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A masterpiece of twentieth-century Hungarian fiction, Kosztolányi's
Skylark is a classic portrait of provincial life in the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Set in the autumn of 1899, it focuses on one extraordinary week in the otherwise uneventful lives of an elderly Hungarian couple. Their ugly spinster daughter, nicknamed Skylark, has left them for an unprecedented holiday with relatives in the country. At first, the couple, whose entire existence revolves around their daughter, are devastated by her absence. Slowly, however, they rediscover the delights and diversions of small-town life, finally reaching the shocking conclusion that their daughter is a burden to them.
In this beautifully written tale Kosztolányi turns family sentiment on its head with an irony that is as telling now as it was nearly seventy years ago.
About the author
Dezso Kosztolányi (1885-1936) first made his name as a poet, but turned his attention to the novel after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy in 1918. Much of his prose is concerned with the life and legacy of that unique Central European state. His first novel,
Nero, the Bloody Poet (1922) won him the admiration of Thomas Mann. This and Kosztolányi's last finished novel,
Anna Édes (1926), are also available in English translation
