Language/Literature papers by Pellérdi, Márta
Alliances Forged by Travel in the 19th Century: John Paget and Charles Loring Brace
Type of Abstract (select): Paper presentationAbstract (max. 250 words):
This paper discusses the political significance of the published travel narratives of John
Paget’s Hungary and Transylvania: with Remarks on their Condition, Social, Political, and
Economical (1839) and Charles Loring Brace’s Hungary in 1851; with an Experience of the
Austrian Police, (1852). The Englishman Paget’s comprehensive two-volume work sheds
light on the political circumstances in Hungary and Transylvania during the reform period in
the 1830s, a decade before the War of Independence in 1848, while Brace’s travelogue
focuses mainly on the consequences of this significant event in Hungarian history, including
his own experiences spent as a captive in an Austrian prison. Both travelogues emphasize the
importance of national identity in the struggle for independence and the historical events and
political institutions that made these efforts possible. Besides the contemporary press, the
works of these two authors highlighted the political and social efforts in Hungary that helped
pave the way for the favorable evaluation of the Hungarian War of Independence and the
warm reception of Hungarian political refugees in Britain and the United States in the
following years.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Márta Pellérdi is Associate Professor at the Institute of English and American Studies,
Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest. She holds an M.A. in history and a Ph. D. in
American Literature from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. She has published studies on the works of mainly 19 th and 20th-century English, American and Irish authors (R.L.Stevenson, Washington Irving, V. Nabokov, George Moore) in various international journals and edited volumes. Her recent interests include travel writing and British-Hungarian historical and cultural relations.
John Paget: Magyarország és Erdély, Rubicon Intézet, 2022. Ford. Rakovszky Zsuzsa, Czintos Emese, Szabó Dániel, Pellérdi Márta (Accepted)
Type of Abstract (select): Book PresentationAbstract (max. 250 words):
John Paget: Magyarország és Erdély, Rubicon Intézet, 2022. Ford. Rakovszky Zsuzsa,
Czintos Emese, Szabó Dániel, Pellérdi Márta
John Paget nagysikerű, 1839-ben kiadott könyvét (Hungary and Transylvania: With remarks
on their Condition, Social, Political, and Economical), végre teljes fordításban kaphatja
kezébe az olvasó. Bár már két magyar kiadást is megélt a könyv (1987, 2011), eddig csak
részleteket fordítottak le a teljes műből, többnyire politikai okokból kifolyólag. A 2022
augusztusában megjelent, gazdag illusztrációkkal díszített kiadás azonban már a teljes
fordítást tartalmazza. A könyvismertetetés röviden kitér azokra az okokra, amelyek miatt a
teljes kiadás szerkesztői okokból majdnem kétszáz évig váratott magára, és azokra az okokra
is, amelyek miatt ma is érdemes olvasni John Paget nagyformátumú művét.
The complete translation of John Paget’s popular travel narrative Hungary and Transylvania:
With remarks on their Condition, Social, Political, and Economical (1839) is finally available
in its entirety for Hungarian readers. Although the book was published twice in Hungarian in
the past (in 1987, 2011), there were political reasons behind the editorial cuts of the previous
translations. The recent 2022 edition by Rubicon Institute, however, is not only richly
illustrated, but it offers a complete translation to Hungarian readers. The book presentation
briefly explains the reasons why the complete edition was delayed for almost two hundred
years and why John Paget's significant work is still worth reading today.
Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Márta Pellérdi is Associate Professor at the Institute of English and American Studies,
Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Budapest. She holds an M.A. in history and a Ph. D. in
American Literature from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. She has published studies on the works of mainly 19 th and 20th-century English, American and Irish authors (R.L.Stevenson, Washington Irving, V. Nabokov, George Moore) in various international journals and edited volumes. Her recent interests include travel writing and British-Hungarian historical and cultural relations.