The Ballads of János Arany Illustrated by Mihály Zichy

This album presents 24 of János Arany’s ballads illustrated by Mihály Zichy (1827–1906). The legendary collection was first published by Mór Ráth in four volumes between 1895 and 1898 with the unique feature of the artist having inserted drawings also into the texts.

The ballads selected and illustrated by Zichy himself are now re-published in a facsimile edition as a single volume in co-operation between Kossuth Publishers, the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and National Széchényi Library. The ballads are the following: Romance of the Bee, The Bards of Wales, Mistress Agnes, Orphan Boy, The Girl from Eger, Bor the Hero, Chief Both’s Widow, Duel at Midnight, Prince Endre, Consecration of the Bridge, The Mother of King Matthias, Ladislaus V, Knight Pázmán, Rákóczi’s Wife, Rozgonyi’s Wife, Jank Szibinyáni, The Two Pages of Szondi, Annie with Golden Hair, Corn Husking, The Ordeal by the Bier, Bálint Török (with annotations), Feast Crashers, Beckie Scarlet, and Klara Zach. We recommend the album quoting the preface by Frigyes Riedl to the second edition of the Ballads: „However different the visions of the poet and the illustrator might be, it is a high pleasure for us admirers of art if it is a real artist who interprets the poet, and a great experience for us readers if a characteristic illustration completes the impression made by the poem.”