He was not yet 30 years old when his work, The Paul Street Boys, which made the greatest contribution to the author's fame, was published. Who among us does not know the Paul Street Boys?
Ferenc Molnar was born on January 12, 1878 in Budapest. He entered the Faculty of Law under the pressure of his family but started his career as a journalist.
He succeeded in making his name known with the articles he published as a journalist. He knew Budapest and its inhabitants so well that he chose subjects carefully and wrote them in a relaxed style.
Ferenc Molnar wrote his first novel at the age of 23. In this book, he described the life of petty-bourgeois with great irony.
The Paul Street Boys (Hungarian: A Pál utcai fiúk) is a youth novel by the Hungarian writer Ferenc Molnár, first published in 1906. The novel is about schoolboys in Józsefváros neighborhood of Budapest and is set in 1889. The Paul Street Boys spend their free time on the ground, an empty lot that they regard as their "Fatherland". The story has two main protagonists, János Boka (the honorable leader of the Paul Street Boys) and Ernő Nemecsek (the smallest member of the group).
A year after this first work, he managed to attract attention with the theater play Mr. Doctor.
He was not yet 30 years old when his work, The Paul Street Boys, which made the greatest contribution to the author's fame, was published.
It was translated into certain languages in Europe 2 years after it was published as a book in Budapest. The book went through 45 prints in Hungary. It was adapted for the big screen in 1968 and was nominated for an Oscar.
His plays began to be staged in many countries. His work, titled Liliom, was one of his great successes. It was staged in Vienna theaters.
He was a prolific writer who produced works in many fields. Ferenc Molnar's works are written in an easy style.
He began to travel constantly from 1920 onwards. He took refuge in Switzerland and America in the horrors of World War II, and wrote another book, although he fell into a severe depression during this period. Unable to find the life he was looking for, the writer became spiritually introverted and died in 1952 at the age of 74.
Details
Ferenc Molnar was born on January 12, 1878, in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. His name was Ferenc Neumann when he was born. Molnár got his name when he started working as a journalist. He was born into a middle-class family. Although he enrolled in law school under the pressure of his family, he started working as a journalist after graduating from university. He made a name for himself in a short time. He wrote articles in a unique and entertaining style. He knew Budapest and its inhabitants very well and conveyed the subject, which he handled carefully, to his readers in a very meticulous but comfortable style.
His first novel was published when he was 23 years old. Receiving the positive reaction of the critics) he described the contradictory life of the petty-bourgeois with irony. A year later, he drew attention with his work "Mr. Doctor", which he wrote for the theater. But he was not yet 30 years old when his greatest work, the famous “The Paul Street Boys” was published. The story of Nemecsek, Boka, Geréb és other children, which started to be serialized in a weekly children's magazine, aroused great interest immediately after the first episodes. After being published as a book in Budapest, it was translated into major European languages within two years. In Hungary, the book went through 45 prints. The film, shot by director Zoltán Fábri in 1968, was also nominated for an Oscar.
He achieved his first stage success abroad in 1907 with the play "The Devil" (Az ördög). Since 1908, they began to stage their plays in many countries. It became popular in theaters in Vienna and Berlin, as well as in Italy and the United States. However, the works that swayed the petty-bourgeois societies were criticized in many places. He achieved the greatest success with his work "Liliom". The play, which was staged in Budapest in 1909, was adapted to Vienna theaters in 1912. It was filmed by Fritz Lang in 1934. This film would later form the basis of the musical "Carousel" (Ferris wheel), which was staged on Broadway in 1945.
During World War I, he worked as a war correspondent on the Galician front. He later turned his memories here into a book. In the twenties and thirties, his works were loved by the readers. He has worked in many fields. Some of these were theatrical plays that shrewdly criticize the social structure based on the false values of the petty bourgeois. But he also wrote comedy as well as lyrical and symbolic works. According to the critics, his works were written in a very masterful but seemingly easy style, giving importance to dialogues, and in which an exciting phenomenon was hidden in the background.
Since the 1920s, he began to travel abroad frequently. He had rooms that he rented permanently in hotels in some cities of some countries. He was married three times. His first wife was the famous Hungarian painter Margit Vészi. The second is the stage star of the period, Sári Fedák. His last wife was the famous theater artist Lili Darvas. II. In the frightening atmosphere of World War II, he took refuge in Switzerland in 1939 and immigrated to the United States a year later in 1940. He fell into a deep depression in New York. But under those conditions, his work Panoptikum was staged.
Not finding the life and peace he sought there, Ferenc Molnár became spiritually withdrawn and died in 1952 at the age of 74.
His works are still enjoyed and staged in many countries of the world.