Mór Jókai

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Mór Jókai, lithograph by Adolf Dauthage (around 1880)
Mór Jókai (before 1905)

Mór Jókai von Ásva [ ˈmoːr ˈjoːkɒi ], baptized as Jókay Móricz , various bibliographical synonyms (born February 18, 1825 in Komárom (German Komorn ), Austrian Empire ; † May 5, 1904 in Budapest , Austria-Hungary ) was a Hungarian writer and journalist. He was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Life

Maurus ( Hungarian Mór) Jókai was born as the son of the lawyer and small landowner József Jókai and his wife Maria geb. Pulay was born in Komorn. Two days later, on February 20, 1825, he was baptized in the Reformed Church of Komorn.

An ancestor - namely Sámuel Jókay († 1690) - was the hero of the family; he fought valiantly in the battle of Gran during the reconquest of Esztergom from the Turks and was therefore raised to the hereditary nobility by Emperor Leopold I.

Maurus Jókai attended elementary school in his hometown of Komorn. He spent the years 1835–37 as an exchange student in what was then predominantly German-speaking Pressburg to learn the German language. In 1841 he enrolled in the Reformed College of Pápa , where he met the 19-year-old Sándor Petőfi . Between 1842 and 1844 he studied law in Kecskemét ; here he also wrote his first works. In 1846 he received his lawyer diploma. After the publication of his first novel Hétköznapok - with which he had a huge success - he decided to work as a professional writer.

In the revolutionary year of 1848, he and Petőfi headed the "Peter Youth" and was co-author of the twelve-point program, which included the demands of the revolutionary youth. During this time he also met his future wife, the eight years older actress Róza Laborfalvi , whom he married on August 29, 1848 that same year. This connection was rejected not only by his family, but also by his friend Sándor Petőfi and led to a falling out with Petőfi.

After the battle of Világos and the suppression of the revolution in August 1849, Jókai was initially forced to go underground for a few months. He first hid in the village of Tardona in the Bükk Mountains. His wife, who was a prominent actress at the time, managed to get a “letter of protection” for Jókai, which protected him from reprisals by the authorities and at the same time enabled him to return to Pest in 1850 .

In Pest he began to work intensively as a writer; a number of works with a historical background emerged that made him the most popular Hungarian author in a very short time. Because of his involvement in the revolution of 1848, he was given permission to work as an editor very late. From 1858 he was the editor of the satire and joke sheet Üstökös ("The Comet"), in which he also wrote under the pseudonym Kakas Márton (Martin Hahn).

Memorial plaque for Mór Jókai in Rijeka, Croatia

Jókai mainly wrote historical novels that reflect his own romanticism and mostly deal with topics from older or more recent Hungarian history. Through his utopian novels he is considered an important precursor of Hungarian science fiction . His captivatingly written works have not only been read in Hungary, but have also been translated into many foreign languages ​​and - since they are almost timeless - are constantly being reprinted in the present. Empress Elisabeth was an avid reader of his books, which she read in the Hungarian original language. The books were usually given to the Empress personally by the author - with a dedication.

Jókai dedicated his life to the Hungarian language and literature. In 1860 he became a member of the Kisfaludy Society . Jókai was considered a liberal Hungarian patriot . His most productive time was the decade after the Austro-Hungarian equalization .

In 1884 Jókai met Crown Prince Rudolf through Archduke Joseph . Rudolf, a friend of the sciences, intended to publish a multi-volume monograph on Austria-Hungary, which posterity referred to as the " Crown Prince's Work ". The monograph was to appear as a German and a Hungarian edition. As a friendly relationship developed between Jókai and Rudolf that lasted until Rudolf's death, Rudolf commissioned the writer to edit the Hungarian edition.

In 1897 Jókai became a member of the Hungarian Diet .

The death of his wife on November 20, 1886 meant a severe blow of fate for the aging writer. In the first time after her death, Jókai was lovingly cared for by his wife's granddaughter, the painter Róza Jókai, whom he had adopted as a “foster daughter”.

In the spring of 1897 an eighteen-year-old woman named Bella Nagy introduced herself to the now nationally famous writer and asked him for protection in arranging an acting class, since she would like to become an actress. The now 72-year-old Jókai, who had the necessary contacts, made this wish possible. He was so taken with the girl that he fell head over heels in love with her. The affection went so far that he married Bella Nagy on September 16, 1899 in the Budapest " Theresienstadt ", which caused a social scandal. The relationship with his foster daughter Róza Jókai and her husband Árpád Feszty - after all, the couple had taken great care of the aging writer after the death of their first wife - deteriorated to such an extent that Jókai unceremoniously left his foster daughter, probably on the advice (and in favor of) of Bella Nagy, disinherited what started a year-long dispute over the copyrights of Jókai's works. This event had a very negative impact on public opinion and to the disadvantage of Jókai.

In the following years, Jókai and his second wife made numerous expensive trips at home and abroad ( Nice , Abbázia ). On May 28, 1900 they visited the World Exhibition in Paris together . From 1903 onwards all was quiet about the aging writer; he showed himself less often in public, most of the time he spent either in his villa in Balatonfüred or in his house on the Swabian Mountains (ung. Sváb-hegy) in Budapest.

Mór Jókai died in Budapest on May 4, 1904 at the age of 79. His grave is in the Kerepesi temető cemetery in Budapest.

Works (selection)

  • The White Rose. Historical novel from the time of the Janissary uprising in 1730 . ( Halil Patrona , no year), German 1854. - Full text online .
  • A Hungarian nabob ( Egy magyar nábob , 1854), German 1856. - Full text online: Volume 1 , Volume 2 , Volume 3 , Volume 4/4 .
  • The Baradlays ( A kőszívű ember fiai , 1869)
  • Ein Goldmensch ( Az arany ember , 1872), German 1873
  • One stabbed the wasp's nest ( Rab Ráby , 1879)
  • The unfortunate weathercock . Stories ( Válogatott Elbeszélések I – III , 1904)
  • To the North Pole. A classic science fiction novel . First as Up to the North Pole, or What happened to the Tegetthoff next? ( Egész az északi polusig! Vagy: mi lett tovább a Tegetthoffal? ) Appeared in 25 issues of the magazine Az Üstökös from January 2 to June 19, 1875, in German in 26 issues from January 3 to July 22, 1875 in Pest Lloyd
- also under the title Twenty Thousand Years Under the Ice , ( Illustrierte Weltall-Bibliothek Vol. 1, Karlsruhe and Leipzig 1914)
- and travel back in time. A fantastic polar trip. , Zurich 1957
  • The two Trenck ( A két Trenk , 1907)
  • The little kings. Roman ( A kiskirályok )
  • The last days of the Janissaries. Roman ( Janicsárok végnapjai , 1854)
  • The black mask ( Szegény gazdagok , 1860)
  • The white woman from Löcse. Novel about Hungary around 1710 ( A lőcsei fehér asszony , 1885)
  • Hugo of have-nothing. A notorious 17th century adventurer
  • Pussta spring. Two stories
  • Saffi. Novella (template for the libretto of the operetta Der Zigeunerbaron by Johann Strauss (son) )
  • Black diamonds ( Fekete gyémántok , 1870)
  • Zoltan Karpathy, the son of Nabob. Novel ( Kárpáthy Zoltán , 1854)
  • The novel of the future century , Roman, German 1879 ( A jövő század regénye , 1872–74)

Film adaptations

  • 1935: The Gypsy Baron - based on the novella "Saffi"
  • 1959: The black face ( Szegeny gazdagok ) - based on the novel "Arme Reiche"
  • 1962: A Gold Man ( Az aranyember )
  • 1965: Men and Flags ( A köszívü ember fiai ) - on DVD as The Knights of King published
  • 1966: The Vulture Feud ( Egy magyar nábob ) - based on the novel "The Last Nábobs"
  • 1966: Retribution ( Kárpáthy Zoltán )
  • 1985: Jonas and the missing treasure (FRG) / Saffi and the Gypsy Baron (GDR) ( Szaffi ) - Hungarian cartoon by Attila Dargay

Trivia

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Mór Jókai  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Mór Jókai  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Norm data display , general catalog of the Austrian library network .
  2. ↑ Kálmán Mikszáth, p. 8f (see literature)
  3. ↑ In the "twelve-point program" a. Freedom of the press, abolition of censorship and front service called for.
  4. ↑ Róza Laborfalvi (born April 8, 1817 in Mischkolz , † November 20, 1886 in Budapest) was an important actress and representative of the Hungarian theater of realism. At the time of the marriage she had a 12-year-old illegitimate daughter Róza Anna Agnes (* 1836, † 1861), which gave rise to severe criticism from Jókai's surroundings. Despite this relationship, prophesied as dead , it turned out to be a happy marriage that lasted until the death of Róza Laborfalvi.
  5. ↑ The Hungarian edition appeared in 21 volumes under the title: Az Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia írásban és képben
  6. ↑ Róza Jókai (born February 19, 1861 in Pest, † January 28, 1936 in Budapest) was the granddaughter of Róza Laborfalvi, Jókai's first wife and his stepdaughter. She studied painting in Munich and married the painter Árpád Feszty in 1888 . Róza Jókai did not find out until she was an adult that she was not the daughter of the couple, but the granddaughter of Róza Laborfalvi and Jókai's adopted daughter. (quoted from Kálmán Mikszáth, p. 312) According to some sources, she is said to have been an illegitimate daughter of Count Gyula Andrássy .
  7. ↑ Bella Nagy (born July 4, 1879 in Jákó , † January 30, 1947 in London ) was the daughter of a poor Jewish general store. Through Jókai's mediation, she received acting lessons, but her success on stage was only very limited. At the beginning of the Second World War she emigrated to London, where she died in 1947.
  8. ↑ Today Széchényi-Berg (Hungarian Széchényi-hegy) belongs to the Buda Mountains, north of Ofen .
  9. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Mór Jókai
  10. ↑ http://hspfreunde.insideboard.de/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=17714/html
  11. ^ Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
  12. ↑ 90370 Jókaimór , at JPL
personal data
SURNAME Jókai, Mór
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ásva, Mór Jókai from; Móricz, Jókay
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian writer and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH February 18, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Komarno
DATE OF DEATH May 5, 1904
Place of death Budapest