''The Secret of Dr. Honigberger'' ( ro, Secretul doctorului Honigberger) is a 1940 novella by the Romanian writer

Mircea Eliade Mircea Eliade (; – April 22, 1986) was a Romanians, Romanian History of religion, historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who establ ...

. It centres on the search for a 19th-century physician named

Johann Martin Honigberger Johann Martin Honigberger (10 March 1795 – 18 December 1869) was an Imperial Austrian physician and traveller. He travelled through Asia to India and wrote a book on his experiences in the east. A novel based on his life, written by Mircea Elia ...

, who disappeared in India while searching for the invisible kingdom Shambhala, as well as his early 20th-century biographer who has also disappeared. Honigberger was a real person, a physician and ethnographer who travelled in Asia in the 19th century. The novella was first published in Romania in 1940 together with Eliade's novella ''Nights at Serampore'', which also revolves around India and has similar supernatural elements. The two novellas were translated into English by William Ames Coates and published in 1970 as ''Two Tales of the Occult'', and in 1986 as ''Two Strange Tales''. A translation by

Ana Cartianu Ana Cartianu (19 April 1908 – 24 April 2001) was a Romanian academic, essayist and translator. Biography She was born in Urșani village, in Horezu commune, Vâlcea County. She studied at Bedford College, London (1928–32), and received her de ...

was published in 1992 under the title ''Doctor Honigberger's Secret'', as part of the Eliade omnibus volume ''Mystic Stories''.

References

1940 fantasy novels Romanian novellas Romanian novels Works by Mircea Eliade Novels set in India {{1940s-fantasy-novel-stub

See also

References