“My esteemed fellow representatives, look at the scientific works that our scientists, directly and with the encouragement of a prize, exhibited and made us admire, such as the plan for the reorganization of Buda-Pest. I ask any of my fellow representatives if they would take on a resolution to ensure that these plans are realized, since none of them are talking about anything less than a billion. For me, as a poor writer writing the novel of the next century, those plans are good for me. But what should the city of Pest do with them?”
“Moreover, with the cooperation of almost every nation, the reforestation of the land progressed; from the palm grove to the pine, every desert received new vegetation. A great, real jubilee awaited the year 2000: the planting of the millionth million trees on Earth. One trillion trees were planted in twenty-five years!”
“No one had any idea what this battle between the airships would be like. The airships can shoot lightning, but they cannot harm each other with it, because their mass is made of glass; they uselessly salute each other with cannonballs, which do not dent their sides; Greek fire does not melt them. They cannot pierce each other by rushing at each other, because during the flight the nose of each glass airship acquires an active electricity, and the uniform electricity suddenly pushes the airships approaching with the speed of lightning apart either up or down at the moment of meeting: as is often seen, when two fleets meet in the air, the viewer believes that they must inevitably collide: but they glide through each other at the same time, and the two lines continue in the same order, following their previous direction. So it is still a mystery how they will stand up to each other, how they will fight, how they will defeat each other, how they will prevent each other from advancing, and whether they will ultimately be forced to descend from the sky to the ground if they want to fight.”
In addition to the Novel of the Next Century, in the era of dualism, Jules Verne’s novels (Captain Nemo, The Mysterious Island, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, etc.) were regarded as popular fantasy novels. Under the influence of Jókai and Verne, science fiction novels and short stories with a similar spirit soon appeared. The writings of Pál Privigyey, Ábel Barabás, and Mihály Boross are now forgotten attempts. Well-known publicists of the time also wrote sci-fi novels, such as Gusztáv Beksics. Like Jókai, these authors wanted to solve humanity’s great problems using technology and the natural sciences. In contrast, from the 1880s onwards, Titusz Tóvölgyi and then József Naszády at the turn of the century imagined the future of humanity based on particular ideological systems (communism, anarchism) in their novels, counterpointing Jókai’s views on anarchism in his Novel of the Next Century. Before the outbreak of World War I, Ferenc Herczeg’s short story A jövő század novellája [Short Story of the Next Century] was published, in which the author used satirical tools to criticize the feminist movement. The optimistic outlook of science fiction literature during the era of dualism was brought to an end by World War I. The horrors of war showed that the achievements of technology can be used for more than just good. Dystopian visions of the future became popular in science fiction literature in the interwar period. Authors feared another war and experiments with dictatorship.
“Arthur Barna not only solves scientific and technical problems, not only discovers and invents, but also successfully addresses the current issue of socialism and in the process earns the passionate love of two women. Such a programme can be explained only in part by Jules Verne’s worldwide influence; the key to the other part is this name: Jókai.”
“In Saint Petersburg now things are going worse than they were in Paris in 1792. The government of terror has been seized by a woman, whose name is Alexandra, but who is popularly called only Sasha, and this is a real female Robespierre, a demon, a monster, whose bloody whims keep Europe in terror, who is preparing war against everything that still exists; throne, altar, the marriage bed, and if she is able to bring order to her homeland with her reign of terror, she will soon, like the seven-horned dragon of the Apocalypse, swoop down upon the other countries of Europe.”
János Kass: Szerelés [Assembly], 1979, National Széchényi Library Map, Poster and Small Print Collection
Dóra Maurer: Etude No. 3, 1970, National Széchényi Library Map, Poster and Small Print Collection
Béla Kondor: Égiháború [Sky-War], 1967, National Széchényi Library Map, Poster and Small Print Collection
József Naszády: Anarchia [Anarchy], 1903, National Széchényi Library Core Collection
Ábel Barabás: A jövő évtized regénye [Novel of the Next Decade], 1910, National Széchényi Library Core Collection
Titusz Tóvölgyi: Az új világ [The New World], 1888, National Széchényi Library Core Collection
Gusztáv Beksics: Barna Arthur [Arthur Barna], 1880, National Széchényi Library Core Collection
László Beöthy: A jövő század regénye [Novel of the Next Century], 1895, National Széchényi Library Core Collection
Gyula Bessenyei Magyar: Félszázad múlva [Half a Century Later], 1907, National Széchényi Library Core Collection
Gyula Farkas: Az utolsó ütközet 2453-ban [The Last Battle in 2453], 1888, National Széchényi Library Core Collection
Pál Privigyey: Magyarország nem volt, hanem lesz [Hungary was not, but will be], 1887, National Széchényi Library Core Collection
Mór Jókai: Ahol a pénz nem Isten [Where Money is not God], manuscript, 1904, National Széchényi Library Manuscript Archive
Béla Kondor: A cárnő halála [The Death of the Tsarina], 1972, Petőfi Literary Museum
Béla Kondor: Emberkék [Little People], 1967, National Széchényi Library Map, Poster and Small Print Collection