition

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I.                    Adam as a Faustian hero

II.                 The “transformation of a poem”

III.               Goethe and Madách: parallels and contrasts

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6.  A Poem of Mankind: Madách and European Romanticism

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I.                    The Poème de Humanité

II.                 Hugo and Madách: two Romanticists look at human history

III.               Madách and the Hungarian Romantic tradition

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7.  A Century Later: A Concluding Note

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     Notes and References

     Selected Bibliography    

     Index  

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