The Puddelbee Company

The Hungarian Brothers

Anna Maria Porter

The sisters, Anna Maria Porter (1778 – 1832) and Jane Porter (1775 – 1850) were part of a loose literary circle, directly or indirectly, influenced by Ann Radcliffe, and Harriet Lee, a generation earlier. Wheras male writers such as Matthew Lewis pioneered the gothic novel, the Porter sisters’ greatest influence was the development of the historical novel. Unlike the work of later authors, such as Walter Scott and Arthur Conan Doyle, who basically wrote adventure stories in a somewhat better Boy’s Own style, Anna Maria Porter’s work was more human in scale and directed towards the emotional nature of the narrative. In this respect, along with her contemporary Jane Austen, she can be viewed as a founder of the sentimental novel.

Porter was born in Durham in December 1778, but the family moved to Edinburgh after the death of her father the following year, and later to Surrey. She published her first book, an anonymous collection of Artless Tales, in two volumes at the age of fourteen, and her first novel Walsh Colville in 1797. Neither sister married, and they continued to live together in London, until Maria died of typhus in 1832, while visiting her brother and friends in Bristol.

The Hungarian Brothers was Anna Maria Porter’s third major novel, and the first to be published under her own name. At the time it was an international best seller, being republished internationally in multiple editions including a French Translation, which influenced both later historical and sentimental novelists. It was not the first true English language historical novel; that title arguably goes to her sister Jane’s Thaddeus of Warsaw, published four years earlier. It also plays heavily, on the sentimental aspects, exploring the relationship between the two brothers and with the ladies in their lives. Set against the background of the French Revolutionary Wars, the novel itself has an interesting historical context. It was written mainly during the War of the Second Coalition, but not published until after the end of the War of the Third Coalition, by which time Napoleon had become emperor, the Confederacy of the Rhine established, and Vienna had fallen to the French. This was addressed in an anonymous preface to the first edition, which may have been written by the author herself, or her older sister.

Forgotten Classics Edition

This edition of The Hungarian Brothers is adapted from the first edition, published in 3 volumes by Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme in 1807. It is not intended as, and should not be treated as, an academic text. There are no footnotes or references, except where provided by the original author, and no commentary. Where appropriate the spelling and punctuation have been modernised (British English).

Author Illustation: Anna Maria Porter. Engraving by Thomas A. Woolnoth, 1834, in Fisher’s Drawing Room Scrapbook 1835. From an original pencil drawing by George Henry Harlow, 1805. (detail)

Cover Illustation: William Woolnoth (1780 – 1837), A Scene of Middleton Dale (detail), 1817 Colour engraving after a painting by Joseph Farington (1747 – 1821), ca. 1816.

Copyright Statement

To the best of my knowledge all rights to the content of works published in the Forgotten Classics edition of The Hungarian Brothers, including illustrations, resides in the public domain in all territories. Ownership to the particular layout and design of a specific publication is claimed by the publisher. Fair use, including non-commercial distribution and reproduction of the publication in electronic and printed form, is allowed with attribution to “The Puddelbee Company” as the source.