NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO.
"Szegény Gazdagok" is, perhaps, the most widely known of all MaurusJókai's masterpieces. It was first published at Budapest, in 1860, infour volumes, and has been repeatedly translated into German, while goodSwedish, Danish, Dutch and Polish versions sufficiently testify to itspopularity on the Continent. Essentially a tale of incident andadventure, it is one of the best novels of that inexhaustible type withwhich I am acquainted. It possesses in an eminent degree the quality ofvividness which R. L. Stevenson prized so highly, and the ingenuity ofits plot, the dramatic force of its episodes, and the startlingunexpectedness of its dénouement are all in the Hungarian master'smost characteristic style. I know of no more stirring incident incontemporary fiction than the terrible wrestling match between strongJuon the goatherd and the supple bandit Fatia Negra in the presence oftwo trembling, defenceless women, who can do nothing but look on, thoughtheir fate depends upon the issue of the struggle,—and we must go backto the pages of that unsurpassed master of the weird and thrillingSheridan Le Fanu to find anything approaching the terror of poorHenrietta's awful midnight vigil in the deserted csárda upon thelonely heath when, at the very advent of her mysterious peril, shediscovers, to her horror, that her sole companion and guardian, thebrave old squire, cannot be aroused from his drugged slumbers.
There is naturally not so much scope for the display of Jókai's peculiarand delightful humour, in a novel of incident like the present tale asthere is in that fine novel of manners: "A Hungarian Nabob." Yet even in"Szegény Gazdagok," many of the minor characters (e.g., the parasiteMargari, the old miser Demetrius, the Hungarian Miggs, Clementina, thefrivolous Countess Kengyelesy), are not without a mild Dickensianflavour, while in that rugged but good-natured and chivalrous Nimrod,Mr. Gerzson, the Hungarian novelist has drawn to the life one of thefinest types we possess of the better sort of sporting Magyar squires.
Finally, this fascinating story possesses in an eminent degree the charmof freshness and novelty, a charm becoming rarer every year in theseglobe-trotting days, when the ubiquitous tourist boasts that he hasbeen everywhere and seen everything. Yet it may well be doubted whethereven he has penetrated to the heart of the wild, romantic, sylvanregions of the Wallachian and Transylvanian Alps, which is the theatreof the exploits of that prince of robber chieftains, the mighty andmysterious Fatia Negra, and the home of those picturesque Roumanianpeasants whom Jókai loves to depict and depicts so well.
R. NISBET BAIN.