Hungarian Electronic Library 17,000!

2017/10/12

Recently the 17,000th volume, Virágfakadás (La vie en fleur; The Bloom of Life) by Anatole France was added to the Hungarian Electronic Library that has been collecting and providing for free a great variety of works for over twenty years.

Writings recalling the Nobel Prize winner French author’s juvenile memories were translated into Hungarian by Gyula Szini in 1921.

The volume was produced with the support of the Council of Hungarian Internet Providers, and published by the Hungarian Electronic Library Association.

We wish you a pleasant reading!

Preface of the “The Bloom of Life”

“HIS book is a sequel to Little Pierre, which appeared two years ago, and it brings my friend to the eve of his entry into the big world. These two volumes, whereto may be added My Friend's Book and Pierre Noziere, recount although some names are altered and some circumstances feigned the memories of my early years. How and why I came to employ disguise in presenting these faithful reminiscences to the world shall unfold at the end of my narrative, when the child that I once had been had grown so complete a stranger to me that I could find, in his company, distraction from my own.

My recollections follow one another haphazard, without order or connection. My memory is capricious. Madame de Caylus, when old and weighed down with care, lamented that her mind was not sufficiently free to allow her to dictate her autobiography. "Well," said her son, ready and willing to take up the pen for her, "we will call the book just 'Memories,' and you need not be bound down to any order of dates or any logical sequence of events." Alas, those who peruse the Memories of Little Pierre will not encounter Racine therein, nor Saint-Cyr, nor the Court of Louis XIV; nor will they discover the good style of Madame de Maintenon's niece; for the French language, so pure in her day, has greatly deteriorated since. Nevertheless, it is best to speak the speech of our fellows. The following pages are filled with little things portayed with great exactitude, and I am assured that, for all their slightness, these trifles, emanating from a true heart, may yet have power to please.”

(Translated into English by J. Lewis May in 1923)