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The Slaves of the Padishah

by Mór Jókai

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Pages: 235

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About this book

Saving enough to buy a cow is the great ambition of Michael, a poor priest in Wallachia, and his family. An unexpected inheritance changes their circumstances, bringing him a vast estate and an income he struggles to spend. His old habits persist amid his new riches. When he sends the Sultan a large gourd filled with gold coins, the unusual gift provokes a furious response before its contents are discovered. This opening turns a household's modest hopes into a comedy of wealth and authority.

The wider political world appears in an audience involving envoys from Transylvania and the Grand Vizier. Farkas Bethlen delivers a carefully prepared speech, but the interpreter's flat delivery drains it of force. A chest of money has a much more immediate effect on the Vizier's reception. These scenes give the historical novel its sharp interest in gifts, tribute and the uncertain business of addressing powerful people.

About the author

Mór Jókai

Mór Jókai (1825-1904), also known as Maurus Jókai, was Hungary's most popular and prolific novelist and a leading voice of its Romantic era. A participant in the 1848 revolution, he went on to write more than a hundred novels celebrating Hungarian history, landscape, and national character.