A Writer’s Ten Commandments

by Stephen Vizinczey

Gathers book reviews and essays about Balzac, Stendhal, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Mann, Kleist, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, Mailer, feminism, the mafia, and the Holocaust.

6 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 12, 2020

About the author

Hungarian author who studied under George Lukacs at the University of Budapest and graduated from the city's Academy of Theatre and Film Arts in 1956. Three of his plays were banned by the Hungarian Communist regime and in he took part in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. After a short stay in Italy, he ended up in Canada speaking only 50 words of English, and eventually taking Canadian citizenship. He learned English writing scripts for Canada's National Film Board and the CBC. He edited Canada's short-lived literary magazine, Exchange. In 1966 he moved to London and acquired British citizenship.

His best-known works are the novels 'In Praise of Older Women' (1965) and 'An Innocent Millionaire' (1983).

Vizinczey has also written two books of literary, philosophical and political essays: 'The Rules of Chaos' (1969) and 'Truth and Lies in Literature' (1985).