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WORKS OF MAURUS JOKAI
HUNGARIAN EDITION
THE DAY OF WRATH
_Translated from the Hungarian_
_By_
R. NISBET BAIN
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NEW YORKDOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGEI. THE BIRD OF ILL-OMEN 11II. THE HEADSMAN'S FAMILY 18III. A CHILDISH MALEFACTOR 44IV. A DIVINE VISITATION 56V. THE UNBELOVED SON 62VI. TWO FAMOUS PAEDAGOGUES 71VII. A MAN OF IRON 93VIII. THE POLISH WOMAN 121IX. THE PLAGUE 175X. A LEADER OF THE PEOPLE 189XI. THE FIRST SPARK 210XII. IN THE MIDST OF THE FIRE 236XIII. THE LEATHER-BELL 25OXIV. THE SENTENCE OF DEATH 264XV. OIL UPON THE WATERS 277XVI. 'TIS WELL THAT THE NIGHT IS BLACK 291XVII. THE VOICE OF THE LORD 326XVIII. THE READY-DUG GRAVES 336
PREFACE.
"Szomoru Napok" was written in the darkest days of Maurus Jokai's life,and reflects the depression of a naturally generous and sanguine naturebowed down, for a time, beneath an almost unendurable load of unmeritedmisfortune. The story was written shortly after the collapse of theMagyar Revolution of 1848-49, when Hungary lay crushed and bleedingunder the heel of triumphant Austria and her Russian ally; when,deprived of all her ancient political rights and liberties, she had beenhanded over to the domination of the stranger, and saw her best andnoblest sons either voluntary exiles, or suspected rebels under policesurveillance. Jokai also was in the category of the proscribed. He hadplayed a conspicuous part in the Revolution; he had served his countrywith both pen and sword; and, now that the bloody struggle was over, andthe last Honved army had surrendered to the Russians, Jokai,disillusioned and broken-hearted, was left to piece together again asbest he might, the shattered fragments of a ruined career.
No wonder, then, if to the author of "Szomoru Napok," the whole worldseemed out of joint. The book itself is, primarily, a tale of suffering,crime, and punishment; but it is also a bitter satire on the cryingabuses and anomalies due to the semi-feudal condition of things whichhad prevailed in Hungary for centuries, the reformation and correctionof which had been the chief mission of the Liberal Party in Hungary towhich Jokai belonged. The brutal ignorance of the common people, thecriminal neglect of the gentry which made such ignorance possible, theimbecility of mere mob-rule, and the mischievousness of demagogicpedantry--these are the objects of the author's satiric lash.
As literature, despite the occasional crudities and extravagances of atoo exuberant genius that has yet to learn self-restraint, "SzomoruNapok" stands very high. It is animated by a fine, contagiousindignation, and its vividly terrible episodes, which appal while theyfascinate the reader, seem to be written in characters of blood andfire. The descriptions of the plague-stricken land and the conflagrationof the headsman's house must be numbered among the finest passages thathave ever flowed from Jokai's pen. But the mild, idyllic strain, socharacteristic of Jokai, who is nothing if not romantic, runs throughthe sombre and lurid tableau like a bright silver thread, and the_denouement_, in which all enmities are reconciled, all evil-doers arepunished, and Gentleness and Heroism receive their retributive crowns,is a singularly happy one.
Moreover, in "Szomoru Napok" will be found some of Jokai's most originalcharacters, notably, the ludicrous, if infinitely mischievous, politicalcrotcheteer, "Numa Pompilius;" the drunken cantor, Michael Korde, whosegrotesque adventure in the dog-kennel is a true _Fantasiestueck a laCallot_; the infra-human Mekipiros; the half-crazy Leather-bell; andthat fine, soldierly type, General Vertessy.
R. NISBET BAIN.
_October_, 1900.