Imre Madách

Imre Madách de Sztregova et Kelecsény (20 January[1] 1823 – 5 October 1864) was a Hungarian aristocrat, writer, poet, lawyer and politician.

He took part in the Hungarian revolution of 1848–1849 and was imprisoned; on his return to his small estate in the county of Nógrád, he found that his family life had meanwhile been completely wrecked.

This only increased his natural tendency to melancholy, and he withdrew from public life till 1861, devoting his time mainly to the composition of his chief work, Az ember tragédiája ("The Tragedy of Man").

The tragic events of the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1848/49 in addition to the deaths of close family members such as his sister and her husband, captain Karl Balog de Mánko-Bük, and his temporary stay in prison fueled the emotional status in which he completed his work.

Madách, then a country nobleman with virtually no literary experience, sent the work to the poet Arany who enthusiastically encouraged him and suggested some emendations to the text.