XIII
THE NOVEL
The history of the Hungarian novel resembles, on a small scale, the history of the novel in general. Its first form was that of the heroic novel, a style that had flourished most in Europe during the reign of Louis XIV. Romances were full of the features most highly valued in that day, and were brought to the highest degree of refinement by Corneille and Racine, namely, courtesy and heroism. One of the representatives of this style in France was La Calprenède. He wrote novels of from eight to ten volumes in length, and the public read them eagerly. People then had more leisure for reading. One of his stories, Cassandra, was translated in 1784 by a Hungarian Lifeguard officer, Alexander Báróczy (1735–1809), a member of Bessenyei's circle. He had a curious personality. Though a faithful disciple of the matter-of-fact rationalism of Voltaire, he sacrificed much time and energy for an old superstition, the manufacture of gold. When he translated Cassandra, the language of Hungarian literature was still unpolished, and it seemed a bold idea to try to translate a book full of refined galanterie in its conversation, into a tongue so different in character. But Báróczy tried, and his success influenced the development of Hungarian prose for good. It must be borne in mind that Báróczy was a Transylvanian, and that in Transylvania there had been a Court life since
