A real life Sandor Petofi!

[Joeytrom]

I found this on Wikipedia:

1849 – Sándor Petőfi (26), Hungarian poet and liberal revolutionary, one of the key figures of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848. Petőfi was last seen in Transylvania during the Battle of Segesvár. Although there are many different theories and rumours about his supposed death or deportation to Siberia neither his body nor genuine records to support the theories were ever found.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_disappeared_mysteriously

[Gerard]

How much of a coincidence can that be?  I wouldn't be surprised if the writers didn't so some research to find appropriate names for characters and found this (and this was before wikipedia).  If, by chance, it isn't a coincidence, all the more kudos to them; after all, scrounging through old cemetaries to come up with the name "Barnabas" shows their determination.

Gerard

[DarkLady]

How cool is that--a poet and a patriot! I also recall that at one dramatic point, we hear a men's chorus singing a rousing gypsy chorus. I wonder where the writers found that too.

[Aristia]

So I've got to wonder - the little marks over the "o" in Petofi must indicate how it is pronounced.  Does it make it rhyme with "Sophie" or "toffee" ?

[Gothick]

According to Violet Welles in that one interview that was done with her, she created the character of Count Petofi.  She wrote him into a scene where Magda was explaining to Sandor about the curse she was going to lay on Quentin and how she had seen it done to Count Petofi. At a story conference, someone, maybe Dan, suggested making the character more of the story.

The name Rakosi also exists in history.  I have a vague memory of this having been an alias of the infamous Count Saint Germain (whose legend was most likely the real inspiration for Count Petofi on DS, and most likely via the celebrated film, The Queen of Spades), but Wikipedia has an entry on Matyas (Matthias) Rakosi, the "de facto ruler of communist Hungary," in the 1950s.
G.

G.

[tragic bat]

That's fascinating, I would love to see some of that backstory explored in Dark Shadows.

[dom]

So I've got to wonder - the little marks over the "o" in Petofi must indicate how it is pronounced.  Does it make it rhyme with "Sophie" or "toffee" ?

A o with a double acute accent, a letter of the Hungarian alphabet, representing a long ö.   

[MagnusTrask]

Since hearing about this person, it's always seemed to me that there's some sort of joke or wink of the eye involved in having both of Thayer David's 1897 characters named after him.   

[Josette]

How fascinating!  I looked it up.  I don't know the International Phonetic symbols too well, but their pronunciation shows the "o" as an o with a diagonal line through it.  So, if anyone knows what sound that refers to, that's the one!  (By the way, he was born "Petrovics")

I glanced through the article and a couple of lines I noticed were:

"Petőfi was more interested in the theater. In 1842 he joined a traveling theater, but had to leave it to earn money. He wrote for a newspaper, but could not make enough money. Malnourished and sick, he went to Debrecen, where his friends helped him get back on his feet.

In 1844 he walked from Debrecen to Pest to find a publisher for his poems and he succeeded. His poems were becoming increasingly popular. He relied on folkloric elements and popular, traditional song-like verses."