The Lion of Janina; Or, The Last Days of the Janissaries: A Turkish Novel

A Turkish Novel
TRANSLATED BY R. NISBET BAIN
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON 1898
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
THE GREEN BOOK; or, Freedom Under the Snow. A Novel. Translated by Mrs. Waugh. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 50. (In The Odd Number Series. )
BLACK DIAMONDS. A Novel. Translated by Frances A. Gerard. With a Photogravure Portrait of the Author. 16mo, Cloth, Ornamental, $1 50. (In The Odd Number Series. )
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK AND LONDON.
Copyright, 1897, by Harper & Brothers.
All rights reserved.
The first edition of Janicsárok végnapjai appeared forty-five years ago. It was immediately preceded by the great historical romance, Erdely aranykora ( The Golden Age of Transylvania ), and the still more famous novel of manners, Egy Magyar Nábob ( A Hungarian Nabob ), which Hungarians regard as, indisputably, Jókai's masterpiece, while only a few months separate it from Kárpáthy Zoltán ( Sultan Karpathy ), the brilliant sequel to the Nabob . Thus it belongs to the author's best literary period.
It is also one of the most striking specimens of that peculiar group of Turkish stories, such as Törökvilag Magyarorszagon ( Turkey in Hungary ) and Török mozgolmak ( Turkish Incursions ), A kétszarvú ember ( The Man with the Antlers ), and the extremely popular Fehér rózsa ( White Rose ), which form a genre apart of Jókai's own creation, in which his exuberant imagination revels in the rich colors of the gorgeous East, as in its proper element, while his ever alert humor makes the most of the sharp and strange contrasts of Oriental life and society. The hero of the strange and terrible drama, or, rather, series of dramas, unfolded with such spirit, skill, and vividness in Janicsárok végnapjai , is Ali Pasha of Janina, certainly one of the most brilliant, picturesque, and, it must be added, capable ruffians that even Turkish history can produce. Manifold and monstrous as were Ali's crimes, his astonishing ability and splendid courage lend a sort of savage sublimity even to his blood-stained career, and, indeed, the dogged valor with which the octogenarian warrior defended himself at the last in his stronghold against the whole might of the Ottoman Empire is almost without a parallel in history.