Page:A history of Hungarian literature.djvu/201

 THE NOVEL eminent degree the gift of making the past live again. His power of imagination is conspicuously displayed in Th e NOfJel of the Coming Centtry, in which, amongst many other incidents, he describes a battle in the sky between airships. Jókai once described his method of working, and said : ti When I am writing a novel I try to be my characters, to live in them, whether murderer, traitor, voluptuary, or miser ; I try to make their feelings my feelings, so that I myself suffer, or despair, or am impelled by the inward promptings of the avenger..•• ti At such a time, even the visit" of my best friend is unwelcome, because it may be that he finds me in a tyrannical or an angry mood, or perhaps I am sentimental and tearful, or else in raptures. ti The door opens, and the state of mind which I have worked up is destroyed and I have to begin over again, for I can do nothing until I have warmed to my subject. I do not mean that no one can write in any other manner. It is possihle to write with a cold heart, care­ fuily calculating prob abil ities, but the work itself will suffer. It may be correct enough, but what I desire is that my readers shall feel the same warmth that I felt when writing. 11 I never sit whi le warking out my plot but always walk up and down. First I plan the whole long novel in my bead, down even to the smallest details of the dialogue, but not including the descriptive parts. At such a time, imagination takes the place of memory, for I do not store up the details in my memory, but the course of events appears to unroll itself before me so that I seem to be describing what I actually see and could dictate the wh ole