Mór Jókai Explained

Mór Jókai
Birth Date:1825 2, df=yes
Birth Place:Komárom, Kingdom of Hungary, Austrian Empire (now Komárno, Slovakia)
Death Place:Budapest, Austria-Hungary
Resting Place:Kerepesi Cemetery
Occupation:author
Notableworks:The Man with the Golden Touch (Az aranyember)
The Heartless Man's Sons (A kőszívű ember fiai)
Language:Hungarian
Movement:Neo-romanticism
Spouse:Róza Laborfalvi (1848–1886)
Bella Nagy (1899–1904)

Móricz Jókay of Ásva in Hungarian pronounced as /ˈmoːr ˈjoːkɒi/ (18 February 1825 – 5 May 1904), known as Mór Jókai, was a Hungarian novelist, dramatist and revolutionary. Outside of Hungary, he was also known as Maurice Jókai or Maurus Jokai or Mauritius Jókai.[1] He was a leader of the outbreak of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 in Pest. His romantic novels became widely popular among the elite of Victorian England, where he was often compared to Charles Dickens by the press.[2] [3] One of his most famous admirers was Queen Victoria herself.[4]

Early life

He was born in Komárom in the Kingdom of Hungary to József Jókai of Ásva (1781–1837), a member of the Ásva branch of the ancient Jókay noble family; his mother was noblewoman Mária Pulay (1790–1856). As a boy, he was timid and his health delicate, so he was educated at home until the age of ten, when he was sent to Pozsony (today Bratislava, Slovakia). He then attended the Calvinist college of Pápa, where he first met Sándor Petőfi and Sándor Kozma.

When Jókai was twelve, his father died. His family wanted him to become a lawyer like his father had been, and he completed his education in Kecskemét and Pest to that end. He won his first case as an independent lawyer.

Career

Jókai was bored by his work as a lawyer, and he was encouraged in his art by the praise the Hungarian Academy of Sciences gave his first play . In 1845, he moved to Pest where Petőfi introduced him to literary circles. Within the year his first noted novel was published as a serial by , followed by a hardcover edition in 1846. It was received with widespread critical acclaim. The following year, Jókai was appointed the editor of , the then-leading Hungarian literary magazine, and gathered a circle of young writers around himself.

At the outbreak of the revolution of 1848, Jókai was enthusiastic about its nationalist cause. Before the revolution, he had been a moderate liberal who opposed excesses, but the nationalist victories of April and May 1849 persuaded him support Lajos Kossuth's deposition of the then-reigning House of Habsburg. When the revolutionary war ended in defeat, he was present at the surrender at Világos (today Şiria, Romania) in August 1849. He intended to commit suicide to avoid imprisonment, but his wife, Róza Laborfalvi helped him escape on foot through Russian lines to Pest.

For the next fourteen years Jókai was politically suspicious to the regime. He devoted himself to the rehabilitation of the Hungarian language, writing thirty novels and volumes of tales, essays, and literary criticism. His renowned works Erdély aranykora ('The Golden Age of Transylvania'), its sequel Török világ Magyarországon ('The Turks in Hungary'), Egy magyar nábob ('A Hungarian Nabob'), its sequel Kárpáthy Zoltán, Janicsárok végnapjai ('The Last Days of the Janissaries'), and Szomorú napok ('Sad Days') were written during this time.

After the re-establishment of the Hungarian constitution by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, Jókai took an active part in politics. He was a long-time supporter of Kálmán Tisza's administration, sitting for over twenty years in parliament and founding the government paper in 1863. In 1897, King Francis Joseph appointed him a member of the Upper House. In 1899, he caused a country-wide scandal by marrying Bella Nagy, a twenty-year-old actress.

Jókai died in Budapest on 5 May 1904. He was buried with his first wife (who had died in 1886) in the Fiume Road Graveyard.

Writings

Jókai was an extremely prolific writer, especially after 1870. He devoted most of his time to literature. Among the finest of his later works are Az arany ember ('A Man of Gold', translated into English under the title The Man with the Golden Touch), the most popular A kőszívű ember fiai (The Heartless Man's Sons), the heroic chronicle of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, and A tengerszemű hölgy (Eyes like the Sea), the latter of which won the Hungarian Academy's prize in 1890.

His Jövő század regénye (Novel of the Next Century, 1872) is an important early work of science fiction, though the term did not yet exist at the time.[5] In spite of its romantic elements, this monumental two-volume novel includes some acute observations and foresights, such as the prediction of a revolution in Russia and the establishment of a totalitarian state there, or the arrival of aviation. Because it could be read as a satirical allegory on Leninism and Stalinism, the book was tacitly banned in Hungary in the decades of Socialism (only a 'Critical Edition' was published in 1981.)[6]

His writings became a major influence in the works of Gyula Krudy.

Collected editions

Collections of his works:

Works

Translated into English

Collections of short stories

Novels

Other English Editions

Not translated into English

Selected filmography

Honors

Three stamps were issued by Hungary in his honor, all on 1 February 1925.[7]

References

Sources

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Mauritius Jókai: De duabus salicibus enyediensibus .
  2. Book: Charles Hebbert. Norm Longley. Dan Richardson. Rough Guide. Hungary. Rough Guides. 2002. 212. 9781858289175.
  3. Book: University of London. School of Slavonic and East European Studies. University of London. The Slavonic and East European Review, Voluma 8. Jonathan Cape. 1929. 359.
  4. Book: Lóránt Czigány. The Oxford history of Hungarian literature from the earliest times to the present. Clarendon Press. 1984. 222. 9780198157816.
  5. http://www.editoreric.com/greatlit/lit-SciFi.html The Greatest Literature of All Time – Science Fiction
  6. Web site: A jövő század regénye · Jókai Mór · Könyv. 23 March 2019 .
  7. Web site: Hungary : Stamps [Year: 1925] [1/2].

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mór Jókai".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.