A Modern Midas by Mór Jókai

First published:Az Arany Ember, 1873 (English translation, 1884)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Philosophical romance

Time of work: Nineteenth century

Locale: Hungary

The Story:

In the season of autumn gales, a man calling himself Euthryn Trikaliss and his young daughter Timea took passage up the Danube on the Saint Barbara, a cargo boat owned by Athanas Brasowitsch, the wealthy merchant of Komorn, in Hungary. Although Trikaliss posed as a Greek trader, proprietor of the cargo of grain carried by the vessel, the crew felt that there was some mystery about him and his lovely daughter, a suspicion confirmed when a Turkish gunboat was sighted in pursuit. By quick wit and daring, Michael Timar, supercargo of the Saint Barbara, outwitted the pursuing brigantine, brought the craft safely through the perilous rocks of the Iron Gate, and anchored it near an unnamed island on the left bank of the river.

Seeing signs of habitation on the island, Michael went ashore in hopes of buying fresh provisions for the Saint Barbara. In the midst of several acres of cultivated ground lived a woman who gave her name only as Therese and her daughter Naomi. Therese agreed to supply fruits, flour, kids, and cheese, but refused to take any money in return. She and her daughter, she explained, lived by barter, trading with farmers and smugglers of the district. When Michael returned to the boat for grain to offer in exchange for Therese’s goods, he brought Timea and her father ashore with him.

During their overnight stay on the island, another visitor, apparently an unwelcome one, appeared. He was Theodore Kristyan, who announced himself as Naomi’s betrothed. That night Michael heard Kristyan demanding money of Therese and threatening to report the existence of the island to the Turkish government if she refused. Since she had no money to give him, he took a bracelet which had been Timea’s present to Naomi.

The next morning, after Kristyan’s departure, Therese told Michael her story. Twelve years before, her husband had endorsed the older Kristyan’s note to Athanas Brasowitsch. Defaulting, the older Kristyan had run away, and Therese’s husband had been ruined when he was forced to satisfy Brasowitsch’s claims on his property. The unfortunate man committed suicide. Penniless, the widow had found a refuge for herself and her child on the island which she called No Man’s Land. There they lived happily, persecuted only by the infrequent visits of Theodore Kristyan, to whom Naomi had been betrothed before his father’s disgrace and her own father’s death.

Euthryn Trikaliss seemed despondent when the Saint Barbara resumed the voyage up the river. That night the passenger called Michael to his cabin. After telling that he had taken a fatal dose of poison, he confided that he was not a Greek trader but Ali Tschorbadschi, a Turkish government official fleeing in disgrace from the sultan’s wrath. Having recognized Kristyan as a spy of the sultan, he knew that the informer would hurry ahead to carry the news of Ali’s coming, and he preferred death to capture. He asked Michael to take Timea to Brasowitsch, a distant kinsman. Then, muttering some strange words about a red crescent, he died.

Ali was buried in the river. His fears proved correct. At Panscova Turkish officials came aboard the boat and demanded the person of Ali Tschorbadschi, but after Michael had reported the circumstances of his passenger’s death and burial, the Saint Barbara was allowed to proceed. Another disaster was to follow. Not far from Komorn the boat struck a snag and sank. Only at the risk of his own life was Michael able to save a small casket containing the thousand ducats which Ali had entrusted to him as provision for Timea’s future.

Brasowitsch was furious when he heard that his ship had foundered with its valuable cargo of grain, and he had only a surly welcome for Timea, who was still dazed by grief over her father’s death. He and his vulgar wife having agreed that the orphan was to become a servant in their household, he paid no attention to Michael’s suggestion that the gain be salvaged for Timea’s sake. He did, however, give Michael power of attorney to dispose of the cargo.

Among Michael’s friends was Lieutenant Imre Katschuka, betrothed to Athalie, Brasowitsch’s daughter. The officer informed Michael that army maneuvers were to be staged near Komorn, and he suggested that the sunken grain could be used to make bread for the troops. Acting on information supplied by Katschuka, Michael underbid Brasowitsch on the bread contract for the army and later, having purchased the cargo cheaply at a public auction, he proceeded to salvage the grain from the Saint Barbara. During the operations he found one sack marked with a red crescent instead of a black wheel. Opening the bag in private, he found in it a fortune in gold and jewels. This, then, was Timea’s real fortune, which he had bought at auction for ten thousand gulden.

Michael’s first impulse was to take the fortune to Brasowitsch, as Timea’s guardian. His second was to keep the treasure and eventually provide for Timea without allowing Brasowitsch to profit by using it in his own speculations. Having decided on the second course, he began a series of operations which soon made him the great man of the region. After disproving Brasowitsch’s charges of bribery over the bread contract, he offered the government a generous rental for the vacant Levetinczy estate. As Baron Michael Timar von Levetinczy, he planted, bought, and sold so shrewdly and successfully that he became known throughout Hungary as a modern Midas.

Meanwhile he continued to visit the Brasowitsch household, where Timea was ridiculed and humiliated by Brasowitsch’s spiteful wife and arrogant daughter. Their cruelest jest was to let the poor child believe that she was the bride intended for Katschuka, with whom she had innocently fallen in love. The approaching wedding gave Michael an opportunity to plot Brasowitsch’s ruin. Because Katschuka refused to marry Athalie without a dowry of one hundred thousand gulden, Brasowitsch, acting on hints supplied by Michael, mortgaged all of his possessions to buy land where it was rumored the government intended to build a new fort. The merchant’s intention was to resell the ground to the government at a high price. On the day of the wedding, however, the officials informed him that the fort was to be built on other lands owned by Michael. Brasowitsch had a stroke and died. Katschuka refused to go through with the wedding.

When the house and furnishings of dead Brasowitsch were sold at auction, Michael bought the property and presented it to Timea with his offer for her hand. He was overjoyed when she accepted, for he believed that he was returning to her at last all that was hers by right. One stipulation Timea made was that Athalie and her mother were to occupy the house as before. Michael reluctantly agreed to the request.

The marriage, however, proved unhappy. Although grateful to her husband, Timea was still in love with Katschuka, and he with her. Ungrateful Athalie, hating all three, informed Michael of the true state of affairs and so added to his wretchedness. Wanting Timea’s love more than anything else, he tried in every way, but unsuccessfully, to win her unasked affection. Timea was a faithful and dutiful wife, but no more.

During a visit to the Levetinczy estate, Michael had a sudden impulse to return to No Man’s Land, which he had secretly secured for Therese and Naomi. During his visit Kristyan appeared and ordered Therese to sign a contract which would have stripped the land of its valuable timber. To silence his threats, Michael informed him that he had secured from the Turkish and Hungarian governments a deed giving the rental of the island to the present colonists for ninety-nine years. When Michael left the island Kristyan tried to shoot him. Michael forgave the act and offered Kristyan an opportunity to make an honest living by acting as his South American agent in a new project, the shipment of Hungarian flour to Brazil.

The next spring, Michael returned to No Man’s Land. When Naomi frankly offered him her love, he accepted it without telling her that he was wealthy and already married. He returned to his home in the fall, to learn that Timea had managed his enterprises during his absence and added greatly to his wealth. On his return to the island the next year he found that Naomi had borne his child, a boy named Dodi. Their grief was great when the baby died. Michael himself almost succumbed to fever. He was sad when the time came for him to leave the island in the fall, but he rejoiced to find another Dodi in the cradle when he returned the next year.

At last Michael decided that he could bear his double life no longer. For a time he thought of committing suicide and willing all of his possessions to Timea, but he found it impossible to contemplate giving up forever his idyllic life with Naomi. While he was trying to find a way out of his dilemma, he went to inspect one of his fishing enterprises. There Kristyan arrived to accuse him of theft. Kristyan, having abused Michael’s trust, had been sent to the galleys in Brazil. He had heard from his father, a fellow prisoner, the full story of Tschorbadschi’s activities. Suspecting the source of Michael’s wealth, he had returned to denounce his benefactor. He offered to hold his tongue, however, if Michael would give up No Man’s Land and Naomi. While the two men talked, Kristyan, scoffing at all promises of great wealth for himself, took off his own ragged clothing and put on a suit belonging to Michael. Then he started off across a frozen lake to make his accusations. Michael followed with the intention of drowning himself. As he approached a crack in the ice he saw Kristyan’s floating body. The knave had accidentally fallen in and had drowned.

The body found at the time of the spring thaws was identified as Michael’s because of the suit the dead man wore and a purse in one of the pockets. Everyone mourned the death of the great Baron Levetinczy, who was honored by an impressive state funeral. After a proper period of mourning, Timea married Katschuka. Jealous Athalie went to prison after an attempt to kill Timea on her wedding day. On No Man’s Land, surrounded by three generations of their descendants, Michael and Naomi lived to a contented and peaceful old age. All trade of the colony was carried on by barter. Wise old Michael would never allow money, the breeder of selfishness, misery, and crime, to be used or kept on the island where he ruled as a beloved patriarch.

Critical Evaluation:

The name of Mór Jókai is inseparably connected with the course of Hungarian history in the nineteenth century. He began his career as a writer largely through patriotic motives, and at one time he was exiled because his books were so highly regarded in the revolutionary circles of Hungarian Youth. Later, he served as a member of the Hungarian Parliament and in the House of Magnates. Although Hungarian was not a popular literary language, Jókai’s works were widely read and translated into many languages during his lifetime. Influenced chiefly by the Romantic writers of England and France, he excelled in the field of the imaginative romance, one which depended for its effect upon a wealth of incident and character, an involved plot mingling the ideal and the fantastic, and an idyllic, pastoral atmosphere. A MODERN MIDAS, the work of a master of storytelling and romantic atmosphere, is typical of Jókai at his best.

A MODERN MIDAS must be read within the context of Turkish-Hungarian political relations to make sense to the modern Western reader. Beginning with military campaigns in the late fourteenth century, the Turks established in the early fifteenth century a dictatorial occupation of Hungary which lasted until 1718. The cruel and barbarian Turkish rule so outraged Hungarians that, even in 1787, a retaliatory war against the Turks was launched. Given this animosity against the Turks, Hungarians in Jókai’s time, and to this day, feel a hostility against the Turks which rivals that of Armenians who suffered similarly at ruthless Turkish hands. Consequently, no amount of generosity or tolerance could possibly surmount the barriers between the good, well-meaning Hungarian Michael Timar and the Turkish Ali Tschorbadschi and his daughter, Timea. Michael and Timea’s marriage was doomed before its start because of differences in cultural as well as socio-political heritage.

Michael tried valiantly to maintain an ethical stance, in keeping with his proud heritage as a Hungarian. Timea, despite her abuse by the Brasowitsch family, retained the airs of a superior person from a dominant ethnic group. Her capacity to manage and increase Michael’s estate during his absence is ample testimony to her self-sufficient capabilities. Meanwhile, Michael still had to negotiate with both Hungarian and Turkish governments to secure property rights on No Man’s Land for Therese and Naomi. Jókai’s Hungarian patriotism is fully revealed in this unlikely juxtaposition of personal allegiances and political antagonisms. Not surprisingly, as a consequence Michael is ultimately drawn to his ethnic and ethical soul mate, Naomi, in a relationship mutually fulfilling, however extralegal.

This modern Midas thus displays an integrity lacking in his earlier namesake, since Michael does not forsake all for money, then regret his concessions. He has sufficient wealth—accumulated through his own wit and craft—to enable him and Naomi, as well as Therese, to live comfortably; but he is not so greedy as to maintain an unhappy marriage with Timea in order to increase his riches. Michael, therefore, epitomizes Jókai’s ideal of principled social, economic, and political behavior under the conditions which prevailed at the time. As such, Michael, hero of A MODERN MIDAS, is Jókai’s answer—no matter how romanticized—to what Hungarian loyalty is about.

Principal Characters:

• Michael Timar, a modern Midas
• Ali Tschorbadschi (Euthryn Trikaliss), a Turkish political refugee
• Athanas Timea, his daughter
• Lieutenant Imre Therese, a trader on No Man’s Land
• Naomi, her daughter
• Brasowitsch, a prosperous Hungarian trader
• Athalie, his daughter
• Katschuka, betrothed to Athalie