The Man with the Golden Touch
| Author | Mór Jókai |
|---|---|
| Original title | Az arany ember |
| Country | Hungary |
| Language | Hungarian |
|
Publication date
|
1872 |
The Man with the Golden Touch (orig. Hungarian: Az arany ember, lit. "The Golden Man") is an 1872 novel by Hungarian novelist Mór Jókai. As Jókai states in the afterword of the novel, The Man with the Golden Touch was based on a true story he had heard from his grand-aunt as a child.
Mihály Timár is a young man working on the transport ship St. Barbara on the River Danube. The ship is owned by Athanáz Brazovics, a rich Serbian merchant living in Komárom, a town in Hungary, and is on its way back to Komárom carrying sacks of wheat. The owner of the goods, Euthym Trikalisz, and his thirteen-year-old daughter Timéa are also aboard. On the way to Komárom, they stop at an island, the "no man's island", which lies in the Danube between the Ottoman Empire and the Hungarian part of the Habsburg Empire, undiscovered and unclaimed by both. This island is the home of Teréza, a widow and her young daughter Noémi, who lead a calm and idyllic life here. Another man, Tódor Krisztyán, arrives soon. He knows Teréza and Noémi, but is apparently disliked by both.
The travellers spend a night here, but Timár can't sleep and overhears a conversation in which Krisztyán blackmails Teréza. He tells her that if she doesn't give him money he will reveal the existence of the island to the authorities. Teréza says they have no money since they don't need it, as everything they need grows on the island. Krisztyán takes away the golden bracelet Timéa gave to Noémi, then leaves the island. Timár tells Teréza that he overheard the conversation; in turn, Teréza tells him that her husband was ruined and driven to suicide by Krisztyán's father and Athanáz Brazovics and so she fled to the island with her baby daughter who was raised there, unspoiled by civilization. She also tells him that Krisztyán always demands money from her and wants to marry Noémi even though the girl hates him. Timár feels frustrated that he cannot help Teréza.
The next day the ship continues its journey. Mr. Trikalisz wantes to speak to Timár in private. He reveals that he is in fact not a Greek merchant but Ali Csorbadzsi, a former high-ranking official of the Ottoman Empire, who is fleeing the Empire because the Sultan wants him dead, his wealth was confiscated, and his daughter was added to the harem. He wanted to go to Brazovics, who is his brother-in-law, but the previous day he recognized Krisztyán as a spy of the Ottoman Empire (Krisztyán is, in fact, a scoundrel, adventurer and a spy of both empires). He knows Krisztyán will betray him and Austria will extradite him to the Ottoman Empire, so he has taken poison, and makes Timár swear that he will make sure Timéa arrives in Komárom safe. He gives a small box with 1000 gold coins to Timár and makes him promise he will keep it for Timéa; he also mentions that the rest of his wealth is the wheat in the sacks (which is worth ten thousand gold coins). Finally, he asks Timár to wake up Timéa when he has died – he gave her a potion so that she will sleep and they could speak in private, but if she was not given the antidote soon, the potion would kill her.
...
Wikipedia