A History of Hungarian Literature/Chapter 13
XIII
THE NOVEL
The history of the Hungarian novel resembles, on a small scale, the history of the novel in general. Its first form was that of the heroic novel, a style that had flourished most in Europe during the reign of Louis XIV. Romances were full of the features most highly valued in that day, and were brought to the highest degree of refinement by Corneille and Racine, namely, courtesy and heroism. One of the representatives of this style in France was La Calprenède. He wrote novels of from eight to ten volumes in length, and the public read them eagerly. People then had more leisure for reading. One of his stories, Cassandra, was translated in 1784 by a Hungarian Lifeguard officer, Alexander Báróczy (1735–1809), a member of Bessenyei's circle. He had a curious personality. Though a faithful disciple of the matter-of-fact rationalism of Voltaire, he sacrificed much time and energy for an old superstition, the manufacture of gold. When he translated Cassandra, the language of Hungarian literature was still unpolished, and it seemed a bold idea to try to translate a book full of refined galanterie in its conversation, into a tongue so different in character. But Báróczy tried, and his success influenced the development of Hungarian prose for good. It must be borne in mind that Báróczy was a Transylvanian, and that in Transylvania there had been a Court life since TH E NOVEL the heginning of the seventeenth century, when there had heen no national Court in Hungary for ages. Báróczy made use of the language which he had heard in Transylvania, and was thus enabled to translate the n ovel as weil as he did. The sentimental novel was another phase in the evolu tion of the novel. Richardson, Rousseau and Goethe hecame world-farned for that kind of literature . The effect they produced has hardly ever been equalled. When Pamela was read aloud to a small circle of listeners in an English country town they set the church bells ringing wh en it became known that the beautifui and virtuous heroi ne was going to be married. When Napoleon went into exile, he left behind hím aU his power and his dreams of greatness, but he took with him Goethe's We rther. Fro m no Iess a distance than China, Goethe receíved a teacup with Werther and Lotte painted upon it, dressed in Chinese garments. In H ungarian literature the sentimental novel is best represented by JosEPH KÁRMÁN (1769- 1795) in his book entitled Fanny's Memoirs. It is a story of the gradual pining away of a pure and deli cate young girl. Her parents do not understand her. Her lover cannot be u nited with her, and she dies of grief. The cielicacy and refinement of the author's prose were a revelation. Kármán died at the early age of twenty-six. He was the editor of a magazine called Uránia. His wish was to create a literary centre and an organ for authors, and to provide the public with reading of universal i nterest. But his fate was that of so many pioneers, people did not understand him. Kazinczy also wrote a sentimental novel, in imitation of We rther, entitled The Sorrows of Bácsmegyei. 168 HUNGARIAN LITERATURE The third kind of novel, which became fashionable everywhere in Europe, incloding Hungary, was the novel of the Robinson Crusoe type. Readers in that age were fascinated by sea adventures and the marvels of tropical regions. General J OSEPH GVADÁNYI (1725- 1801) wrote a story in verse, called Ron tó Pál. His hero was the faithfui foIlower of the bold adven turer, Maurice Be nyovsky. The original of the story had lived a very adventura us life. He was a soldier in the Austrian army during the Seven Years War, but deserted, and joined the Prussians. The Austrians took him prisoner and resolved to execute him, but he obtained a pardon. Then he entered the service of Benyovsky, who afterwards became the king of Madagascar. Afte r passing through many adventures, Benyovsky was imprisoned by the Russians in 1770, and exiled to Kamchatka. He escaped, and after incredihle sufferings, and almost starving, he got on board a Freneh vessei which carried him to Macao. He soon left it, and went to France, where his wooderfui escapes created a great sensation, and Benyovsky became a íavourite at the Court of Louis XV. In 1773 Beuyovsky was sent to Madagascar to fou nd a Freneh colony. Some of the native races elected him their king. After some time, the king of Madagascar returned to Europe, and visited his native land, Hungary, wh ere he occupied hímself with great commercial plans. He was the first who urged that Hungary ought to aim at the possession of a sea-coast and to develop an overs ea trade vili Fiume. But he did not stay long at home ; his restiess disposition drove him to become agai n what he always had been, an adventurer. He left Hungary, spent some time in Englan d, and at length found his death in the same land where he had found a throne, Madagascar. He was killed by a THE NOVEL 169 Freneh bullet. The events of his life are faithfully narrated in Rontó Pál. In the thirties of the nineteenth century two new kinds of novel became popular, which now surpass in importanée and permanence all the others. They are the social and the historical novel . By 183 2 the society of the capital had begun to organise itself, and the first social novel appeared in that year. The author of The Bélteky Fa mil)' was ANDREW FÁY (1784- 1861). This story gave expression to the same ideas of progress, and of a great and prosperous future, with which Széchenyi was inflaming the souls of men. The old, inactive H ungarian nohles are contrasted with the new generation of workers, toiling at the foundations of Hun gary's future greatness. Andrew Fáy was equally esteemed as a mao and as an author of didatic fables. He was a friend and fellow worker of Széchenyi. The historical novel sprang up almost simultaneously with the social novel. Its first exponent in Hungary was Baron NICHOLA S JóSIKA (1794-1865). Jósika wrote under the i nfluence of Sir Walter Scott. Like Scott, Jósika was boro amidst mountainous and romantic scenery, at Tonda, in Tra nsylva nia, and gained his in spiration from old castles and ancient family chronicles. He was a soldier, and fo ught, like Alexander Kisfaludy, in the wars agaiost Napoleon. On returning to Hungary he began to write novels. After th e revolution he was condemned to death, but the sentence was only executed in effigy, and he Iived in exile for some time in Brussels, and afterwards in Dresden, where he died. Scott was his first model, but later on, during the time of his exi le, he to some extent írnitated the Freneh writers . 170 HUNGARIAN LITERATU RE His first novel, Aba.ft, is perhaps the most important of his works. Its scene is laid in Transylvania in the six teenth century. We are shown the menta l development of a young nobleman, wh ose life is finally crowned with the bliss of an ideal love. Abafi lives a somewhat loose and frivolaus life, but one day he finds a littie child abaodoned in a wood, takes it into his care, and acts towards it as a father. The good deed gradually reacts upon his soul . He begins to reflect, to work and to cultivate his talents, and becames a distinguished man . His evol ution is aided by his love for a noble minded woman, and also by the tyranny of the ruler, which awakens his courage an d energy. Jósika's chief merit was that he revíved the past, although he was often superficial both in depicting character and the period. He was fertile in plots, and described a great number of historical figures and epochs. He took up, later, the soc ial novel as weil as the historical, but he wrote more than he ought to have written, in that respect also resembling Sir Walter Scott. Another novelist, who succeeded Jósika, wro te with far profaunder insight. This was Baron JOSEPH EőTvős (I8I3-I871). One day at the boys' high school in Buda, the head master adrnitted a littie boy of eleven to one of the classes and gave him a seat on the front bench. N o wonder, for the boy was the son of the distinguished and powerful Lord Treasurer, Baron Ignatius Eőtvős. But a curious thing happened. Directly the new boy sat down, the other boys ali stood up and left the bench. There was only one opportunist littie Jew who stayed on the same bench with bim, as though guided by a presentiment that his neighhour was one day to be the legistator who would introduce the Bill for Jewish emancipation. When the master demanded of the boys the reason of their conduct, they declared that they were not going to sit on the same bench with the grandson of the traitor to their country. The traitor, whose name was known and hated even by the children of the land, was the grandfather of Joseph Eőtvős, a man who had served the Court at the time when Francis, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, endeavoured to destroy the Hungarian Constitution, and refused to summon a Parliament. The provinces strove to defend the Constitution, and Eőtvős helped the Court against them. But the little boy whom his schoolfellows treated so badly did not lose heart. Once when lessons were over, he mounted the master's desk and in brave words vowed before all his companions that he himself would always be a good patriot and serve his country faithfully, and make them forget the unpopular sound of his name. And what the boy promised the man fulfilled.
Baron Joseph Eőtvős was one of the noblest figures in the world of Hungarian literature. He distinguished himself as a statesman, a novelist, a poet and a scientific writer. His literary activity, like his life, had an idealistic tendency. He was a man of reflection rather than of action, but his reflections were penetrated with feeling, and his logic was infused with warmth of heart. His personality presents the feature, so rare in authors, which is expressed in the words of Vauvenargues: Les grandes pensées viennent du cœur.
Though not primarily a man of action, Eőtvős was twice Minister of Public Instruction, in the first Hungarian ministry and in the Andrássy ministry of 1867. As a statesman he was chiefly a highly intellectual and theoretical initiator of reforms. It was he who first gave an impetus to prison reform in Hungary, where, as in other countries, the prisons were dens of cruelty, in which the criminals became still more degraded. He also demonstrated most convincingly the advisability of Jewish emancipation. For years he pressed upon the people the need for a responsible Government, and for the introduction of a parliamentary system like that of England, and he vigorously exposed the obsoleteness of the autonomous provincial system. He was the most fervent advocate of compulsory education. ln Deák's great task of reconciling Austria and Hungary, Eőtvős was his chief fellow-worker.
Wherever profound thought and sound judgment were needed the people looked to Eőtvős, although the actual carrying out of his plans usually fell into the bands of other men.
His first novel was The Carthusian (1838), a work full of sentimental and melancholy reflections.
While Eőtvős was travelling once in France he visited the Grande Chartreuse, the cloister of terrible silence, and met there a pale-faced young Carthusian to whom a beautiful and passionate woman had written letter after letter urging him not to take the vows. This incident provided Eőtvős with his subject. The Carthusian is a novel of the type of Chateaubriand's René, or Benjamin Constant's Adolphe, that is to say, of the kind of novel in which we see the mal de siècle at work. But the novel of Eőtvős has a strong moral foundation lacking in similar works. "It is only the selfish for whom life contains no consolation." That is the fundamental idea of the book, and the hero Gustave wins a gradual victory over egotism.
The story is written as though it were the diary of a monk of the Grande Chartreuse. The hero is a rich THE NOVEL I73 young Freneh count, who after experiencing much of the world's deception, · renounces the pleasures of life and becomes a Carthusian monk. The novel is real ly the story of his two loves, both of which arouse great emotions and bring great disappointments. Gustave loses his mother early, and thus the love for which he so greatly yearns is absent in his early years . At length he makes the acquaintance of a fellow student, Armand, to whom he becomes bound by a fervent and ideal friendship. Then Gustave faUs in love with a beautifui young widow named J ulia, and he is in the seventh beaven of rapture, with love and friendship shining upon him. But soon the sky darkens. Armand proves a false friend and a duel ensues, while J ulia is discovered to love another. Friend ship and love have proved hollow, and the disillusionment generates egotism. Gustave says : 11 J ust as we gradually prepare a person for the reception of bad news, that he may not be over whelmed by the weight of sudden sorrow, p rovidence also gradually opens to us the knowledge of the human heart, that we may learn to bear the hurden of our know ledge. First one man. deceives us, and the wound, how ever deep, heals in time and makes our heart harder. Then we learn to doubt men more and more ; we lose our cherished ideals, but we bear it because we place Iess and Iess confidence in men, and the wound made by deception becomes Iess keen. Then our friends abandon us, our lover proves false, and we dare not trust anybody. A dreadful experience ! Yet time, which has robbed us of so many treas ures, has taught us to retire into ourselves and thus, although we stand alon e, we can endure it because we have become selfish." 174 HUNGARIAN LITERATORE A new pang 1s added to Gustave' s sorrow. A society woman, out of revenge, spreads calumnies caneerning him, and the world believes them although he is inno cent. Disappointed and despairing, Gustave seeks con solation first in solitary studies, and afterwards in a disso lute life. Whilst walking with his frivolaus companions, Gustave sees a poor but remarkably bea utifui and virtuaus girl called Betty. One pf his companions remarks that although the girl is very poor, no one can Iure her from the paths of virtue. Gustave makes a bet of twenty thousand francs that he will make her his mistress. He becames aequainted with her, pretending to be a poor student, and wins her love. Gustave might now be very happy, but when Betty hears of the horrible wager she sees her happiness destroyed and fiies in despair. This stirs Gustave to the depths, he regards bimself as Betty's murderer, and then begins that process of develop ment which transforros th e seifish man into an unselfish one. He learns that his father, whom he thought so heartless, is still fond of bim. He receíves news telling bim that J ulia is very unhappy, and that his friend Armand, having abmdoned his life of frivolity, has gained peace of mind, and is living as a simple farmer. He sees Betty, who is dying. She tells bim that she was happy with bim, and is happy now sh e beholds him once again. Gustave sees that while he was seifish he could not but be unhappy, and that he has first fo und happiness in making others happy. f l Do not abandon hope," he says at last, fl and if the day should come when your heart is bruised by many painful experiences, and your strength seems exhausted as you tread the path th e end of which appears to recede in spite of ali your efforts, think of me, THE NOVEL 175 and the memory of my life may save your sou) from selfisb ness ; your dark days will cease ; the pain caused by the world will be eased by the love of your dcar ones, and the suffering caused by those you love will be for gotten amidst the approving smiles of the world. I t is only the selfisb for wh om life contains no consolation." The Carthusian is full of a noble fervour, but it is mani festly the work of a young author. The characters are fertile in fine sentiments and reflections ; but their actions are weak and purposeless. Eötvös' second novel, The Viliage Notary, was dis tinctly a novel with a purpose. It was really a vehement attack upon the autonomy of the provinces. In 1846, when Eötvös compteted the book, serfdom was not abol ished and each province was a littie kingdom in itself, its ruler, and sometimes its tyrant, being the jöispán or lord-Heutenant of the county. If he committed any unlawful action it was practicany impossible to resist it. Eötvös depicted the corruption an d stagn ation prevalent in the provinces with aU the warroth inspired by his in dignation. Deák, however, was right when, in speaking of this novel, he said : " On the title-pages of books treating of the ail ments of horses there is often pictured a horse suffering from ali possihle diseases and infirmities at one and the same time, but in reality such an unfortu nate animal does not exist. I t is the same with the pro vince presented to us in Eötvös' novel ; so miserable a p rovince does not exist." The kind of persecution to wh ich good men were sub jected is shown to us in the career of the hero, the viliage notary. A noble-minded and idealistic thinker, finding that his schemes of reform are not acceptable, abandons the struggle and seeks a humble sphere of activity as a 176 HUNGARIAN LITERATURE notary. More cruel still were the effects of corruption upon the peasants. Viola was a wel l-to-do peasant, a good man and perfectly happy with his family. But the provinciai magistrate took a fancy to his wife, and as she indignantly repelied his advances, he began to persecute the husband· Viola was taken prisoner, and although innocent, was condemned to be tlogged. Unable to endure this humilia tion and inj ustice, he tore bimself from the grasp of the constables, and in a frenzy of rage and despair, killed one . o f them, severely wounded another, and rushed away into the forest and became a highwayman. Thus does bad ad ministration ereatc Iawless men. Next to The Village Notary carne (in 1847) a historical novel : Hungary ill 1415. In this he used as a basis one of the most terrihle events of H ungary's past, the great peasan t revolution . The pope had prociai rned a crusade agai ost the Turks and eighty thousand Hungarian crusaders were assembled under the leadership of George Dósa. But suddenly the army (the cruciatcs or kurucz as they were called later) resolved not to march agaiost the Turks, but t o turn agaiost the nobles, and they proceeded to do so with very great cruelty. Ultimately, however, the nohles were victorious and they took a terrihle revenge. Forty thousand men were slaughtered. The leader, Dósa, was crowned with a diadem of red-hot iron, and th e rebel peasants were punished by the Ioss of their sole remain i ng right, that of moving freely fro m one town to another. Th is fatal revenge divided the nation into two classes, the privileged and unprivileged, for centuries. Eőtvős depicted that terrihle period with considerable historical truth, attained by arduous study. The story opens with the assembling of th e crusaders and closes with Dósa.' s cruel punishment. THE NOVEL 177 The social problem which engaged the thoughts of E6tvős while writing this novel, occupied his mind as a philosopher too. His best scientific treatise is, 41 The in fluence of the leading ideas of the nineteenth century upon the State. "• It is perhaps the most significant theoretical work in Hungarian . Aceording to Eötvös th e nineteenth century was characterised by three dominating ideas : liberty, e quality and nationality, which became powerful instincts in the natio ns. We accept them· as mental guides which demand our a llegiance, but when they seek to lead us in opposing directions they come into conflict with one another, and we see that we were wrong to trust in them. Eötvös pointed out that these three ideas were really incorilpatible, that they would destroy every edsting form of state life, and if either o f them could be entirely realised, the result wo uld not give satisfaction. For instance, equality is incansistent with liberty, for complete equality becomes communism, and communism is a form of despotism exercised in the name of th.e people, and consequently opposed to liberty. Th e idea of nationality again does not agree with that of equality, for the spirit of nationality aims at the supremacy of one nation over another, a spirit which is an tagonistic to the notion of perfect equality. There is an impassable gulf between these ideas and their realisation. Wh at then can be done ? Only his coneiuding ideas can be mentioned. Th e state, he th inks, merely ren ders secure to each individual his material or írnmaterial possessions, but is not concerned with providing for his needs. The state is, in short, the individual's safeguard.
- I851. Tran&lated into German. 178
HUNGARIAN LITERAT DRE A state enj oys the right degree of freedom when the central power is duly balan eed with local auton omy. Th is proper distribution of power is the best preservatíve both agaiost revolution and against despotism. The stronger the state the better does it bear local self government and free association. We see that although Eötvös lived before Mill, his ideas were very simitar to those of that great philosopher. In his conclusions as to the reforms that were desirable, Eötvös, like Montesquieu, drew his examples from England. Eötvös excel led in his funeral orations, surpassing in that respect eve n Kölcsey, whom he acknowleged as his odel. His orations reveal a poetica! nature and dis play one of his characteristic literary methods, that of explaining or illuminating Hungarian history by allusions to events in the history of other European nations. The book entitled Thouglt t s, containing several bundred aphoristic utterances of a highly cultured and deeply religious mind, is of great value. One characteristic thought is that the heart is a better guide than reason. In the chapter on Style he says that a great ship floats as lightly as a cork. Buoyancy is due not to want of weight, but to proportion and a proper disposition of parts . Eőtvős wrote a few lyrical poems, but he was not a sufficiently great master of language for us to count bim among the best lyric poets. His finest poem is the Farewell • to his country : Land of the brave, my country dear, fayewell l Good-by to valleys deep, to mountains high 1 únd of my hopes and wheYe my soyyows dwell, I leave thee now-FaYewell l Good-by l Good-by 1
- Lozw's " Magyar Poetry. " T HE NOVEL
And if, my dea,r land, I return to the1, Mty thy sons through thy bounds continted be.
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Quiet now reigns upon the Rákos plain, Too long the Magyar silent is, alas l The fathers' traces jade away and wane, The winds spread over tkem fresh sand tJnd grtJSs ,· Silent expands the field l Our trembling heart And silent tear prociaim how great thou art. And Buda must in sorrow now complain, No more does she of fame and glory boast ; A graveyard of the land she must remain, Reminding us of all my country lost. Time long bejore destroyed her ancient fort, Her crumbling stones heroic deeds report. And ancient Mohács stands, and higher grows The wkeat upon ker fields, the grass more greett ; Their roots spring from the dust of dead heroes Whose blood the inigating dew has been•. . No stone shows w/Jere the patriats were slain, The silent field doth fill our heart with pain . So long as on the Danube's silver /ace A Magyar's eye will gaze, upon her brink Will live one of the sturdy Magyar race, So long our hearts witk sorrow's pang shall sittk . Pray , tell me, Danube old, that floweth kere, Art thou a stream ? Art thou my country's tear 1 I love thee in thy kallo wed, silent grief, Unbounded is my love, dear land, for thee l Thou art my keart's most cherisked fond belief, Tkough stricken down with woe and misery. Cheer up l The future holds thy hope supreme, Soon to dawn o'er thee in a golden gl eam. And now, good-by 1 Farewell, tkou blessed spot ; Farewell, forever fare thee weil l I go l Whether again 'twill be my blissfui lot To Sle thee ha,ppy-Well, who is't ctJn know 1 179 180 HUN GARIAN LITERATURE Anll if, my tlur ltntl, I r1tum lo thu, Throughout thy bountls may thy sons blSsétl b1. Eőtvős was entitled to say of bimself that his life was spent in endeavouring to realise his ideas. In his poem, !Ily Will, h e says : "If my name is to survive, may. it be made memorable by no marble monument, but by the triumph of my ideas." But it is to be feared that the reverse has happened ; he has obtained a statue on the banks of the Danube , but his idealistic and humanitarian ideas have n o t yet triumphed. SIGISMUND KEMÉNY (1814-I 877) was a contemporary of Eőtvős, and only one year youn ger than he, but he commenced his activity as a writer several years later. He too was a novel ist, an advocate of the parliamen tary system, and one of Deák's fellaw workers. There was something ponderau s and camplex in his whole pers on cllity, but he had the great and promisi ng quality of always going to first principles. He, like Nicholas Jósika, was horn in Transylvan ia. It is a curious fact that although hedidnotintend to became a doctor, but determined to be a writer, he took up the s t udy of medicine. He wished to know both the bodies and minds of men. He carne in time to play an i mportant political part, and edited Deák' s organ, the Pesti Napló. Towa rds the end of his life his mind became somewhat unhinged. He did not always recognise his frinds, and would sometimes sit m otionless for hours, murm uring to bimself the sad truth : 11 H ungarian politics are a difficult business. " Kemény's best works arc his historical novels. The chief feature of his activity as a writer was that he first amongst Hungarians e mployed the analytical method THE NOVEL I8I of Balzac. He con sidered the psych ological analysis of his characters the most important part of his work, and always strove to discover the mental process which led a n individual to decide upon a certain action. In depicting love, he shows in each particutar case what part is played by interest, sensuality, vanity, by the instinct of imitation, by the imagination and the mocie of life. His desire was to penetrate to the depths of the greatest of mysteries, the human soul. Even in his historical novels it is no mere o u tward pictu re of the age wh ich he presents to us ; it was not the daring adventures and multi-coloured events which attractell him most, as was the case with Jósika, but the inner man, and the ruling passions of the time. His guidi ng principle was that we cannot under stand an epo ch until we enter into the mental world of the people who Iived in it. In one of his novels, The Enthusiasts, he gives the psych ology o f rel igiaus enthusiasm and sect formation. The enthusiasts were the Sabbatarians, whose follo wers may still be found in Transylvania, the o riginal home of the sect. Th ey receíved their name b e cause, Iike the Jews, they kept Saturday i n stead of Sunday as their Sabbath. The action falls within the seventeenth century. One of the heroes is a Sabbatarian minister. A powerful n obleman, Kassai , the ChanceHor of the Rege nt, George Rákóczy, wishes to use this mi nister as a tool for the destruction of his adve rsary , Simon Pécsi, the leader of the Sabbatarians. The minister cannot co nsent to be so used, but unfortunately he was originally a serf who had fled from his master, and as Kassai knows this, the minister's life, and the fate of his young wife, are in his bands. Mental strain deprives the poor fellow of his 178 HUNGARIAN LITERATURE A state enjoys the right degree of freedom when the central power is duly balanced with local autonomy. This proper distribution of power is the best preservative both against revolution and against despotism. The stronger the state the better does it bear local self- government and free association. We see that although Eötvös lived before Mill, his ideas were very similar to those of that great philosopher. In his conclusions as to the reforms that were desirable, Eötvös, like Montesquieu, drew his examples from England. Eőtvős excelled in his funeral orations, surpassing in that respect even Kölcsey, whom he acknowleged as his model. His orations reveal a poetical nature and dis- play one of his characteristic literary methods, that of explaining or illuminating Hungarian history by allusions to events in the history of other European nations. The book entitled Thoughts, containing several hundred aphoristic utterances of a highly cultured and deeply religious mind, is of great value. One characteristic thought is that the heart is a better guide than In the chapter on Style he says that a great ship reason. floats as lightly as a cork. Buoyancy is due not to want of weight, but to proportion and a proper disposition of parts. Eőtvős wrote a few lyrical poems, but he was not a sufficiently great master of language for us to count him among the best lyric poets. His finest poem is the Farewell * to his country : Land of the brave, my country dear, farewell ! Good-by to valleys deep, to mountains high ! Land of my hopes and where my sorrows dwell, I leave thee now-Farewell ! Good-by ! Good-by! LOEW's " Magyar Poetry." Digitized by Microsoft ® THE NOVEL Fate appeared to him to be terrihle indeed. It was not their c rimes alone which hurl ed men into disaster, but sometimes even their virtues whe n not wi sely directed. In his first novel , Gyttlai Pál, Kemény also dealt · with a tragica l event. Sigismund Báthory, the Rege nt of Transylvania , had a powerful foe in his relative Balthazar, whose grow ing popularity more and more threatened the Regent's throne. But Báthory had a faithfui subj ect named Paul Gyulai, who desired to save the Regent lest his heloved master sh ould die either in prison or on the scaffold. To save his master from Balthazar, Gyulai invented a curious scheme. He caused an Italian comedian named Senno, whom he believed to be closely associated with Balthazar, to be assassinated, in the hope that the spirit of revenge might prompt Balthazar to re taliate by some act of violence which would lead to his own destruction. Balthazar, however, took no such step, and Senno's wife, whom Gyulai l oved passionately, became the mis tress of the Rege nt and persuaded him to execute Gyulai. The woman he loved begged for his death from the very man for w hom Gyulai had sacrificed his honour and committed a crime. Kemény airned at depth in his writing. Perh aps that is why he is often heavy. He does not narrate lightly and agreeably. He penetrates too far into th e depths from which spring our happiness and unhappiness and ali that gives life val ue-the depths of the human heart. MAURUS JÓKAI (I825-IC)04) was the most popular of H unga rian novelists. At his fu neral some one said : " If all the persons whom he has called to life in his novels 184 HUNGARIAN LITERATURE were to appear-Hungarian peasants, knights of the Middl e Ages, great magnates, honvéds, beggars, Roman senators, Greek sailors, Indian mah araj ahs, Turkish jani zaries, nomadic Arabs and English lords, Assyrian kings and Christian martyrs and modern stockbrokers, negr oes, Russians, Armenians and Gipsies-the multitude would line the streets for more than a mile." The man wh o made all these variaus characters live, began his activity as a writer in the time of Petőfi. and Arany, though he was younger than they. He was a student wh en he first met Petőfi and the two became firm friends. After the defeat at Világos the sentence of death hung over him and for some time he had to live i n hiding. His flight was aided by Kossuth's secretary, who hired a carriage and horses, dressed hímself as a coachman, and drove Jókai through the Russian camp. For months Jókai and his wife lived in seclusion amongst the wooded hills. After the revolution he settied in Budapest as an author and editor, and from 1861 was a member of Parl iament. I n 1 863 an article appearcd in his paper, in consequence of which he was summaned before the military court and sentenccd to a year's rigoraus imprisonment in chains. His treatment in prison was n ot severe, however, in spite of the terms of his sentence, and after a month he was liberated. Jókai's popularity became unbounded, and at his jubilee, among other presents he receíved from the nation a gift of 2oo,ooo korona, or about J;S,ooo . His first wife was a very celebrated H unga rian actress, and twelve years after her death he married a young woman wh o for a time was also an actress. He was a friend of the Crown Prince Rudolf, who died while still a young man . THE NOVEL Jókai's most stri king talent lay in his wanderfui power of invention. He wrote several bu ndred Ionger or shorter stories, but in every one he surprises us with a fresh plot and new ideas, so inexhaustible was his inven tiveness. His mao ner of telling a story is fascinating. His narra tive runs so easily and interestingly that every incident is readily gras ped. His style reminds us of the best novelists of th e Latin nati ons, though it has many purely Hungarian features. We may say that just as Petőfi's poems were an exalted form of the folk-song, so J ókai's staries were a glorification of the anecdote. This accounts for his sparkling vivacity and fluency, but also for his superficiality. The amiable character of Jókai's genius was enhanced by his humour, which was not so subtie as Kemény's nor so bitter as Thackeray' s, but gay and agreeable, and created a pleasant atmosphere. His inventiveness was aided by a vivid imaginatio n which coloured every plot and incident with marvellaus richness. W e may almost say that there has not been a more brilliant narrator since the time of the ArabiatJ Nigh ts . But with his great qualities Jókai had one defect. Though a great novelist, curiously enough he had no real knowledge of human nature. He could not look into men's hearts, and his characterisation was often psycho logicaily false. He al ways tried to discover something surprising and interesti ng, and to this end he frequently altered the character of his actors in an improbable w ay. His best novels are those in which he painted the Hungary of his day. One of the finest is The New La1downer. This is a delightful and amusing picture of 186 HUNGARIAN LITERATDRE Hungary during the u Bach Era," that period of absolu tism folla wing upon the revolution, dUI·ing which Bach the Austrian prime minister endeavoured to germanise Hungary. The hero of the tale is an Austrian gen eral wh o buys an estate in Hungary and begins farming, not very successfully at first, as he has brought with him Austrian methods and babits wh ich are unsuitable to the Hungarian soil and temper. But in course of time he grows fond of the country and ultimately devel ops into a full-blooded Hungarian. ln effecting this great trans forrnation a part is played by the circumstance that one of his t wo daughters lies buried in Hungarian soil and the other becames the wife of a brave Hungarian gentle man. The idea embodied in the novel was suggested to Jókai by the history of the Austrian general Haynau. This man, u the hyena of Brescia," after faliing in to disgrace, went to live in Hungary and bought estates there, and could not hel p feeling more and more respect and sympathy for the people agaiost wh om he had acted i n such a dastardly way during the revolution. Many different periods are equally well ch aracterised by J ókai in other nove ls. In A Hungarirm Na bob he depicts the times immediately before the advent of Széchenyi, showing the aristocratic class in alJ its indolen ce and haughtiness, firmly entrenched behind its privileges. Th e ge neration that followed, living about the year 183 0, awakened and electrified by Széch enyi and yearning for progress, is shown in Zoltán Kárpáti. The gloria u s and feverish times of th e revolution form the background of several of Jókai's works, for instance, The Baron's Sons, Political Fashions, and Battle Pictures. His historical novels do not reach the height of the works just men tioned, for Jókai did not possess in any THE NOVEL eminent degree the gift of making the past live again. His power of imagination is conspicuously displayed in Th e NOfJel of the Coming Centtry, in which, amongst many other incidents, he describes a battle in the sky between airships. Jókai once described his method of working, and said : ti When I am writing a novel I try to be my characters, to live in them, whether murderer, traitor, voluptuary, or miser ; I try to make their feelings my feelings, so that I myself suffer, or despair, or am impelled by the inward promptings of the avenger..•• ti At such a time, even the visit" of my best friend is unwelcome, because it may be that he finds me in a tyrannical or an angry mood, or perhaps I am sentimental and tearful, or else in raptures. ti The door opens, and the state of mind which I have worked up is destroyed and I have to begin over again, for I can do nothing until I have warmed to my subject. I do not mean that no one can write in any other manner. It is possihle to write with a cold heart, care fuily calculating prob abil ities, but the work itself will suffer. It may be correct enough, but what I desire is that my readers shall feel the same warmth that I felt when writing. 11 I never sit whi le warking out my plot but always walk up and down. First I plan the whole long novel in my bead, down even to the smallest details of the dialogue, but not including the descriptive parts. At such a time, imagination takes the place of memory, for I do not store up the details in my memory, but the course of events appears to unroll itself before me so that I seem to be describing what I actually see and could dictate the wh ole 188 HUNGARIAN LITERATURE straight away. But I do not like dictating ; white I am at work I do not wish to see a. human face. When I sit down to write I am able to do as much as sixteen printed pages at one sitting, and sometimes even twice that number, with out the need for any corrections, even so much as a single word. That imagination has taken the place of memory is shown by the fact that after a year l am able to read my own novel as if it were the work of another. l am quite ign orant of contents and very curious to know how my hero will get out of the scrape into which he has fallen . " If my characters have many faults it is because l do not see them clearly enough. If I regarded them and moulded them as an outsider might, perhaps they would stand more firmly upon their feet, but what about their wings ? Well, this fault of mine l shall never be able to mend. l am gro wing older but not wiser, so my readers must just take my characters as they have done these forty years. " l do not regard it as a merit that I have worked much, nor do I ask anything from the present or posterity on that acc ount. l do not even ask that people shall read my works. I wrote them in the first place for myself and found happiness in the work. This was my world, my life's secret, the gu ide upon my path, my comfort in adversity and my defence in danger ; it gave me hope for better times, resignation, and renewed strength for fresh efforts. AU this have I gained from my desk. It has restored to me my lost fortune, has helped me to repel the attacks of my enemies and encouraged m e to begin a new life. For forty years we two have been conversing tagether and we still have many thoughts to exchange. THE NOVEL " And now, ere l conclude, let me mention you, my most faithfui fellow-workers, my helpers and supporters, you, my heloved green trees, that l have planted or grown from seed, and proned and grafted, you, my companions, rising from earth towards the skies. You know how ofte n you have whispered to me, and how many thoughts you have showered down u pon me with your faliing blossoms. Many are the quiet refresh ing hours l have had amongst you, and many the dreams beneath the kindly shadow of your leaves. When tor·mented by my enemies you have sheltered me and allayed the agitation of my heart. If some day one sh ould come hither and inquire why itwas that l warked much more in summer than in winter, tell him that in the summer you were near me. "The secret of my fertility as a writer was communion with nature."