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Contents

VOL. I.

Chapter I. Tempora mutantur, nos non mutamur in illis
Chapter II. Misfortune as a means of livelihood
Chapter III. The old soldier and his family
Chapter IV. Those who wished to eat one another
Chapter V. How a man gets his first swineherd's hat
Chapter VI. The bel esprit
Chapter VII. The other one
Chapter VIII. Revenge, after his own fashion
Notes

VOL. II.

Chapter I. The two prisoners
Chapter II. Various kinds of receptions
Chapter III. A certain unfortunate lady
Chapter IV. What they call the screw of Archimedes
Chapter V. The mound which binds us here
Chapter VI. The common trouble
Chapter VII. Those who had not met
Chapter VIII. The old house
Chapter IX. A curious case
Chapter X. A little joke in the cabinet noir
Chapter XI. When the bear comes out of his cave

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Preface

Of late years the attention of the English public has been several times called to Hungary and the Hungarians. Hence the following picture of Hungarian life, by one of themselves, may not be without interest for English readers. Such pictures are always more vivid and more instructive than accounts written ab extra by foreign observers.

Mr. Maurice Jókai, the author of the novel now presented to the English reader, is one of the most popular and most prolific prose writers of modern Hungary. Besides publishing several novels and a host of smaller tales, he is a veteran journalist, and has been for many years editor of a first-class daily newspaper, a Hon, "The Country," as well as of az Üstökös, "The Comet," which may be called the Hungarian Punch. In the present Diet he sits as representative of the electoral district of Sikl=s in the county of Baranya. I have selected Az uj földes úr for translation, as it depicts a very interesting period in the recent history of his country - that of the passive resistance made by the Hungarians to the anti-national domination of the Viennese Government, between the years 1849 and 1859. After perusing it, the reader will have some idea of the meaning of the statement, made by many Hungarians as a boast, by many of their opponents as a sneer, that it was their "barbarism" which enabled them to offer that passive resistance, which has at last been crowned with success. Of this barbarous opposition to the civilization proffered by a paternal Government, the swineherd's hat (Vol. I. ch. V.) was the symbol. The novel, it will be seen, is essentially a political one. Were it not so, it would be no faithful representation of the life of a people to whom politics are as the breath of their nostrils,- at once the serious occupation and the favourite pastime of every true Hungarian.

A few Notes have been inserted, to explain some points which, though perfectly intelligible to the Hungarian reader, would not be so to the English. The Translator alone is responsible for them. At the same time, it is as well to observe that the strange incidents in the second volume, relating to the inundation of the Theiss, are founded on fact. An Austrian official, bribed by the proprietors on the further side of the river, pierced the dam on the nearer side. To baffle inquiry in Hungary, they intended to transfer him to Gallicia, but he was killed, as related in the story, each of a pair of brothers accusing himself of the murder.

...

Although we are not told in so many words where the estate purchased by the " New Landlord " was situated, those who are acquainted with Hungarian topography will perceive that it lay somewhere to the southwest of Tokay and in the lower part of the counties of Borsod or Heves, of the former of which Miskolcz is the county-town.

It is hoped that these few preliminary observations will increase the reader's interest in the tale.

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