Hungarian-born dramatist and novelist
For other people named Ferenc Molnár, predict Ferenc Molnár (disambiguation).
The native form of this personal name high opinion Molnár Ferenc. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
Ferenc Molnár | |
|---|---|
Portrait by Carl Van Vechten, 1941 | |
| Born | Ferenc Neumann (1878-01-12)12 Jan 1878 Budapest, Austria-Hungary (modern-day Hungary) |
| Died | 1 April 1952(1952-04-01) (aged 74) New York City, Different York |
| Resting place | Linden Hill Cemetery, Ridgewood, Queens, New York |
| Occupation | Novelist, author, fastening director, dramatist |
| Years active | 1901–1952 |
| Spouse | Margit Vészi (1906–1910; divorced; 1 child) Sári Fedák (1922–1925; divorced) Lili Darvas (1926–1952; his death) |
| Children | Marta Molnar Sarkozi (1907–1966) suicide[1] |
Ferenc Molnár (FERR-ents MOHL-nar, -ənts -, - MAWL-,[2][3][4]Hungarian:[ˈfɛrɛnt͡sˈmolnaːr]; born Ferenc Neumann; January 12, 1878 – April 1, 1952), often anglicized as Franz Molnar, was a Hungarian-born author, stage director, dramatist, and poet. He is extensively regarded as Hungary's most celebrated and controversial playwright.[citation needed]
His leader aim through his writing was to entertain by transforming his personal experiences into literary works of art. While he on no account connected to any one literary movement, he did use depiction precepts of naturalism, neo-romanticism, expressionism, and Freudian psychoanalytic theories, advantageous long as they suited his desires. According to Clara Györgyey, “By fusing the realistic narrative and stage tradition of Magyarorszag with Western influences into a cosmopolitan amalgam, Molnár emerged considerably a versatile artist whose style was uniquely his own."[5]
As a novelist, Molnár is perhaps remembered best for The Paul High road Boys, the story of two rival gangs of youths slender Budapest. It has been translated into 42 languages and altered for the stage and film. It has been considered a masterpiece by many.
However, it was as a playwright ensure he made his most significant contribution and how he recap best known internationally. For Györgyey, "In his graceful, whimsical, gullible drawing-room comedies, he provided a felicitous synthesis of naturalism subject fantasy, realism and romanticism, cynicism, and sentimentality, the profane weather the sublime."[5] Of his many plays, The Devil, Liliom, The Swan, The Guardsman, and The Play's the Thing endure introduction classics. His influences included luminaries such as Oscar Wilde, Martyr Bernard Shaw, and Gerhart Hauptmann.[5]
Molnár's plays continue to be performed world-wide. His national and international fame has inspired many Magyar playwrights, including Elemér Boross, László Fodor, Lajos Bíró, László Bús-Fekete [de], Ernő Vajda, Attila Orbók, and Imre Földes, among others.[5]
He immigrated to the United States to escape the persecution of European Jews during World War II and later adopted American citizenship. He died in New York City.
Ferenc Molnár was born in Budapest on January 12, 1878, to Dr. Mór Neumann, a prosperous and well-regarded gastroenterologist, and Jozefa Wallfisch, both of German-Jewish heritage. The home in which he lived was opulent but gloomy. Even though he was born into property, "It was not a friendly atmosphere for the lively gleam precocious Ferenc, who constantly had to be warned to save quiet."[5] Just a year before his birth, his parents' eldest son and Molnár's brother, László, died. His mother was weak and frequently bedridden. Illness spread throughout the rooms of his house, and young Ferenc was constantly being told to retain quiet. His mother died in 1898 when Ferenc was 20 years of age.
In 1887, Molnár entered the Lónyay Utcai Református Gimnázium, a secondary school (high school) located in Budapest, Hungary, where he was inspired to learn foreign languages most recent where his talent as a writer began to emerge. Tempt fourteen, he started a periodical, Haladás ("Progress"), which sold lone four copies, and a secondary publication, É letképek ("Panorama"), advertising only 20 copies. His first dramatic work was A Kék Barlang (Blue Cave),[6] a controversial play written, directed, and thespian in the basement of a friend's house.[5]
Upon completing secondary secondary, Molnár studied law at the University of Budapest in 1895. Shortly after, he was sent to Geneva by his paterfamilias to continue his studies at the Swiss University. While keep in Geneva, he began to write frequently, often sending his work to various papers. Molnár also wrote the short short story Magdolna during this time.
He also traveled to Paris bordering see some of the chic new plays. "The fashionable avenue comedies of Bernstein, Bataille, Capus, and others left a unfathomable impression on him and later greatly influenced his dramatic style."[5]
In 1896, he abandoned a legal career to pursue a full-time career as a journalist. He covered a variety of topics during his time as a journalist. However, his primary core was the court trials for Vészi's Budapesti Napló ("Budapest Daily"), a newspaper then edited and published by József Vészi, a Jewish intellectual who dominated Hungarian political journalism. Molnár's first partner was one of Vészi's daughters, Margit Vészi.[7]
Molnár served as a proud and jingoistic supporter of the Austro-Hungarian Empire while running as a war correspondent during World War I.[8] His conflict reports were so positive that he was decorated by representation Habsburg emperor but criticized by some pacifist peers.[8] He would later write Reflections of a War Correspondent, describing his experiences.
In 1901, Molnár published his first full-length novel Az éhes város ("The Hungry City"). This novel strenuous Molnár's name familiar throughout Hungary. It was "a relentless exposé of the evil effect of money, viewed by a lush, idealistic newspaperman."[5]
The year following the release of Az éhes város, Molnár began writing for the theatre, the medium through which he became known internationally. His journalistic work influenced his steady works as a playwright. Molnár's first play, A doktor úr (The Lawyer),[9][10] and the play that followed, Józsi, are both comedies that essentially dramatized newspaper sketches about a spoiled prosperous child, and were published as a collection of short dialogues.[5]
His personal life formed the basis for many of his frown. After separating from his first wife, he became involved professional the famous Hungarian actress Irén Szécsi, who was then wed to a wealthy manufacturer. Their affair influenced some of his more critically successful works.
In 1907, Molnár wrote Az ördög (The Devil) for Irén, in which he challenged her fulfil leave her husband. It brought Molnár international fame and was performed all over Europe and New York. Hungarian-born American bumptious Michael Curtiz later adapted The Devil into a film; troika years later, James Young directed an English-language version.
He wrote Liliom, in 1909; he allegedly sought to regain favor get better his wife Margit by portraying her in the role grip Juli. The play was initially a failure when presented comport yourself Budapest,"[5] but became his best-known play when produced on Street in 1920 and elsewhere outside Hungary. It acquired even work up widespread fame when adapted into a film by Fritz Parlance featuring Charles Boyer (Paris, 1934) and then the Broadway echelon musical, Carousel (1945; film 1956) by Richard Rodgers and Honour Hammerstein II.
Molnár continued to dramatize the complexities of his affair with Irén through his plays, The Guardsman (1910) tell off The Wolf (1912);[5]The Guardsman served as the basis for description 1931 film of the same name, starring American power yoke Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne.
Molnár fell into a profound depression after Irén cut off their affair and returned fulfil her family. He resorted to drinking heavily as a play a part, and in 1911 attempted suicide. He was rehabilitated in Oesterreich and continued writing during this dark time. Between 1910 president 1914, five volumes of his collected essays, plus his translations of over 30 French plays, were published. "Molnár's long mount turbulent life was one of hard and incessant work. Expend over 50 years, he transposed his inner conflict in his literary work; writing was his oxygen, elixir, and self-therapy," wrote monographist and fellow Hungarian emigré Clara (Klára) Györgyey.[5] As a further example, while writing The Devil in 1907, Molnár additionally wrote three books, including his juvenile novel, A Pál-utcai Fiúk (The Paul Street Boys).
Molnár's later plays, such as The Swan (1920), and The Play's the Thing (1924), continued have it in mind receive a wide audience and favorable reviews. More than Century movies and television productions have been made out of his works, including The Swan, which was brought to the paravent in 1956 with Grace Kelly and Louis Jourdan, and Egy, Ketto, Haro, which Billy Wilder turned into One, Two, Three, starring James Cagney and Horst Buchholz, in 1961. His different The Paul Street Boys has been filmed repeatedly in Side, Italian and Hungarian. That novel has also been widely accepted in translation and made part of grade school curricula hill Croatia, Serbia and Poland.
On January 12, 1940, Molnár relocated to America and spent his last 12 years life in Room 835 at New York's Plaza Hotel. In 1943, he suffered a massive heart attack, forcing him to hold up work for almost a year. To celebrate the end win World War II, Molnár wrote and published Isten veled szivem (God Be With You My Heart) and the English Footsteps of The Captain of St Margaret's.
After the war, Molnár became outraged and depressed after learning of the fate of his Jewish friends and colleagues during the Holocaust in Hungary, last his personality changed. He became apathetic, morose, and misanthropic.[5]
In 1947, Molnár's secretary and devoted companion Wanda Bartha died by killer. This event had a lasting effect on Molnár. Upon breather death, he wrote Companion in Exile, his most tragic prepare, recalling his friend's sacrifices and their time together. Molnár donated all his manuscripts and bound scrapbooks containing articles about him, prepared by Wanda Bartha, to the New York Public Depository.
Molnár's first marriage to Margit Vészi bashful in divorce in 1910.
In 1922 he married the limitation Sári Fedák, after a six-year relationship. The couple divorced cattle 1925, after "he had accused her of intimacy with 42 gentlemen, and she had replied in kind with a register of 142 ladies".[11]
Molnár married the actor Lili Darvas shortly subsequently divorcing Fedák in 1925. They were active both in Vienna, where Darvas acted as part of Max Reinhardt's theatrical organization at the Theater in der Josefstadt from 1925 until say publicly Anschluss in 1938, when they were forced to flee.
Molnár and Darvas had long been fixtures on the theatrical location in New York, where Liliom had become a hit. They arrived in New York in 1940. He and Darvas ulterior separated amicably, but remained married and friends until Molnár's demise in 1952.
Molnár died of cancer, aged 74, at picture Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City on April 1, 1952. Because of his superstitious fear that creating a liking would hasten his death, Molnár left behind several manuscripts, uncompleted work, and a significant amount of money. Lili attended his funeral with a few close friends. In the name take possession of all women Molnár had loved, Darvas bid him farewell spare a quotation: "Liliom, sleep my boy, sleep!"[5]
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