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EOTVOS, JOZSEF, BARON (1813–1871)
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See also:EOTVOS, JOZSEF, See also:BARON (1813–1871) , Hungarian writer and statesman, the son of Baron Ignacz Eotvos and the baroness Lilian, was See also:born at Buda on the 13th of See also:September 1813. After an excellent See also:education he entered the See also:civil service as a See also:vice-See also:notary, and was See also:early introduced to See also:political See also:life by his See also:father. He also spent many years in western See also:Europe, assimilating the new ideas both See also:literary and political, and making the acquaintance of the leaders of the Romantic school. On his return to See also:Hungary he wrote his first political See also:work, See also:Prison Reform; and at the See also:diet of 1839–1840 he made a See also:great impression by his eloquence and learning. One of his first speeches (published, with additional See also:matter, in 1841) warmly advocated Jewish emancipation. Subsequently, in the columns of the Pesti Hirlap, Eotvos disseminated his progressive ideas farther afield, his standpoint being that the necessary reforms could only be carried out administratively by a responsible and purely See also:national See also:government. The same sentiments pervade his novel The See also:Village Notary (1844–1846), one of the See also:classics of the Magyar literature, as well as in the less notable See also:romance Hungary in 1514, and the See also:comedy See also:Long live Equality! In 1842 he married See also:Anna Rosty, but his happy domestic life did ndt interfere with his public career. He was now generally regarded as one of the leading writers and politicians of Hungary, while the See also:charm of his See also:oratory was such that, whenever the See also:archduke See also:palatine See also:Joseph desired to have a full attendance in the See also:House of Magnates, he called upon Eotvos to address it. The See also:February revolution of 1848 was the See also:complete See also:triumph of Eotvos' ideas, and he held the See also:portfolio of public See also:worship and instruction in the first responsible Hungarian See also:ministry. But his See also:influence extended far beyond his own See also:department. Eotvos, See also:Deak and See also:Szechenyi represented the pacific, moderating influence in the See also:council of ministers, but when the premier, See also:Batthyany, resigned, Eotvos, in despair, retired for a See also:time to See also:Munich. Yet, though withdrawn from the tempests of the See also:War of See also:Independence, he continued to serve his See also:country with his See also:pen. His Influence of the Ruling Ideas of the 191h See also:Century on the See also:State (Pest, 1851–1854, See also:German See also:editions at See also:Vienna and See also:Leipzig the same See also:year) profoundly influenced literature and public See also:opinion in Hungary. On his return See also:borne, in 1851, he kept resolutely aloof from all political movements. In 1859 he published The Guarantees of the See also:Power and Unity of See also:Austria (Ger. ed. Leipzig, same year), in which he tried to arrive at a See also:compromise between See also:personal See also:union and ministerial responsibility on the one See also:hand and centralization on the other. After the See also:Italian war, however, such a halting-See also:place was regarded as in-adequate by the See also:majority of the nation. In the diet of 1861 Eotvos was one of the most loyal followers of Deak, and his speech in favour of the " Address " (see DEAK, See also:FRANCIS) made a great impression at Vienna. The enforced See also:calm which prevailed during the next few years enabled him to devote himself once more to literature, and, in 1866, he was elected See also:president of the Hungarian See also:academy. In the diets of 1865 and 1867 he fought zealously by the See also:side of Deak, with whose policy he now completely associated himself. On the formation of the See also:Andrassy See also:cabinet (Feb. 1867) he once more accepted the portfolio of public worship and education, being the only one of the ministers of 1848 who thus returned to See also:office. He had now, at last, the opportunity of realizing the ideals of a lifetime. That very year the diet passed his See also:bill for the emancipation of the See also:Jews; though his further efforts in the direction of religious See also:liberty were less successful, owing to the opposition of the Catholics. But his greatest achievement was the National See also:Schools See also:Act, the most complete See also:system of education provided for Hungary since the days of Maria See also:Theresa. See also:Good See also:Catholic though he was (in matters of See also:religion he had been the friend and was the See also:disciple of See also:Montalembert), Eotvos looked with disfavour on the See also:dogma of papal See also:infallibility, promulgated in 187o, and when the See also:bishop of Fehervar proclaimed it, Eotvos cited him to appear at the See also:capital ad audiendum ver bum See also:regium. He was a See also:constant defender of the See also:composition with Austria (Ausgleich), and during the See also:absence of Andrassy used to preside over the council of ministers; but the labours of the last few years were too much for his failing See also:health, and he died at Pest on the 2nd of February 1871. On the 3rd of May 1879 a statue was erected to him at Pest in the square which bears his name. -Eotvos occupied as prominent a place in Hungarian literature as in Hungarian politics. His peculiarity, both as a politician and as a statesman, lies in the fact that he was a true philosopher, a philosopher at See also:heart as well as in theory; and in his poems and novels he clothed in See also:artistic forms all the great ideas for which he contended in social and political life. The best of his verses are to be found in his See also:ballads, but his poems are insignificant compared with his romances. It was The Carihusians, written on the occasion of the floods at Pest in 1838, that first took the public by See also:storm. The Magyar novel was then in its See also:infancy, being chiefly represented by the historico-epics of J6sika. Eotvos first modernized it, ' giving prominence in his pages to current social problems and political aspirations. The famous Village Notary came still nearer to actual life, while Hungary in 1514, in which the terrible See also:Dozsa See also:Jacquerie (see Dozsa) is so vividly described, is especially interesting because it rightly attributes the great national See also:catastrophe of See also:Mohacs to the See also:blind selfishness of the Magyar See also:nobility and the intense sufferings of the See also:people. Yet, as already stated, all these books are written with a moral purpose, and their somewhat involved and difficult See also:style is, nowadays at any See also:rate, a trial to those who are acquainted with the easy, brilliant and lively novels of J6kai. The best edition of Eotvos' collected See also:works is that of 1891, in 17 vols. Comparatively few of his writings have been translated, but there are a good See also:English version (See also:London, 1850) and numerous German versions of The Village Notary, while The Emancipation of the Jews has been translated into Italian and German (Pest, 1841-1842), and a German See also:translation of Hungary in 1514, under the See also:title of Per Bauernkrieg in Ungarn was published at Pest in 1850, See A. See also:Ban, Life and See also:Art of Baron Joseph Eotvos (Hung.) (Buda-pest, 1902) ; Zoltan Ferenezi Baron Joseph Eotvos (Hung.) (Buda-pest, 1903) [this is the best See also:biography]; and M. Berkovics, Baron Joseph Eotvos See also:anu the See also:French Literature (Hung.) (See also:Budapest, 1904). (R. N. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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