"It took more than a year to write the book, but naturally it also contains all of the experiences I have gathered over the past twenty years in Budapest," says Dent, who is from Liverpool, but has lived in Budapest since 1986.
In the book, called Every Statue Tells a Story, "Dent casts a critical and often humorous eye at Budapest's many statues and public monuments, all of which, in their own different ways, speak volumes about Hungary's history and culture," his publisher says.
"I chose the broadest scope possible: I presented statues that are well known because of their central location, and totally unknown ones too," Dent says.
Dent says he has no favourite statue, but he does have favourite stories. One is about the statue of Lajos Kossuth that stands on Kossuth Square, in front of parliament. The original statue group, completed at the end of the 1920s, showed Kossuth flanked by the figures of Hungary's Age of Reform: István Széchenyi, Ferenc Deák and Lajos Batthyány. All of the figures were sculpted looking downward, because of the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. In the 1950s, the statues were removed (they can be seen in the Dombóvár Statue Park today) and replaced with ones that conformed to the rules of Socialist Realism: the new Kossuth had the same stance as a statue of Lenin, with arm outstretched, looking ahead, showing the way forward.
"This is the statue on which ministers and parties have laid wreathes every year since the fall of communism," Dent says, noting the irony.
In November 2008 the Budapest Municipality awarded Bob Dent a 'Budapestért' (For Budapest) Prize in recognition of his writings -- with their "interesting and unique approach" -- about the culture and history of Hungary and in particular Budapest.
Every Statue Tells a Story. Public Monuments in Budapest
Author: Bob Dent
Price: HUF 4,900
ISBN: 978 963 07 8750 5
Price: HUF 4,900
ISBN: 978 963 07 8750 5
Source: Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
