Imre Madách

Imre Madách de Sztregova et de Kelecsény was a Hungarian writer, poet, lawyer and politician. His major work is The Tragedy of Man (Az ember tragédiája, 1861). It is a dramatic poem approximately 4000 lines long, which elaborates on ideas comparable to Goethe's Faust. The author was encouraged and advised by János Arany, one of the most famous of 19th century Hungarian poets.

He was born in Alsósztregova, the Kingdom of Hungary (today Dolná Strehová, Slovakia) in 1823. The Madách family was able to trace their descent as far back as the 12th century; with a medieval knight, a Turk-beating hero and a Kuruc officer recorded down the line of the family tree. But a poet was also remembered; Gáspár Madách from the 17th century. And the ties of kindred could be traced to Miklós Zrínyi, the poet and soldier.

From 1829 Madách studied at the Piarist school of Vác. During a cholera epidemic he stayed in Buda in 1831. In 1837 he began his studies at the university of Pest. In 1842 he officially becomes a lawyer. In 1860 he finished working on the "The Tragedy of Man". He died in Alsósztregova, the Kingdom of Hungary in 1864.