Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/189

 THE NOVEL 175 and the memory of my life may save your sou) from selfisb­ ness ; your dark days will cease ; the pain caused by the world will be eased by the love of your dcar ones, and the suffering caused by those you love will be for­ gotten amidst the approving smiles of the world. I t is only the selfisb for wh om life contains no consolation." The Carthusian is full of a noble fervour, but it is mani­ festly the work of a young author. The characters are fertile in fine sentiments and reflections ; but their actions are weak and purposeless. Eötvös' second novel, The Viliage Notary, was dis­ tinctly a novel with a purpose. It was really a vehement attack upon the autonomy of the provinces. In 1846, when Eötvös compteted the book, serfdom was not abol­ ished and each province was a littie kingdom in itself, its ruler, and sometimes its tyrant, being the jöispán or lord-Heutenant of the county. If he committed any unlawful action it was practicany impossible to resist it. Eötvös depicted the corruption an d stagn ation prevalent in the provinces with aU the warroth inspired by his in­ dignation. Deák, however, was right when, in speaking of this novel, he said : " On the title-pages of books treating of the ail ments of horses there is often pictured a horse suffering from ali possihle diseases and infirmities at one and the same time, but in reality such an unfortu­ nate animal does not exist. I t is the same with the pro­ vince presented to us in Eötvös' novel ; so miserable a p rovince does not exist." The kind of persecution to wh ich good men were sub­ jected is shown to us in the career of the hero, the viliage notary. A noble-minded and idealistic thinker, finding that his schemes of reform are not acceptable, abandons the struggle and seeks a humble sphere of activity as a