E-text prepared by Steven desJardins
and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders
NEW YORK
DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
1891
This, the latest story from the pen of Hungary's great man of letters,Maurus Jókai, was translated directly from the manuscript of the authorby Mme. F. Steinitz, who resides in Buda-Pest, and was selected by himfor that purpose.
Maurus Jókai is now sixty-six years of age, having been born at Komaróm,in 1825. He was intended for the law, that having been his father'sprofession but at twelve years of age the desire to write seized him.Some of his stories fell into the hands of the lawyer in whose office hewas studying, who read them, and was so struck by their originality andtalent that he published them at once at his own expense. The public wasas well pleased with the book as the lawyer had been with themanuscripts, and from that tender age to the present Jókai has devotedhimself to writing, and is the author of several hundred successfulvolumes. At the age of twenty-three he laid down his pen long enough toget married, his bride being Rosa Laborfalvi, the then leading Hungarianactress. At the end of a year he joined the Revolutionists, and buckledon the sword of the patriot. He was taken prisoner and sentenced to beshot, when his bride appeared upon the scene with her pockets full ofthe money she had made by the sale of her jewels, and, bribing theguards, escaped with her husband into the birch woods, where they hid incaves and slept on leaves, all the time in danger of their lives, untilthey finally found their way to Buda-Pest and liberty. This city Jókaihas made his home; in the winter he lives in the heart of the town, inthe summer just far enough outside of it to have a house surrounded bygrounds, where he can sit out of doors in the shade of his own trees. Heis probably the best-known man in Hungary to-day, for he is not only anauthor, but a financier, a statesman, and a journalist as well.