Victorian authors, female translators Female novel translations in Hungarian journals between 1890 and 1910

Abstract

In the 1890s, Hungarian daily newspapers – Pesti Hírlap, Budapesti Hírlap, and Fővárosi Lapok – published Hungarian translations of sensational novels originally published in English Victorian weekly newspapers in serial form in their literary sections, known as “the treasure house of the novel.” Hungarian readers could read the novels of Mary E. Braddon, Florence Warden, Mary Corelli, Marion Crawford, and other popular writers in daily installments, sometimes in print runs of half a million copies. Most of the translations for Budapesti Hírlap were done by Amica (Sámi Lászlóné, née Király Janka): as an advertisement reveals, she was able to choose which novels she wanted to translate. Another frequent translator of sensational novels was Ida Rákosi (née Ferencné Csepreghy), sister of newspaper founder Jenő Rákosi. The publishing house Budapesti Hírlap later published the novels in book form, too. Amica translated novels such as A sors játéka (The game of fate), A színésznő leánya (The actress’s daughter), Grácia, Életkép (A snapshot of life), Három nyár (Three summers), Gillian, etc. Ida Rákosi’s translations included Erzsébet levelei (The Visits of Elizabeth), Lizbet (Lysbeth: A Tale of the Dutch), Földi hatalom (Temporal Power), and Duett (A Duet with an Occasional Chorus). This paper examines the important translation work of these female translators in the dissemination of Victorian literature in Hungary. The significance of the translated novels lies in their very wide readership, reaching hundreds of thousands of readers. The originals of the translations are often impossible to find, as only the Hungarian titles were used, and many of the Hungarian translators of English novels, such as Frances Burney’s Evelina or Bram Stoker’s Dracula, are unknown. A more general examination of the serialized novels in Hungarian newspapers in the 1890s also outlines how we can characterize the literary tastes of Hungarian readers of the time.