profession but at twelve years of age the desire to write seized him.
Some of his stories fell into the hands of the lawyer in whose office he
was studying, who read them, and was so struck by their originality and
talent that he published them at once at his own expense. The public was
as well pleased with the book as the lawyer had been with the
manuscripts, and from that tender age to the present Jókai has devoted
himself to writing, and is the author of several hundred successful
volumes. At the age of twenty-three he laid down his pen long enough to
get married, his bride being Rosa Laborfalvi, the then leading Hungarian
actress. At the end of a year he joined the Revolutionists, and buckled
on the sword of the patriot. He was taken prisoner and sentenced to be
shot, when his bride appeared upon the scene with her pockets full of
the money she had made by the sale of her jewels, and, bribing the
guards, escaped with her husband into the birch woods, where they hid in
caves and slept on leaves, all the time in danger of their lives, until
they finally found their way to Buda-Pest and liberty. This city Jókai
has made his home; in the winter he lives in the heart of the town, in
the summer just far enough outside of it to have a house surrounded by
grounds, where he can sit out of doors in the shade of his own trees. He
is probably the best-known man in Hungary to-day, for he is not only an
author, but a financier, a statesman, and a journalist as well.




CONTENTS.


PART I.