The story of Hungary

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
THE STORY OF THE NATIONS OCTAVO, ILLUSTRATED. PER VOL., $1.50 THE EARLIER VOLUMES WILL BE
For prospectus of the series see end of this volume
G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS NEW YORK AND LONDON


BY ARMINIUS VÁMBÉRY PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BUDA-PESTH WITH THE COLLABORATION OF LOUIS HEILPRIN NEW YORK & LONDON G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS The Knickerbocker Press 1886

COPYRIGHT BY G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS 1886 Press of G. P. Putnam’s Sons New York

In complying with the request of the publishers of the Nations Series to write the Story of Hungary, I undertook a task which was out of the range of my previous literary undertakings, which had for the most part been devoted to the geography, history, and philology of Central Asia. The principal reason which induced me to enter upon what is for me a new literary field, was my desire to make American and English readers acquainted with the record of my native country, and to present the various phases of the history of Hungary in the light best suited to attract the attention of the citizens of England and of the Great Republic, to whose opinion we Hungarians are by no means indifferent.
My willingness to prepare the present volume was further due to the fact, that it was not the History , but the Story of Hungary, I was asked to write; an undertaking in which I had simply to deal with the salient events, the most noteworthy personalities, and the most thrilling episodes in a narrative which covered nearly a thousand years, and was not called upon to consider the philosophical side of the history, or to discuss the deeper-lying motives or the less significant details of national action.