Móric Jókay de à sva ([ˈmoË r ˈjoË kÉ'i], known as Mór Jókai; 18
February 1825 â€" 5 May 1904), outside Hungary also known as Maurus
Jokai or Mauritius Jókai,[1] was a Hungarian nobleman, novelist,
dramatist and revolutionary. He was active participant and a leading
personality in the outbreak of Hungarian Liberal Revolution of 1848 in
Pest. Jókai's romantic novels became very popular among the elite of
Victorian era England; he was often compared to Dickens in the 19th
century British press.[2][3] One of his most famous fans and admirers
was Queen Victoria herself.[4]He was born in Komárom, in the Kingdom
of Hungary (present-day Komárno in Slovakia). His father, József
Jókai de à sva (1781-1837), was a member of the à sva branch of the
ancient Jókay noble family; his mother was also noblewoman Mária
Pulay (1790â€"1856). The boy was timid and delicate, and was therefore
educated at home until the age of ten, when he was sent to Pozsony
(today: Bratislava in Slovakia). He then completed his education at
the Calvinist college at Pápa, where he first met Sándor PetÅ'fi,
Sándor Kozma, and several other young men who subsequently became
famous.After his father's death when Jókai was 12, his family had
meant him to follow the law, his father's profession. The young
Jókai, always singularly assiduous, plodded conscientiously through
the usual curriculum at Kecskemét and Pest (part of what is now
Budapest), and succeeded in winning his first case as a full-fledged
lawyer.The drudgery of a lawyer's office was uncongenial to the
ardently poetical Jókai. Encouraged by the encomia pronounced by the
Hungarian Academy on his first play, Zsidó fiú (The Jewish Boy), he
moved to Pest in 1845 with a manuscript novel in his pocket. There, he
was introduced by PetÅ'fi to the literary society of the Hungarian
capital, and the same year his first notable novel Hétköznapok
(Working Days), appeared, first in the columns of the Pesti Divatlap
[hu], and subsequently, in 1846, in book form. Hétköznapok was
instantly recognized by all the leading critics as a work of original
genius, and in the following year Jókai was appointed the editor of
Életképek, then the leading Hungarian literary journal, and gathered
round himself a circle of young Hungarian writers.
February 1825 â€" 5 May 1904), outside Hungary also known as Maurus
Jokai or Mauritius Jókai,[1] was a Hungarian nobleman, novelist,
dramatist and revolutionary. He was active participant and a leading
personality in the outbreak of Hungarian Liberal Revolution of 1848 in
Pest. Jókai's romantic novels became very popular among the elite of
Victorian era England; he was often compared to Dickens in the 19th
century British press.[2][3] One of his most famous fans and admirers
was Queen Victoria herself.[4]He was born in Komárom, in the Kingdom
of Hungary (present-day Komárno in Slovakia). His father, József
Jókai de à sva (1781-1837), was a member of the à sva branch of the
ancient Jókay noble family; his mother was also noblewoman Mária
Pulay (1790â€"1856). The boy was timid and delicate, and was therefore
educated at home until the age of ten, when he was sent to Pozsony
(today: Bratislava in Slovakia). He then completed his education at
the Calvinist college at Pápa, where he first met Sándor PetÅ'fi,
Sándor Kozma, and several other young men who subsequently became
famous.After his father's death when Jókai was 12, his family had
meant him to follow the law, his father's profession. The young
Jókai, always singularly assiduous, plodded conscientiously through
the usual curriculum at Kecskemét and Pest (part of what is now
Budapest), and succeeded in winning his first case as a full-fledged
lawyer.The drudgery of a lawyer's office was uncongenial to the
ardently poetical Jókai. Encouraged by the encomia pronounced by the
Hungarian Academy on his first play, Zsidó fiú (The Jewish Boy), he
moved to Pest in 1845 with a manuscript novel in his pocket. There, he
was introduced by PetÅ'fi to the literary society of the Hungarian
capital, and the same year his first notable novel Hétköznapok
(Working Days), appeared, first in the columns of the Pesti Divatlap
[hu], and subsequently, in 1846, in book form. Hétköznapok was
instantly recognized by all the leading critics as a work of original
genius, and in the following year Jókai was appointed the editor of
Életképek, then the leading Hungarian literary journal, and gathered
round himself a circle of young Hungarian writers.
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