HERCZEG, FERENC

born Sept. 22, 1863, Versecz, Hung. died Feb. 24, 1954, Budapest novelist and playwright, the leading literary exponent of conservative-nationalist opinion in early 20th-century Hungary. Herczeg was born into a well-to-do family of German origin. Although he studied law, he chose a literary career, which was successful from the publication of his first novel in 1890. In 1895 he founded j Idok ("New Times"), which remained for half a century the literary magazine of the conservative upper and middle classes of Hungary. His light novels of manners contained just enough irony, humour, and social criticism to cause a harmless shock to the conservative public for whom they were intended and for whom this criticism was a novel experience. The best example of this type is A Gyurkovics lnyok (1893; "The Gyurkovics Girls"), in which a clever mother marries off her seven daughters. In his later, more serious novels, Herczeg often used historical settings, the most successful being Az let kapuja (1919; "The Gates of Life"), set in Renaissance Italy. His social comedies, such as A hrom testor (1894; "The Three Bodyguards") and Kk rka (1917; "The Blue Fox Stole"), are amusing and skillfully written. Biznc (1904; "Byzantium") and A hd (1925; "The Bridge") are notable historical dramas.