Kisfaludy left school at 16 to become a soldier and fought in the Napoleonic Wars. In 1811, while leading a precarious existence as a painter in Vienna, he tried his hand at a historical drama, A tatárok Magyarországon (“The Tartars in Hungary”). The play remained unknown until eight years later, when it was performed by a repertory company in a provincial town; they repeated their performance in Pest, making Kisfaludy famous overnight.

Among Kisfaludy's most important works are the tragedy Iréne (1820) and the comedy A kérők (1817; “The Suitors”). He stepped into the literary leadership left vacant by Ferenc Kazinczy's gradual withdrawal from his active career, and, in 1822, Kisfaludy began to publish his literary almanac, Aurora, which became the chief literary vehicle of the coming generation of Hungarian Romantics: József Bajza, Mihály Vörösmarty, and Ferenc Kölcsey.