The Day of Wrath

The Day of Wrath

"Szomor Napok" was written in the darkest days of Maurus Jkai's life, and reflects the depression of a naturally generous and sanguine nature bowed down, for a time, beneath an almost unendurable load of unmerited misfortune. The story was written shortly after the collapse of the Magyar Revolution of 1848-49, when Hungary lay crushed and bleeding under the heel of triumphant Austria and her Russian ally; when, deprived of all her ancient political rights and liberties, she had been handed over to the domination of the stranger, and saw her best and noblest sons either voluntary exiles, or suspected rebels under police surveillance. Jkai also was in the category of the proscribed. He had played a conspicuous part in the Revolution; he had served his country with both pen and sword; and, now that the bloody struggle was over, and the last Honved army had surrendered to the Russians, Jkai, [Pg 8]disillusioned and broken-hearted, was left to piece together again as best he might, the shattered fragments of a ruined career. No wonder, then, if to the author of "Szomor Napok," the whole world seemed out of joint. The book itself is, primarily, a tale of suffering, crime, and punishment; but it is also a bitter satire on the crying abuses and anomalies due to the semi-feudal condition of things which had prevailed in Hungary for centuries, the reformation and correction of which had been the chief mission of the Liberal Party in Hungary to which Jkai belonged. The brutal ignorance of the common people, the criminal neglect of the gentry which made such ignorance possible, the imbecility of mere mob-rule, and the mischievousness of demagogic pedantrythese are the objects of the author's satiric lash. As literature, despite the occasional crudities and extravagances of a too exuberant genius that has yet to learn self-restraint, "Szomor Napok" stands very high. It is animated by a fine, contagious indignation, and its vividly terrible episodes, which appal while they fascinate the reader, seem to be written in characters of blood and fire. The descriptions of the plague-stricken land and the conflagration of the headsman's house must be numbered among the finest passages that have ever flowed from Jkai's pen. But the mild, idyllic strain, so characteristic of Jkai, who is nothing if not romantic, runs through the sombre and lurid tableau like a bright silver thread, and the [Pg 9]dnouement, in which all enmities are reconciled, all evil-doers are punished, and Gentleness and Heroism receive their retributive crowns, is a singularly happy one. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 23608
Author: Jókai, Mór
Release Date: Nov 24, 2007
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Bain, R. Nisbet (Robert Nisbet), 1854-1909