The Epitome of the Urbane Mittel-European Writer

In his abbreviated life – he died in 1936 at the age of 51 – Dezso Kosztolányi epitomised the urbane Mittel-European writer. Like colleagues in Vienna and Berlin, he cultivated a persona of cosmopolitan sophistication, immersing himself in the cafe culture of Budapest and marrying an actress. He wrote everything: short stories, poetry (his 1910 collection, The Complaints of a Poor Little Child, caused a stir), novels, and journalism; he also translated works by Goethe, Shakespeare, Rilke and other masters. He was part of the so-called “first generation” of writers for Nyugat, a legendary literary journal through whose doors most of the major Hungarian writers from the first half of the 20th century would pass.

In a time of great political upheaval, Kosztolányi largely eschewed politics. In On Myself, a prose piece published in 1933, he proclaimed himself – nodding to the philosopher Jules de Gaultier – Homo aestheticus rather than Homo moralis – that is, someone who valued beauty over judgements of good versus evil. He found people who called themselves humanitarians to be sanctimonious, narrow minded, and hypocritical. . . .

The culmination of this aesthetic may be Kornél Esti, a novel republished in the US and UK by New Directions. The book is a series of episodes – some high-concept vignettes, some fully drawn stories – about the titular character, a doppelganger for the author. While the writer stays at home, Esti gallivants around the world piling up debts, seducing women and generally making a mess of things – but not without having a good time. Eventually, at the age of 40, having rejected Esti years earlier (the two were, in a fashion, childhood friends), the author returns to his double and begs forgiveness. He asks Esti to collaborate on a book that would draw on the doppelganger’s outrageous life experiences. Esti agrees, but only on the condition that the book is a series of “fragments” – he’s tired of traditional novels with their obvious heroes.

Full review in The National.

The book is Kornel Esti by Deszö Kosztolányi, available next week from New Directions.

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