In accordance with our meta agreement to have topic challenges and a later meta agreement to have topic challenges lasting for two months and overlapping by one month, it is time to announce the July–August 2021 topic challenge.
Based on the number of votes (+5), the next topic challenge will be
Magda Szabó
What's a topic challenge?
See the meta posts linked above, and also this main Meta post. In short, during July and August 2021 you are invited to try to get hold of one of the works of Magda Szabó and ask questions about it.
Participation is not obligatory in any sense, and questions on other works are more than welcome during July and August too; they just won't count as part of this topic challenge.
How can I take part?
By getting hold of one of the works of Magda Szabó and asking good questions about it. Questions about these works should be tagged with magda-szabo, hungarian-literature and tag for the work (if it is a book-length work). We'll keep a list of all such questions in an answer to this meta post.
Below is Rand al'Thor's presentation:
Magda Szabó was a Hungarian author who wrote novels, poetry, essays, short stories, etc. Her works have been translated into many languages, many of them into English. These include:
- The Door (Az ajtó), a 1987 story about the complex relationship between a woman (who may be modelled on the author herself) and her housekeeper;
- The Fawn (Az őz), a 1959 story about an actress and her struggles in post-war Hungary;
- Für Elise (2002) is a more recent adult novel that is well received.
- Abigél (1970) is the most famous youth novel of Szabó Magda. The story takes place during the world war, and concerns a girl who is suddenly sent away from his father to a very strict religious school. Abigél is sometimes used in primary school literature courses. There is a tv film adaptation (1978) with screenplay by the author and an all-star cast of actors. The novel has been translated to many languages, including French, German, Romanian, Czech, Polish, Latvian, Italian, and there's an English translation published in 2020 (translator Lin Rex).
- The Elf Prince Lala (Tündér Lala), a 1964 children's fantasy story about the misfit prince of a fairy kingdom.
- The Lamb and Lawrence the Lamb (Bárány and Bárány Boldizsár), two collections of poetry published in 1947 and 1958.
More details about some of her books can be found here. Demeter Tibor's catalog also lists some translations of Magda Szabó's works to foreign language.
What's next?
- Vote for the next topic challenge (August–September), or propose your own!
