“Oh, if the law had a heart!”

Modern Legal Thinking in the Károly Eötvös’s Novel Nemzetes Böthök uram szerencséje

Abstract

The study examines the presence of enlightened legal thinking and its narrative problematization in Károly Eötvös’s novel Nemzetes Böthök uram szerencséje (Sir Noble Böthök’s Luck, 1900). The analysis illuminates the legal dilemmas that appear at the level of the story and in the narrative reflections by presenting in detail one of the central plot threads of the work, the story of Zsuzsi Gergő’s sufferings; furthermore, using the examined legal discourses as a starting point, it links the worldview of the fictional narrative with certain elements of Eötvös’s documentary novel A nagy per, mely ezer éve folyik s még sincs vége (The Great Trial That Has Been Going On for a Thousand Years and Has Not Yet Concluded, 1904).