Historical Hungarian Historical Novels

The eleven hundred year history of Hungary provides a rich source of material for historical novels — and Hungary has produced some very fine novelists.

T. László Palotás has prepared readable and faithful English translations of five well known Hungarian historical novels: two by Géza Gárdonyi first published in 1899 and 1901, and three by Mór Jókai first published in 1852 and 1854 during his early writing period immediately after the Hungarian revolution of 1848.

Books by Géza Gárdonyi

The Stars of Eger (1899)

Géza Gárdonyi (1863-1922) was a Hungarian writer and journalist whose greatest success as a historical novelist was with Egri csillagok (The Stars of Eger), first published in 1899 and one of the most widely read books in the Hungarian language. It is a novel about the successful Hungarian defense of Eger against the Ottoman siege of 1552.

The story of the siege itself is woven around the near contemporary chronicles of Sebestyén “Lantos” (Lutenist) Tinódi, a Hungarian troubadour who, in the months after the Ottoman retreat, interviewed the defenders and gathered their stories. The captain of the Hungarian defenders was István Dobó (1502-1572) and Tinódi became well acquainted with the captain after the siege when Dobó was appointed a voivode (governor) of Transylvania.

In 1991, Corvina Books, a publisher in Budapest, published an English translation of Egri csillagok by George Cushing entitled Eclipse of the Crescent Moon. If one compares that translation with the original Hungarian, one can find much gloss and some inaccuracies, which is why a more faithful translation is merited.

Hidden among the Huns (1901)

Gárdonyi regarded his next historical novel, Láthatatlan ember (“Invisible Person” or Hidden among the Huns) originally published in 1901, as his greatest work. It is the story of a fictional Greek boy nicknamed Zeta who accompanies the 449 A.D. Byzantine delegation sent by Emperor Theodosius II to the court of Attila, the king of the Hun empire.

Zeta becomes infatuated with a Hun girl, becomes a slave of the Huns, and joins the army of King Attila that invades Gaul in 451 and fights in the Battle of Catalunian Fields against the last great Roman general, Aëtius, and his Visigoth allies.

We know about the Byzantine delegation from surviving fragments of the eyewitness accounts of the rhetorician Priscus that provide the rare description of Attila and his court.

Zeta's unrequited love may very well reflect Gárdonyi's own personal life.

Over the centuries, Western historians assumed the truth of the contemporary and near-contemporary view of the Romans and Byzantine Greeks: that the Huns were an ignorant, violent and savage people. Hungarians view Attila and the Huns as kindred folk to their own Magyar ancestors, and Gárdonyi offers a balanced and fascinating description of life among the Huns.

Books by Mór Jókai

Mór (Maurice) Jókai (1825-1904) was a Hungarian nobleman, novelist, dramatist, and a prolific writer of hundreds of volumes. English translations of Jókai's romantic novels were popular in Victorian England and one of his most famous fans and admirers was Queen Victoria herself.

The Golden Age in Transylvania (1852)

The events in Jókai's historical novel Erdély aranykora (The Golden Age in Transylvania), first published in 1852, take place in Transylvania in the years 1661-1674, a time when its precarious existence hung in the balance of power between two empires, the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Holy Roman Empire, a time when its princes schemed with other European powers to win the thrones of Hungary and Poland. 

The Turkish World in Hungary (1853)

Originally published in three volumes in Pest, 1853, under the title Török világ Magyarországon (The Turkish World in Hungary), this historical novel follows the struggle of the Principality of Transylvania to maintain its independence from the Ottoman and Habsburg Empires. 

Jókai, the master story-teller, shares history and culture of 17th century Transylvania, with historical and fictional Szeklers, Saxons, Vlachs, Hungarians, and Turks together with bandits, superstitions, harems, Ottoman pashas and viziers, rustic characters, and heroism. The Turkish World in Hungary is also a romantic novel with plenty of passion, intrigue, and betrayal; a swashbuckler with duels and battles; and a comedy with ribald humor and subtle satire.

The Last Days of the Janissaries, The White Rose (1854)

A fehér rózsa (The White Rose) and Janicsárok végna (The Last Days of the Janissaries) are two related works that were published as a single work in 1854. Since then they have been published separately as two short novels — until now. 

The White Rose (Patrona Halil and the End of the Ottoman Tulip Period) is a modern translation of Jókai's historical novel about the janissary and Istanbul mob revolt of 1730 led by Patrona Halil which deposed Sultan Ahmed III and brought about the end of the Ottoman Tulip Period.
 
The Last Days of the Janissaries (Ali Tepelena, the Lion of Janina and the Auspicious Incident) takes place a century later when the janissaries again rioted in response to Sultan Mahmud II efforts to modernize the Ottoman military. The 1826 insurrection was violently suppressed and the Janissary Corps disbanded in what is known as the Auspicious Incident.

The Janissaries novel is woven together with the story of one of history's best known Oriental despots, Ali Pasha Tepelena (1740-1822), the Lion of Janina. 

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All translations by T. László Palotás are available at the Amazon bookstore.