"No one who has read it has failed to love it."—Nicholas Lezard, Guardian "Szerb belongs with the master novelists of the twentieth century."—Paul Bailey, Daily Telegraph "Just divine . . . the kind of book that makes you imagine the author has had private access to your own soul."?The GuardianThis is the first and only hardback gift edition of this classic title, in which a businessman on honeymoon struggles to reconcile his bourgeois duties with an irresistible desire to resurrect his lost youth among Hungary's bright young people. Antal Szerb's darkly comic novel traces the effects of a socially and sexually claustrophobic world on the life of one man, torn between placid normality and sensational adventure.Antal Szerb was born in 1901 into a cultivated Budapest family of Jewish descent. He was a prolific scholar, publishing books on drama and poetry, as well as influential histories of English, Hungarian, and world literature. He died in the forced labor camp at Balf, hungary, in January 1945. 'Antal Szerb is one of the great European writers' Ali Smith 'A novel to love as well as admire, always playful and ironical, full of brilliant descriptions, bon mots and absurd situations' Guardian A major modern classic: the turbulent story of a businessman torn between middle-class respectability and sensational bohemoia Mihály and Erzsi are on honeymoon in Italy. Mihály has recently joined the respectable family firm in Budapest, but as his gaze passes over the mysterious back-alleys of Venice, memories of his bohemian past reawaken his old desire to wander. When bride and groom become separated at a provincial train station, Mihály embarks on a chaotic and bizarre journey that leads him finally to Rome, where he must reckon with both his past and his future. In this intoxicating and satirical masterpiece, Szerb takes us deep into the conflicting desires of marriage and shows how adulthood can reverberate endlessly with the ache of youth. Part of the Pushkin Press Classics series: timeless storytelling by icons of literature, hand-picked from around the globe Translated by Len Rix Antal Szerb was born in Budapest in 1901. Though of Jewish descent, he was baptised at an early age and remained a lifelong Catholic. He rapidly established himself as a formidable scholar, through studies of Ibsen and Blake and histories of English, Hungarian and world literature. He was a prolific essayist and reviewer, ranging across all the major European languages. Debarred by successive Jewish laws from working in a university, he was subjected to increasing persecution, and finally murdered in a forced labour camp in 1945. Pushkin Press publishes his novels The Pendragon Legend, Oliver VII and his masterpiece Journey by Moonlight, as well as the historical study The Queen's Necklace and Love in a Bottle and Other Stories. An early-twentieth-century classic — the turbulent, dreamlike story of a businessman torn between middle-class respectability and sensational bohemia“No one who has read it has failed to love it.” — Nicholas LezardMihály and Erzsi are on honeymoon in Italy. Mihály has recently joined the respectable family firm in Budapest, but as his gaze passes over the mysterious back-alleys of Venice, memories of his bohemian past reawaken his old desire to wander.When bride and groom become separated at a provincial train station, Mihály embarks on a chaotic and bizarre journey that leads him finally to Rome, where he must reckon with both his past and his future. In this intoxicating and satirical masterpiece, Szerb takes us deep into the conflicting desires of marriage and shows how adulthood can reverberate endlessly with the ache of youth. The restless King Oliver VII of Alturia, an obscure Central European state whose only notable exports are wine and sardines, wants nothing more than an easy life: so, plotting a coup against himself, King Oliver VII escapes to Venice in search of ‘real'experience. There he falls in with a team of con-men and ends up, to his own surprise, impersonating himself. His journey through successive levels of illusion and reality teaches him much about the world, about his own nature and the paradoxes of the human condition. Szerb offered Oliver VII as a translation from a non-existent English writer, A H Redcliff — typical Szerb humor, or a reflection of the fact that as a ‘rootless cosmopolitan'his own work was banned by the Nazi regime?
"No one who has read it has failed to love it." - Nicholas Lezard, Guardian. "Szerb belongs with the master novelists of the twentieth century." - Paul Bailey, Daily Telegraph. Anxious to please his bourgeois father, Mihaly has joined the family firm in Budapest. Pursued by nostalgia for his bohemian youth, he seeks escape in marriage to Erzsi, not realising that she has chosen him as a means to her own rebellion. On their honeymoon in Italy Mihaly "loses" his bride at a provincial station and embarks on a chaotic and bizarre journey that leads him finally to Rome. There all the death-haunted and erotic elements of his past converge, and he, like Erzsi, has finally to choose.
'An absolute treat, deliciously ludic, to be read with a big smile on your face throughout.'—Nicholas Lezard, Guardian AT THE END-OF-LONDON-SEASON soiree, the young Hungarian scholar-dilettante Janos Batky is introduced to the Earl of Gwynedd, a reclusive eccentric who is the subject of strange rumours. Invited to the family seat, Pendragon Castle in North Wales, Batky receives a mysterious phone-call warning him not to go. But he does, and finds himself in a bizarre world of mysticism and romance, animal experimentation, and planned murder. His quest to solve the central mystery takes him down strange byways-old libraries and warehouse cellars, Welsh mountains and underground tombs.
At a party in London, the young scholar-dilettante Janos Batky is introduced to the Earl of Gwynedd, a reclusive eccentric surrounded by strange rumours, who invites him to Pendragon Castle in North Wales. At Pendragon, Batky finds himself in a bizarre world of mysticism and romance, animal experimentation and murderous plans, old libraries, cellars, Welsh mountains and underground tombs.
THE RESTLESS RULER of an obscure Central European state plots a coup against himself and escapes to Venice in search of'real'experience. There he falls in with a team of con-men and ends up, to his own surprise, impersonating himself. His journey through successive levels of illusion and reality teaches him much about the world, about his own nature and the paradoxes of the human condition. At an end-of-the London season soiree, the young Hungarian scholar-dilettante Janos Batky is introduced to the Earl of Gwynedd, a reclusive eccentric who is the subject of strange rumours. Invited to the family seat, Pendragon Castle in North Wales, Batky receives a mysterious phone-call warning him not to go. On his honeymoon in Italy, Mihaly 'loses' his bride at a provincial station and embarks on a chaotic and bizarre journey that leads him finally to Rome. There all the death-haunted and erotic elements of his past converge, and he, and his wife, have to make a choice. A witty reworking of one of the most interesting questions of existentialism, 'what is the Self?', Antal Szerb's Oliver VII is a playful work of comic philosophy. A witty reworking of one of the most interesting questions of existentialism, this is a playful work of comic philosophy Antal Szerb ; Translated From The Hungarian By Len Rix. First Published In Hungary As Oliver Vii In 1942--verso T.p.
