8 h 12 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 12 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What holds love together when family, faith, and a divided land pull it apart?
In Manasseh, Mór Jókai brings you into Transylvania, a land where many peoples, languages, and faiths live side by side. This romance places private feeling under public pressure. Love meets the claims of family, belief, and loyalty, while conflict reaches into the lives people hope to share.
Jókai tells his story with color, warmth, and strong feeling. The historical backdrop matters as much as the romance: this is a world where belonging is complex and personal choices carry weight. For readers drawn to Central Europe, the setting offers a place to linger, not merely scenery to pass through.
What you’ll discover
- Love under pressure Follow a romance where private hopes meet family duty and the demands of troubled times.
- A land of differences Enter a Transylvania shaped by many peoples, with languages and faiths living side by side.
- Faith and belonging Explore how belief and loyalty place competing claims on the heart.
- Color and warmth Settle into vivid description and strong feeling, carried by Jókai's confident storytelling.
- History close to home See public conflict become personal as love and family face the pressures of their world.
Who will love it
This book suits readers who love romance with real stakes, wartime adventure, clever villains, and heroes who win by courage and conscience. It also rewards anyone curious about Hungarian history and Transylvanian customs.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A crowded train brings two strangers together
- One glance can drive off a dangerous man
- Holy Week in Rome draws the pair closer
- A prince's offer hides a trap
- A palace with a hidden door
- The city shakes and the flight begins
- A road through a country in arms
- A card game wins two brothers back
- A valley of iron, faith, and unfinished wounds
- Peace as a faith and a way of telling
Who’s who
- Manasseh AdorjanA gifted Transylvanian Unitarian and painter who refuses revenge and violence, and who wants to bring peace to his family and his valley.
- BlankaA young princess, freed from a hateful marriage but forbidden to wed again, who longs for a true home and for love.
- Aaron AdorjanManasseh's short, stocky, joking Szekler brother, who fiercely protects his family and his town and has ready tales for every danger.
- Anna AdorjanManasseh's twin sister, cheerful on the surface and still faithful to the man who abandoned her at the altar.
- Benjamin VajdarManasseh's foster brother, a handsome and clever secretary who will use any means to rise and fears the secret his old friend holds.
- Prince CagliariBlanka's aging husband, a smiling and vain nobleman who wants her gone so that he can marry his mistress.
- Marchioness CaldarivaOnce a famous dancer called Cyrene, she is the prince's beautiful mistress who charms Blanka while pursuing her own plans.
- ZenobiaCiprianu's tall and proud Wallachian daughter, who befriends Blanka and holds to her own code of loyalty and debt.
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Manasseh
by Mór Jókai · 1877
A Transylvanian painter and a princess forbidden to marry again flee Rome into a land at war.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEnglish
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In short
Picture a railway carriage in Italy in the spring of 1848, built for ten and crammed with ten. A stranger who speaks Hungarian offers three tired travelers a better compartment, and that small favor sets a whole story moving.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A crowded train brings two strangers together
The story opens at an Italian railway station in 1848. Three Hungarians, two ladies and a lawyer, are pushed into a carriage already holding seven. A young man who speaks their language solves the problem with a small bribe and a quiet, practical manner.
He is Manasseh Adorjan, and he sits across from the older lady, Madam Dormandy, who cannot resist an argument. They spar about whether women are helpless or simply forget their own power. His answers are sharp and kind. When he says he does not believe in the divinity of Christ, both ladies are shocked to learn he is a Unitarian. The younger one, veiled and silent, lowers her veil and crosses herself beneath it.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 9 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1877
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 5 h 20 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Jókai, Mór. Manasseh. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/manasseh.
Jókai, M. (2026). Manasseh. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/manasseh (Original work published 1877)
Jókai, Mór. Manasseh. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/manasseh.
@book{jokai2026manasseh,
author = {Jókai, Mór},
title = {Manasseh},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/manasseh},
note = {First published 1877}
}
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What is Manasseh by Mór Jókai about?
It is a romance set in 1848 and 1849. A Transylvanian Unitarian painter, Manasseh Adorjan, and a princess named Blanka meet on a train, travel through Rome during Holy Week, and flee to his home valley of Toroczko during a war.
What is a Unitarian in this story?
Unitarians in the book are Christians who believe in one God and do not hold the divinity of Christ. Manasseh's faith also teaches him to refuse revenge, war, and killing, and this belief shapes many of his choices.
Who is Benjamin Vajdar?
He is Manasseh's foster brother, the orphaned son of his father's steward. He becomes secretary to Prince Cagliari, abandons Manasseh's sister Anna, and schemes against Blanka, while Manasseh holds a secret that could ruin him.
The author
Mór Jókai
1825–1904 · Hungarian novelist
Mór Jókai was a Hungarian novelist, short-story writer and journalist. He was born in Komárom in 1825 and died in Budapest in 1904. He wrote in Hungarian and published novels throughout the nineteenth century. His novels include The Golden Man, published in 1872. He also wrote plays.
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