The Poor Plutocrats

The Poor Plutocrats

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Title: The Poor Plutocrats
Author: Maurus Jókai
Translator: R. Nisbet Bain
Release Date: June 27, 2006 [EBook #18705]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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WORKS OF MAURUS JÓKAI
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
"Szegény Gazdagok" is, perhaps, the most widely known of all Maurus
Jókai'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 dénouement 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 csárda 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 Jókai's peculiar

and delightful humour, in a novel of incident like the present tale as
there is in that fine novel of manners: "A Hungarian Nabob." Yet even
in "Szegény Gazdagok," many of the minor characters (e.g., the
parasite Margari, the old miser Demetrius, the Hungarian Miggs,
Clementina, the frivolous Countess Kengyelesy), are not without a mild
Dickensian flavour, while in that rugged but good-natured and
chivalrous Nimrod, Mr. Gerzson, the Hungarian novelist has drawn to
the life one of the finest types we possess of the better sort of sporting
Magyar squires.
Finally, this fascinating story possesses in an eminent degree the charm
of freshness and novelty, a charm becoming rarer every year in these
globe-trotting days, when the ubiquitous tourist boasts that he has been
everywhere and seen everything. Yet it may well be doubted whether
even he has penetrated to the heart of the wild, romantic, sylvan regions
of the Wallachian and Transylvanian Alps, which is the theatre of the
exploits of that prince of robber chieftains, the mighty and mysterious
Fatia Negra, and the home of those picturesque Roumanian peasants
whom Jókai loves to depict and depicts so well.
R. NISBET BAIN.

Contents
CHAPTER
I.
BOREDOM II. A NEW MODE OF DUELLING III. AN AMIABLE
MAN IV. CHILDISH NONSENSE V. SHE IS NOT FOR YOU VI.
BRINGING HOME THE BRIDE VII. THE CAVERN OF LUCSIA
VIII. STRONG JUON IX. THE GEINA MAID-MARKET X. THE
BLACK JEWELRY XI. TWO TALES, OF WHICH ONLY ONE IS
TRUE XII. THE SOIRÉES AT ARAD XIII. TIT FOR TAT XIV. THE
MIKALAI CSÁRDA XV. WHO IT WAS THAT RECOGNIZED
FATIA NEGRA XVI. LEANDER BABEROSSY XVII. MR.

MARGARI XVIII. THE UNDISCOVERABLE LADY XIX. THE
SHAKING HAND XX. THE FIGHT FOR THE GOLD XXI. THE
HUNTED BEAST XXII. THE SIGHT OF TERROR XXIII. THE
ACCOMMODATION XXIV. CONCLUSION

POOR PLUTOCRATS
CHAPTER I
BOREDOM
"Was it you who yawned so, Clementina?"
Nobody answered.
The questioner was an old gentleman in his eightieth year or so,
dressed in a splendid flowered silk Kaftan, with a woollen night-cap on
his head, warm cotton stockings on his feet, and diamond, turquoise,
and ruby rings on his fingers. He was reclining on an atlas ottoman, his
face was as wooden as a mummy's, a mere patch-work of wrinkles, he
had a dry, thin, pointed nose, shaggy, autumnal-yellow eyebrows, and
his large prominent black eyes protected by irritably sensitive eyelids,
lent little charm to his peculiar cast of countenance.
"Well! Will nobody answer? Who