Baron Zsigmond Kemény was a Hungarian

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

 author.

Life and work

Kemény was born in Alvinc, Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

 to a distinguished noble family, but family feuds left him with little personal wealth. His early schooling in Nagyenyed gave him knowledge of English law

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, French law

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and German law

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, politics and culture. In 1837 he studied jurisprudence at Marosvásárhely

Târgu-Mures

Târgu Mureș is the seat of Mureș County in the north-central part of Romania. As of January 1, 2009 the city had a population of 145,151 inhabitants, making it the 16th most-populated city in Romania.-Names and etymology:...

 (present-day Târgu-Mureş, Romania), but soon devoted himself entirely to journalism and literature. His first unfinished work, On the Causes of the Disaster of Mohács (1840), attracted much attention. In the same year he studied natural history and anatomy at Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 University. In 1841, along with Lajos Kovács, he edited the Transylvania

Transylvania

Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...

n newspaper Erdélyi Híradó. He also took an active part in provincial politics and warmly supported the principles of Count István Széchenyi

István Széchenyi

Széchenyi committed suicide by a shot to his head on April 8, 1860. All Hungary mourned his death. The Academy was in official mourning, along with the most prominent persons of the leading political and cultural associations...

. In 1846 he moved to Pest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

, where his pamphlet, Korteskedés és ellenszerei ("Partisanship and its Antidote"), had already made him famous. In Pest

Budapest

Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

 he discovered others who shared his liberalism and desire for reformation, and for a time was on the staff of the Pesti Hirlap. The same year he brought out his first great novel, Gyulai Pál. His life-long interest in politics led to him becoming an outspoken public speaker, and in 1848 Kemény was elected a member of the revolutionary diet, promoting the idea of an independent Hungary. After a brief exile he accepted the amnesty and returned to Hungary. In 1857 he wrote his most famous novel: Özvegy és leánya ("The widow and her daughter").

Kemény's enthusiasm for Hungarian independence had waned, believing that the European balance of power would never accept an independent Hungary, and advocated a policy of reconciliation with Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. After the failure of Lajos Kossuth

Lajos Kossuth

Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Regent-President of Hungary in 1849. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in the United Kingdom and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe.-Family:Lajos...

's radical nationalist policies, Kemény claimed that these ideas did not best serve the Hungarian people. He proposed compromise with Austria and moderation in politics, in his two pamphlets, Forradalom után ("After the Revolution") and Még egy szó a forradalom után ("One word more after the Revolution"). This tactic only succeeded in making him unpopular.

He subsequently edited the newspaper Pesti Napló. In this paper Kemény promoted the Hungarian Passive Resistance

Passive Resistance (Hungary)

Passive Resistance is a name attributed to an era of Hungarian politics in the 19th century. It refers to a form of opposition to Austrian domination of Hungary...

 movement. He also published several political essays (e.g. "The Two Wesselényis", and "István Széchenyi"). During the 1860s Kemény took an active part in the political movement led by statesman Ferenc Deák

Ferenc Deák

Ferenc Deák de Kehida , , was a Hungarian statesman and Minister of Justice. He was known as "The Wise Man of the Nation".-Early life and law career:...

, whose right hand he continued to be, and popularized the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 that Deák helped bring about; however, later he denounced it. Kemény was elected to the diet of 1867 for one of the divisions of Pest, but took no part in the debates. The last years of his life were passed in seclusion in Transylvania.

Literary style

Kemény's political work should not overshadow his novels, which were remarkable for their lively dialogue, as well as their pessimistic outlook. His writing differed from his contemporaries in that his protagonists' fate was not directly linked to their moral standards. That is, the virtuous weren't unconditionally rewarded, and sometimes the wicked went unpunished. His characters were thwarted by everyday frustrations and minor carelessness; they are not struck by lightning, they are more likely to be consumed by a fire caused by a carelessly dropped match. The fine historical novel A rajongók ("The Fanatics") (Pest, 1858-1859) is generally regarded as his best.

Further reading

• Nogrady, L. Baron Sigismund Kemény's Life and Writings. (Budapest, 1902).
• Beksics, G. Sigismund Kemény, the Revolution and the Composition. (Budapest, 1888).