Figuli, Margita (1909–1995) Works   hu sk

Biography

Margita Figuli (1909-), born in Vyšný Kubín, began with the short stories of Pokušenie (Temptation, 1937), their themes generally of love and the sensibilities of young women. Her novella-tale Tri gaštanové kone (Three Chestnut Horses, 1940), inspired by the upland region of the author's Orava home, depicts the victory of pure, honest commercial traveller Peter over ungoverned rich farmer and occasional horse smuggle Ján, who dies under the hooves of his tormented horse, so that Magdaléna, whose hand he had won, may be united with Peter. They go off together to their childhood country. The lyrical atmosphere is heightened by a symbolic trinity of chestnut horses, denoting beauty, fighting manliness and sensuality. Purity wins over evil in an enclosed fictional world with its own laws. Figuli went on to write a monumental biblical historical novel Babylon (1946), portraying the fall and disintegration of the glorious Chaldean empire to Persian conquest.