Inspirational Quotes by Gyorgy Konrad (Hungarian Novelist, Essayist)

György (George) Konrád (1933–2019) was a Hungarian novelist, sociologist, and essayist. Known as an advocate of individual freedom, he was on his country’s list of forbidden authors 1977–88.

Born into a Jewish merchant family in Debrecen, Konrád grew up in Berettyóújfalu, near to the Romanian border. In 1944, when the German army occupied Hungary, György was sent to relatives in Budapest. After World War II, he went to school first in Debrecen and then in Budapest, and, in 1951, was accepted at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest to study Russian and literature. Konrád fully supported the revolutionary call for independence and a multiparty system and joined the pro-revolutionary National Guard. The Soviets later crushed the revolution.

Konrád’s first novel, A Látogató (1969; The Case Worker, 1987,) and a later one, A Városalapító (1977; The City Builder, 1987,) caused a considerable uproar in official circles in Hungary. While the communist regime disapproved of its themes, the Hungarian public responded much more positively.

Konrád was arrested and harassed, whereupon he settled a compromise with the government—he would be unpublished in Hungary but was allowed to travel and publish and teach in Germany and America. Until 1987, after communism fell, the publication of most of his works was prohibited in Hungary.

Konrád’s two political studies: Az Autonómia Kisértése (1980, The Temptation of Autonomy) and Anti-politica (1986, Antipolitics) launched him as a left-liberal thinker and staunch opponent of all authoritarian regimes. Konrád’s Kerti Mulatság (1987, A Feast in the Garden) and Koóra (1994, Stonedial,) and A Guest in My Own Country (2013) were mostly autobiographical.

Konrád’s last two nostalgic essay-novels were Ásatás (Excavation I–II) with the subtitles Falevelek a Szélben (Leaves in the Wind, 2017) and Öregerdo (An Old Forest, 2018.)

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