Pál ÁnyosBelieve, Hope, Love

" ... Believe, hope, love!

Until the end of his life Ányos lived by this divine command. Even when the callings, pleasures and temptations of the worldly way of life caused serious rifts in his spiritual life, his faith seems unshakeable. If the philosophical and scientific achievements of the Enlightenment have planted possible doubts in his heart. If the French and German literature of the time, in addition to the obligatory antique authors opened his eyes: there is another way of talking about the overwhelming human affections than the one we are used to. If he openly admitted: man is soul and body. If he did not succeed in becoming secretary of the society for the renewal of domestic science, or when the magistrates of his order ordered him to solitude in the countryside for contemplation instead of this busy social life, they even checked his mail and cut off his correspondence trying to isolate him from his former fellow-ideas and perhaps from someone else. Or if the obligations of monastic life prevented him from fulfilling his real or fantasised love life and desires. In response to all this, as his literary work clearly shows, he created a new sensibility in his writing, which was unknown to us at the time and of a highly complex individual nature, unprecedented in Hungary, and developed an active literary relationship in private, creating a unique voice in his death poetry and a poetry of patriotic sentiment with a heightened social sensibility. ..."

(excerpt from the Afterword by József Jankovics, co-editor of the volume.)

Its cover is based on the illustrations of Elemér Császár's Ányos Pál (1756-1784) (Hungarian Historical Society, 1912) and the chapter covers are reproductions of the portrait of Ányos by the painter Endre Lábass. Until 1995 the picture adorned the side wall of a panel building on the corner of Jutasi Street and Munkácsy Street in Veszprém.

Castle Street Workshop Books 16 - Veszprém

The book is sponsored by the National Cultural Fund and Ferenc Csaba, the mayor of the poet's home village