The volume enumerates remarkable characters who actively worked to lessen the distance between Hungary and Britain/USA in the 19-20th centuries: the reader meets the political persistence of Ferenc Pulszky and James Bryce, the humanitarian spirit of Florence Nightingale alongside Zsuzsanna Kossuth, together with Arthur J. Patterson’s rare responsiveness to Hungarian culture, as well as the diplomatic sensitivity of Owen O’Malley, and finally the unique philanthropic role played by the US millionaire Gladys Vanderbilt. Certainly, they operated in a world defined by geopolitical realities or, at times, by human frailty, which the present volume cannot disregard.
On another level, Distance Revisited is an homage to a different kind of gap-bridging – the journey from student to researcher. Five of the papers presented here are authored by Master of Arts students in English Studies at Károli University, many of whom have ventured beyond standard academic practice, engaging with serious, original inquiry.
Thus, the present volume is a dual narrative of connection, revisiting the spaces between Hungary and the great powers as well as the distance between an emerging student and a researcher.
