The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Poor Plutocrats, by Maurus Jokai

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Title: The Poor Plutocrats

Author: Maurus Jokai

Translator: R. Nisbet Bain

Release Date: June 27, 2006 [EBook #18705]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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WORKS OF MAURUS JOKAI

HUNGARIAN EDITION

THE POOR PLUTOCRATS

_Translated from the Hungarian_

_By_

R. NISBET BAIN

NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY DOUBLEDAY & McCLURE CO.

PREFACE

"Szegeny Gazdagok" is, perhaps, the most widely known of all Maurus
Jokai's masterpieces. It was first published at Budapest, in 1860, in
four volumes, and has been repeatedly translated into German, while good
Swedish, Danish, Dutch and Polish versions sufficiently testify to its
popularity on the Continent. Essentially a tale of incident and
adventure, it is one of the best novels of that inexhaustible type with
which I am acquainted. It possesses in an eminent degree the quality of
vividness which R. L. Stevenson prized so highly, and the ingenuity of
its plot, the dramatic force of its episodes, and the startling
unexpectedness of its _denouement_ are all in the Hungarian master's
most characteristic style. I know of no more stirring incident in
contemporary fiction than the terrible wrestling match between strong
Juon the goatherd and the supple bandit Fatia Negra in the presence of
two trembling, defenceless women, who can do nothing but look on, though
their fate depends upon the issue of the struggle,--and we must go back
to the pages of that unsurpassed master of the weird and thrilling
Sheridan Le Fanu to find anything approaching the terror of poor
Henrietta's awful midnight vigil in the deserted _csarda_ upon the
lonely heath when, at the very advent of her mysterious peril, she
discovers, to her horror, that her sole companion and guardian, the
brave old squire, cannot be aroused from his drugged slumbers.

There is naturally not so much scope for the display of Jokai's peculiar
and delightful humour, in