Some weeks ago, whilst pulling more books I don’t have time to read out of the library, I happened to glance up and notice this novel. On their trip to Rome, Mihály jumps off the train to grab an espresso and jumps back on, only to discover he is on a different train, heading not to Rome but Perugia. Lim paints a hard-nosed portrait of middle-aged, single and queer womanhood encircled by the long tail of patriarchy, bolstered by the senseless weaponisation of cultural traditions and the burden of expectation. I don't really have words for why I loved this book so much. After a quick succession of self-inflicted disasters, including running out on a restaurant bill, he tumbles down a hill into a ravine, knocking himself unconscious, and promptly forgets all the Italian he knows. The characters are interesting, and the dialogue is excellent. I'm generally falling in love with Antal Szerb's writing, his gently ironical style and the fact that he both does and doesn't take his characters and their trials seriously. The archive begins in 1908 with 24 issues published that year, and ends abruptly in 1941 with just eight issues. Today he is a nameless person with only the clothes on his back. He tells Mihály that he is angry at him for not looking for ‘people who have gone out of your life’. Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb 5,211 ratings, 4.21 average rating, 462 reviews Open Preview Journey by Moonlight Quotes Showing 1-18 of 18 “In London November isn't a month, it's a state of mind.” ― Antal ... ― Antal Szerb, Journey by Moonlight. Mihály states: I really enjoyed being the sacrificial victim. The trouble began in Venice...' Mihály has dreamt of Italy all his life. However, what should be a happy time quickly turns sour. A digital archive of Nyugat is published online in the original Hungarian. In the matter of art history she was much better informed, and much more discerning, than he, and she had visited Italy before, so he generally left it up to her what they would see, and what they would think when they saw it. He goes home with his father by train, to take up his old post in the family business. 2017 Utas és holdvilág. Antal Szerb was born in Budapest in 1901 to Jewish parents. I owe absolutely nothing to Antal Szerb or to his book, This is the sort of book I love...one that you come across somewhere (in this case, a castle library in Italy) and feel sure that it was hiding there all this time, waiting for you to find it. He urged me to read Journey by Moonlight and sent me a wonderful review from The Guardian by Nicholas Lezard (28 July 2001) and it inspired me to read it. ISBN-10: 1847495826 Those friends, drinking and smoking with no adult supervision, became so dedicated to each other they became their own family. Mihály thinks János is angry with him because he wrongly accused him of stealing his watch at a party in London. The alleys delighted Szerb, too. It's insightful, among other things, about love and relationships, life and death. And her desk is now a lifeboat as she ‘magicks’ herself onto a bench seat, a sole survivor adrift in open sea. We talked about everything including those special authors that mean so much and Antal Szerb was one that I had not heard of before. The quality of Hungarian writers such as Krudy, Kostolanyi and Krasznahorkai are no longer a secret to the informed reader but it might be Szerb that tops them all. This book gets better as you go--read it to the end before you judge it. Journey by Moonlight tells the story of Mihály and Erzsi. Sovereignty was never ceded, and the struggles for justice are ongoing. He urged me to read Journey by Moonlight and sent me a wonderful review from The Guardian by Nicholas Lezard (28 July 2001) and it inspired me to read it. Plus, free two-day shipping for six months when you sign up for Amazon Prime for Students. In hospital, nothing is expected of him but to breathe in and out. He tried his hand at gothic parody (The Pendragon Legend), historical fiction (Oliver VII and The Queen’s Necklace – both 1943), travel writing (The Third Tower: Journeys Through Italy) and short fiction (Love in a Bottle, 1935). This psychological novel captivates with its diversity. ), “In London November isn't a month, it's a state of mind.”, Every January, I read books only by authors I have never before read. Over time he reconnects with members of his close circle of friends from his schooldays in Budapest, now scattered and having taken up very different lives in Umbria and Rome. Agnes MacDonald, in her dissertation on the Nyugat writers – the only English text on the subject more detailed than a Wikipedia entry – quotes from a letter Szerb wrote in 1937:. Mihály is quite an antihero, but I can't help liking him - perhaps just more so because it's nice to for once read abo. Surely you've thought of it. Although Mihaly meets no one, he emerges a changed man. Our work is made possible through the support of the following organizations. There are plenty of examples out there that would contradict this idea in a second: a man waking up as a cockroach is the first that comes to mind. The atmosphere is very strong and I love all the travelling in Europe and brooding about life and death and the displays of the author's huge cultural knowledge that don't come across as snobbish but just natural. Like Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. How quickly marriage goes from commitment to lobotomy! Mihály is released. This isn't an abandoned lover or friend or a shirked duty. Yet in the very act of aligning a creative embrace of happenstance with the cycle of the seasons there is an article of faith.’. He does this alone because. The actual novel is not as good as the cover art. He is being taken care of. The doctor assures Mihály that nothing is wrong with him. He has his appetite back. This psychological novel captivates with its diversity. … The boys gave me a huge ovation … I am now a famous person. Welcome back. It's the story of a recently-married Hungarian couple, Mihály and Erzsi, who have travelled to Italy for their honeymoon. ISBN: 9781847495822. This ‘baffling unity’ – the perfect mix of world-weariness and innocence – is perhaps what so disturbed the children. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for [( By Szerb, Antal ( Author )Journey by Moonlight (New York Review Books Classics) Paperback Oct- 07-2014 )] at Amazon.com. January 1st 2001 It will be something like Le Grand Meaulnes and Les Enfants terribles. Journey by Moonlight is one of the best known Hungarian novels! During the Second World War, Szerb was sent to a forced labor camp in Balf. To see what your friends thought of this book, Mr. Len Rix does not speak Hungarian and used a midwife and a previous English version that appeared as early as 1990 and 1994. Start by marking “Journey by Moonlight” as Want to Read: Error rating book. I regret the years I have lived without knowing that he was the real thing - while having wasted so much time trying unsuccessfully to enjoy all the other "novelists from the other Europe" Philip Roth used to try to flog. ― Antal Szerb, quote from Journey by Moonlight “The nature of civilisation everywhere was such that, even with the Greeks, it diverted people’s minds away from the reality of death.” “as long as we keep moving, we don’t notice how tired we are, but only when we sit down.” He studied Hungarian, German and later English, obtaining a doctorate in 1924. Mihály never escapes. Léger understands the literary power of the image and of narrative; the thing and its multiple renderings through mediation. Their narrowness was glorious, offering a single, right path. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. This is only the first time a character appears, apparently out of nowhere, to hurtle the adventure forward. On New Years Eve 1944, he recited both Shakespeare and the Hungarian poet Attila József to his friends in the camp. ‘My husband’s beloved schoolmate.’. This tension is a source of the great power of Léger’s extraordinary short books. The use of two characters allows for a refraction of homosexual desire, but it is also a jab at conformity. He is compared to Schulz but I think that's most likely due to their shared tragic deaths. A doctor who speaks English is called to his bedside. Szerb, who grew up in a bourgeois family, loathed bourgeois ‘civilisation’ which, he wrote, ‘amounts to little more than “when I die I want hot and cold running water in my tomb”’. JOURNEY BY MOONLIGHT is set in the 1930s, but its atmosphere is that of the 19th Century. But I'm afraid I can't really explain what appealed to me so much about this book, it's something that either speaks to you or doesn't. Are you spending this season bundling up against the chill or enjoying summery southern hemisphere vibes (in which case we are... A major classic of 1930s literature, Antal Szerb's. Szerb’s first foray into literature beyond the pages of Nyugat was his History of Hungarian Literature (1934), a book that was hugely ambitious and a little reckless. ‘This is also Éva. Nonetheless, in, Boy, am I ever having a problem finishing books lately! It was the first thing I thought about when I woke up, and I looked forward to it the whole day long, yes …, When Erszi asks why, he replies, ‘Hmmm … well, for erotic reasons, if you follow me.’ She doesn’t. Mihály thinks, ‘So this is marriage’. http://www.approaching-my-literature.com/HHR1990.html, Why does Mr. Rix translate the original Hungarian "sajto barok" as Cheese barons? 2016 Száz vers. When their relationship didn’t work out, he rebounded with Lilla Lakner, Klára’s younger sister, whom he married in 1925. The messages grab him by the neck and throw him off course, until he finds an unlikely rhythm, which becomes the rhythm of the book and its distinctive style. In the intervening years, Szerb was alone and abroad in Paris and London. They spend all their time play-acting -- years – to the point where that became the whole purpose of their lives. After escaping a ‘fascista’ who recognizes him – not as his own man, but as Erszi’s lost husband – he finds himself in a strange hotel with plenty of time to think. The writing is clear and appealing and there are some compelling ideas throughout the book. 'On the train, everything seemed fine. János tells him that he did steal the watch, which has nothing to do with anything. Ervin tells him, ‘No. Along with our tormenting desire that this evanescent thing should last, there stands our obsession with a primal continuity linking us with everything that is. The author is Hungarian, and the novel was originally published in 1937; its English translation appeared in 2000. Appearing like apparitions, Mihály’s old and new friends have messages for him, and they deliver them as if at the bidding of his unconscious. I really should stop thinking of book-finishing as a moral issue. More confusingly, Éva is only the ‘erotic catalyst’ for the children’s games. The book describes the process of self-discovery, because each of the described characters is searching for the meaning of his life. Travel promised romance, new landscapes, hotels, cafés. Mihály’s formative passion was a desire to die – no wonder his great attempt at being civilised is impossible. They travel to Ravenna. It is the book that was placed in Rix’s hand by a Hungarian friend who firmly insisted he read it, adding: ‘Every educated Hungarian knows and loves this book.’, Mihály and Erszi carry on with their honeymoon. We find the state of affairs that binds us to our random and ephemeral individuality hard to bear. Erszi confronts him, ringing her hands. It's clo. He is generally considered to be one of the major Hungarian writers of the 20th century. When he wakes up, a kindly nurse is looking down at him. Fast and free shipping free returns cash on delivery available on eligible purchase. ", See all 9 questions about Journey by Moonlight…, The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War, 2020 August: Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb, July 2016 Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb, Heat Up the Holidays with These 27 Winter Romances. Logic is certainly not a concept that I would associate with this novel. Those friends, drinking and smoking with no adult supervision, became so dedicated to each other they became their own family. Our civilization presents us with a marvelous mental machinery designed to help us forget, for most of our lives, that one day we too will die. Eva disappears the night before her wedding. The quartet was conceived as an exercise in writing to the moment: a sequence of novels written and published at the rate of one a year, set in part at the time of their composition, responding to events as they unfolded in the wake of the bitterly fought Brexit referendum of 2016. He was of a lower class background but hung out with a group of four or five friends in a wealthy neighborhood of Budapest, Castle Hill. A great many critics have reproved the relaxed, often slightly mocking tone of my books, insisting that I cannot possibly respect literature if I talk about it in such a cheerfully familiar way. The play-acting leads him to believe that dying is an erotic act and that death is the great ecstasy. He was too weak to stand that day. The characters are interesting, and the dialogue is excellent. There was no way to expand: you can’t improve on perfection. So civilisation – bourgeois European civilisation, at least – is a trick. But while Szerb strolled the city streets alone, disconcerted by the ripples of fascism, Mihály always has plenty of company. The trouble began in Venice, with the back-alleys.’ Late on the couple’s first night in Venice, Mihály leaves Erszi at their hotel to have one last tiny drink. Mihály is quite an antihero, but I can't help liking him - perhaps just more so because it's nice to for once read about a character who makes me feel practical and efficient in comparison, instead of characters who make me feel inferior. Journey by Moonlight (translated by Len Rix, review copy courtesy of the publisher) is a beautiful, entertaining novel, a book whose pages seem to fly by. Now I am writing a novel about nostalgia. She does not grasp the idea Georges Bataille expressed in a paradox: that ‘eroticism, it may be said, is assenting to life up to the point of death’. Szerb playfully complained: People in this country expect scholarly works to be unreadable; from which they are led, quite logically, to the erroneous conclusion that anything that is readable must not be scholarly. In The Pendragon Legend (1934), János the academic triumphantly opens a locked door with the remark, ‘It now dawned on me how very clever I was to have once perused an excellent standard work on old English locksmithery.’, Szerb’s disdain for academia did not curtail his pursuit of a new standard of research. I counted over 70 such funny mistranslations. The novel begins with Mihály and Erzsi, both of solidly Budapest bourgeois background, on honeymoon in Italy. An excellent novel by Antal Szerb which can be read in several different ways: as a nostalgic effort to revive youth and its obscure longings, such as an erotic wish for death; as an individual fight against conformism and the herd-like qualities of the masses; as a travel-novel set in 1937 Italy. Mihály is not your typical protagonist. Mb. The narrator’s watery fancies of libraries turning into vessels become hard to distinguish from the hallucinations of the shipwreck survivors she’s researching . 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