JOKAI, Mor or Maurus

(1825-1904)

   Very prolific Hungarian novelist, the dominant literary figure of 19th-century HUNGARY, frequently translated and still very highly regarded. Many of his 100 or more novels are violent historical tales, full of catastrophic incident. Az aranyember (1872; trans Mrs H. Kennard as Timar's Two Worlds 1888 UK), which contrasts a hectic andhysterical urban life with an idyllic UTOPIA established on an "ownerless island" in the Danube, is not really sf, despite the title of its first English translation. MJ did, however, write a number of anticipations innovels and in short fiction, few of which have been translated into English but many into German. Tales from Jokai (coll trans R. Nisbet Bain1904 UK) contains "The City and the Beast" (1858), which deals with ATLANTIS and its destruction, plus three contes cruels. An untranslated novel, Oceania (1846), is also about Atlantis. The most important sf by MJ, likewise untranslated into English, is A jovo szazad regenye ("TheNovel of the Next Century") (1872), a dazzlingly inventive 3-vol novel of the future. Egesz az eszaki polusig ("All the Way to the North Pole") (1876) is also sf, featuring SUSPENDED ANIMATION; Ahol a penz nem Isten("Where Money is not a God") (1904) is a utopian ROBINSONADE; Feketegyemantok (1870; trans A. Gerard as Black Diamonds 1896) has a scientist seeking to create a utopia; it is partly set in an Arctic sea.

   PN/JC

   Other work: Told by the Death's Head (trans 1902 of Egy hirhedett kalandor a tizenhetedil szazadbol 1904).