The Hungarian Bouvard et Pécuchet

Abstract

Mór Jókai’s satiric novel Egy ember, aki mindent tud [A Man who Knows Everything] was first published in 12 parts in the illustrated satirical weekly Az Üstökös between 2 May and 18 July 1874. Its German translation was published parallel with the Hungarian text. This paper shows that, in several regards, Jókai’s short novel is parallel to Flaubert’s unfinished, subversive masterpiece Bouvard et Pécuchet. The structure of the two novels is obviously similar; both are built on a chain of metonymic contacts of failed “projects”. Although in the fields of science and knowledge the heroes “encounter” do not follow the same order, the extent of thematic coincidence is surprising. Jókai’s and Flaubert’s novels are built on a scenic or episodic structure, the cut-at-will-form (Moretti). Both texts may be read as a narrative telling the story of the birth of the dilettante as a product of popular communication and mass media.