Chapter I: Preface

This noble novel, now translated into English for the first time, was written nearly fifty years ago. On its first appearance, Hungarian critics of every school at once hailed it as a masterpiece. It has maintained its popularity ever since; and now, despite the manifold mutations of literary fashion, in Hungary as elsewhere, has reached the unassailable position of a national classic.

It is no light task to attempt to transplant a classic like "Egy Magyar Nábob." National tastes differ infinitely, and then there is the formidable initial difficulty of contending with a strange and baffling non-aryan language. Only those few hardy linguists who have learnt, in the sweat of their brows, to read a meaning into that miracle of agglutinative ingenuity, an Hungarian sentence, will be able to appreciate the immense labour of rendering some four hundred pages of a Magyar masterpiece of peculiarly idiomatic difficulty into fairly readable English. But my profound admiration for the illustrious Hungarian romancer, and my intimate conviction that, of all continental novelists, he is most likely to appeal to healthy English taste, which has ever preferred the humorous and romantic story to the _Tendenz-Roman_, or novel with a purpose, have encouraged me to persevere to the end of my formidable task.

I may add, in conclusion, that I have taken the liberty to cut out a good third of the original work, and this I have done advisedly, having always been very strongly of opinion that the _technique_ of the original tale suffered from an excess of episode. This _embarras de richesse_ would naturally be still more noticeable in a translation, and I am particularly anxious that "A Hungarian Nabob" should attract at first sight. Let this, therefore, be my apology to Dr. Jókai and, as I trust, my claim upon his forgiveness.

R. NISBET BAIN. AUGUST, 1898.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER PAGE

I. AN ODDITY, 1822 9 II. A BARGAIN FOR THE SKIN OF A LIVING MAN 41 III. THE WHITSUN KING 58 IV. A FAMILY CURSE 89 V. THE TEMPTER IN CHURCH 116 VI. PAID IN FULL 132 VII. THE NABOB'S BIRTHDAY 153 VIII. AN UNEXPECTED CHANGE 186 IX. THE HUNTER IN THE SNARE 203 X. POOR LADY! 242 XI. THE FEMALE FRIEND 260 XII. THE HOUSE-WARMING 268 XIII. THE HUNT 274 XIV. MARTYRDOM 287 XV. THE SPY 294 XVI. LIGHT WITHOUT AND NIGHT WITHIN 301 XVII. A DANGEROUS EXPERIMENT 315 XVIII. UNPLEASANT DISCOVERIES 327 XIX. ZOLTÁN KÁRPÁTHY 332 XX. SECRET VISITORS 337 XXI. THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT 344 XXII. LEAVE-TAKING 356

A HUNGARIAN NABOB.