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Journey by Moonlight
A major classic of 1930s literature, Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight (Utas és Holdvilág) is the fantastically moving and darkly funny story of a bourgeois businessman torn between duty and desire.
'On the train, everything seemed fine. The trouble began in Venice ...'
Mihály has dreamt of Italy all his life. When he finally travels there on his honeymoon with wife Erszi, he soon abandons her in order to find himself, haunted by old friends from his turbulent teenage days: beautiful, kind Tamas, brash and wicked Janos, and the sexless yet unforgettable Eva. Journeying from Venice to Ravenna, Florence, and Rome, Mihály loses himself in Venetian back alleys and in the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside, driven by an irresistible desire to resurrect his lost youth among Hungary's Bright Young Things, and knowing that he must soon decide whether to return to the ambiguous promise of a placid adult life, or allow himself to be seduced into a life of scandalous adventure.
Journey by Moonlight (Utas és Holdvilág) is an undoubted masterpiece of Modernist literature, a darkly comic novel cut through by sex and death, which traces the effects of a socially and sexually claustrophobic world on the life of one man.
Translated from the Hungarian by the renowned and award-winning Len Rix, Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight (first published as Utas és Holdvilág in Hungary in 1937) is the consummate European novel of the inter-war period.
'On the train, everything seemed fine. The trouble began in Venice ...'
Mihály has dreamt of Italy all his life. When he finally travels there on his honeymoon with wife Erszi, he soon abandons her in order to find himself, haunted by old friends from his turbulent teenage days: beautiful, kind Tamas, brash and wicked Janos, and the sexless yet unforgettable Eva. Journeying from Venice to Ravenna, Florence, and Rome, Mihály loses himself in Venetian back alleys and in the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside, driven by an irresistible desire to resurrect his lost youth among Hungary's Bright Young Things, and knowing that he must soon decide whether to return to the ambiguous promise of a placid adult life, or allow himself to be seduced into a life of scandalous adventure.
Journey by Moonlight (Utas és Holdvilág) is an undoubted masterpiece of Modernist literature, a darkly comic novel cut through by sex and death, which traces the effects of a socially and sexually claustrophobic world on the life of one man.
Translated from the Hungarian by the renowned and award-winning Len Rix, Antal Szerb's Journey by Moonlight (first published as Utas és Holdvilág in Hungary in 1937) is the consummate European novel of the inter-war period.
299 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1937
About the author
Antal Szerb
37 books206 followersAntal Szerb was a noted Hungarian scholar and writer. He is generally considered to be one of the major Hungarian writers of the 20th century.
Szerb was born in 1901 to assimilated Jewish parents in Budapest, but baptized Catholic. He studied Hungarian, German and later English, obtaining a doctorate in 1924. From 1924 to 1929 he lived in France and Italy, also spending a year in London, England.
As a student he published essays on Georg Trakl and Stefan George, and quickly established a formidable reputation as a scholar, writing erudite studies of William Blake and Henrik Ibsen among other works. Elected President of the Hungarian Literary Academy in 1933 - aged just 32 -, he published his first novel, The Pendragon Legend (which draws upon his personal experience of living in Britain) the following year. His second and best-known work, Utas és holdvilág, known in English as Journey by Moonlight, came out in 1937. He was made a Professor of Literature at the University of Szeged the same year. He was twice awarded the Baumgarten Prize, in 1935 and 1937.
In 1941 he published a History of World Literature which continues to be authoritative today. He also published a volume on novel theory and a book about the history of Hungarian literature. Given numerous chances to escape antisemitic persecution (as late as 1944), he chose to remain in Hungary, where his last novel, a Pirandellian fantasy about a king staging a coup against himself, then having to impersonate himself, Oliver VII, was published in 1942. It was passed off as a translation from the English, as no 'Jewish' work could have been printed at the time.
Szerb was deported to a concentration camp late in 1944, and was beaten to death there in January 1945, at the age of 43. He was survived by his wife, Klára Bálint, who died in 1992.
Szerb was born in 1901 to assimilated Jewish parents in Budapest, but baptized Catholic. He studied Hungarian, German and later English, obtaining a doctorate in 1924. From 1924 to 1929 he lived in France and Italy, also spending a year in London, England.
As a student he published essays on Georg Trakl and Stefan George, and quickly established a formidable reputation as a scholar, writing erudite studies of William Blake and Henrik Ibsen among other works. Elected President of the Hungarian Literary Academy in 1933 - aged just 32 -, he published his first novel, The Pendragon Legend (which draws upon his personal experience of living in Britain) the following year. His second and best-known work, Utas és holdvilág, known in English as Journey by Moonlight, came out in 1937. He was made a Professor of Literature at the University of Szeged the same year. He was twice awarded the Baumgarten Prize, in 1935 and 1937.
In 1941 he published a History of World Literature which continues to be authoritative today. He also published a volume on novel theory and a book about the history of Hungarian literature. Given numerous chances to escape antisemitic persecution (as late as 1944), he chose to remain in Hungary, where his last novel, a Pirandellian fantasy about a king staging a coup against himself, then having to impersonate himself, Oliver VII, was published in 1942. It was passed off as a translation from the English, as no 'Jewish' work could have been printed at the time.
Szerb was deported to a concentration camp late in 1944, and was beaten to death there in January 1945, at the age of 43. He was survived by his wife, Klára Bálint, who died in 1992.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 764 reviews
April 2, 2021
Journey by Moonlight is a strange book about strange people… The narration is full of concealed irony and unexpected turns…
All the characters are outsiders and their relationships with each other and the world are thoroughly unconventional…
And there is a hidden fatal love…
The story is imbued with the dark contemplations on the nature of death… And the protagonist is obsessed with thanatomania and hopelessness of existence…
Will he manage to surmount his obsessive fatality?
For fatalists death is an ultimate mistress.
All the characters are outsiders and their relationships with each other and the world are thoroughly unconventional…
For love, there has to be a distance across which the lovers can approach one another. The approach is of course just an illusion, because love in fact separates people. Love is a polarity. Two lovers are the two oppositely charged poles of the universe.
And there is a hidden fatal love…
Then I discovered, as the two of us sat there, like a lady with her gentleman, that she had become a totally different woman, a strange, splendid, stunning woman, whereas the old Éva would have carried within her, ineradicably, the old dark, sick sweetness of my youth.
But generally Éva didn’t give a damn for me. I rarely managed to see her and when I did she showed no interest in me. Her restlessness was somehow pathological.
The story is imbued with the dark contemplations on the nature of death… And the protagonist is obsessed with thanatomania and hopelessness of existence…
Will he manage to surmount his obsessive fatality?
Mihály’s road led downwards, even if he survived, survived everything and came to tranquil, tedious old age. We carry within ourselves the direction our lives will take. Within ourselves burn the timeless, fateful stars.
For fatalists death is an ultimate mistress.
March 19, 2023
[Revised, spoiler hidden 3/19/23]
The basic theme is that an adult man (he’s 36) is in love with nostalgia for his youth. He was of a lower-class background but hung out with a group of four or five friends in the wealthy Castle Hill neighborhood of Budapest during the time between World Wars. These young people spend all their time play acting -- years – to the point where that activity became the whole purpose of their lives.
Those friends, drinking and smoking with no adult supervision, became so dedicated to each other that they became like a family. Even as adults they are still seeking each other out and carrying the burden of those they lost, such as one who committed suicide. These experiences lead the man to believe that dying is an erotic act and that death is the great ecstasy.
(I’m reminded of another Hungarian author’s novel, Sandor Marai’s The Rebels, which would have been written about the same time also in Budapest. In that novel I thought the play acting and dressing-out of the four boys in that story was simply over-the-top, but perhaps that was a fad at the time in Budapest. Marai’s book was published in 1930; Szerb’s in 1937.)
The man is on his honeymoon in Italy. He has what we might call a nervous breakdown. He leaves his wife and wanders the countryside. He meets several of these old friends, several of whom ended up in Italy. Some were searching for him.
One man from the old group has become a celebrated monk in the monastery at Gubbio. Another seeks the main character out. He’s kind of a hustler and gets involved with the main character’s abandoned wife. The woman of the play acting group is illusive.
Some interesting quotes:
The roving man gets involved with a young American woman. “He had won her complete confidence. By evening he had gleaned everything there was to know about her, not that there was anything worth knowing.”
“I know what’s wrong with me, he told the doctor. Acute nostalgia. I want to be young again. Is there a cure for that?”
“The people, the vegetative sea of the Italian masses, bore the changing times on their back with astonishing passivity, and lived quite unconnected with their own remarkable history. He suspected that even Republican and Imperial Rome, with its huge gestures, its heroics and bestial stupidities, had been nothing more than a virile drama on the surface, the whole Roman Empire the mere private affair of a few brilliant actors, while down below the Italians placidly ate their pasta, sang songs of love, and begat their countless offspring.”
I enjoyed the travelog aspect of the book where he describes each town he visited. On the map I’ve included those towns which were mainly in Umbria (north of Rome, south of Tuscany): Ravenna, Arezzo, Siena, Cortona, Perugia, Gubbio, Assissi, Spello, Foligno, Spoleto and Norcia.
This was a good read, I gave it a 4.5 rounded up to 5. Note that this book has a very high rating on GR - 4.3.
This Hungarian author wrote about eight novels in his short life (1901-1945). He was born to secular Jewish parents and raised as a Catholic but that did not save him from death in the concentration camps. A terrible loss to literature.
Castle Hill, Budapest from i.pinimg.com
Map of Umbria from i.pinimg.com
Hugarian stamp honoring the author from colnect.com
The basic theme is that an adult man (he’s 36) is in love with nostalgia for his youth. He was of a lower-class background but hung out with a group of four or five friends in the wealthy Castle Hill neighborhood of Budapest during the time between World Wars. These young people spend all their time play acting -- years – to the point where that activity became the whole purpose of their lives.
Those friends, drinking and smoking with no adult supervision, became so dedicated to each other that they became like a family. Even as adults they are still seeking each other out and carrying the burden of those they lost, such as one who committed suicide. These experiences lead the man to believe that dying is an erotic act and that death is the great ecstasy.
(I’m reminded of another Hungarian author’s novel, Sandor Marai’s The Rebels, which would have been written about the same time also in Budapest. In that novel I thought the play acting and dressing-out of the four boys in that story was simply over-the-top, but perhaps that was a fad at the time in Budapest. Marai’s book was published in 1930; Szerb’s in 1937.)
The man is on his honeymoon in Italy. He has what we might call a nervous breakdown. He leaves his wife and wanders the countryside. He meets several of these old friends, several of whom ended up in Italy. Some were searching for him.
One man from the old group has become a celebrated monk in the monastery at Gubbio. Another seeks the main character out. He’s kind of a hustler and gets involved with the main character’s abandoned wife. The woman of the play acting group is illusive.
Some interesting quotes:
The roving man gets involved with a young American woman. “He had won her complete confidence. By evening he had gleaned everything there was to know about her, not that there was anything worth knowing.”
“I know what’s wrong with me, he told the doctor. Acute nostalgia. I want to be young again. Is there a cure for that?”
“The people, the vegetative sea of the Italian masses, bore the changing times on their back with astonishing passivity, and lived quite unconnected with their own remarkable history. He suspected that even Republican and Imperial Rome, with its huge gestures, its heroics and bestial stupidities, had been nothing more than a virile drama on the surface, the whole Roman Empire the mere private affair of a few brilliant actors, while down below the Italians placidly ate their pasta, sang songs of love, and begat their countless offspring.”
I enjoyed the travelog aspect of the book where he describes each town he visited. On the map I’ve included those towns which were mainly in Umbria (north of Rome, south of Tuscany): Ravenna, Arezzo, Siena, Cortona, Perugia, Gubbio, Assissi, Spello, Foligno, Spoleto and Norcia.
This was a good read, I gave it a 4.5 rounded up to 5. Note that this book has a very high rating on GR - 4.3.
This Hungarian author wrote about eight novels in his short life (1901-1945). He was born to secular Jewish parents and raised as a Catholic but that did not save him from death in the concentration camps. A terrible loss to literature.
Castle Hill, Budapest from i.pinimg.com
Map of Umbria from i.pinimg.com
Hugarian stamp honoring the author from colnect.com
September 1, 2017
Ο Ταξιδιώτης
παρέα με με έναν αυτόχειρα φιλόσοφο της ουτοπίας, μια τραγικά μοιραία γυναίκα,έναν απόλυτο εραστή της ποίησης και της απομόνωσης και έναν επαγγελματία φίλο με έμφυτο ταλέντο στην εκμετάλλευση των πάντων.
Το φεγγαρόφωτο
παρέα με τους νεανικούς έρωτες,την ξενοιασιά των εφηβικών εσωτερικών αναζητήσεων,τους ευσεβείς πόθους για επιτυχία στη ζωή,την επιβολή της γυναικείας σαγήνης στους πάντα ανώριμους ανδρικούς πόθους,την πραγματικότητα,τη συμβατικότητα,την ωρίμανση,και την όψιμη επανάσταση που καταντάει επαναστατημένη και αποτυχημένη στάση ζωής.
Κατάληξη: μεταμέλεια και συμβιβασμός ή αυτογνωσία και μοιραίος ερωτικός προορισμός;
Ο Ταξιδιώτης των ναυαγισμένων προσδοκιών και το φεγγαρόφωτο των ασημένιων ονείρων που ξεθωριάζουν με το φως του ήλιου και της πραγματικότητας,συνιστούν ένα υπεροχο μυθιστόρημα.
Μια διαχρονικά ανεξίτηλη πραγματεία πανανθρώπινης θεματικής έκτασης απευθυνόμενη σε κάθε εποχή,σε κάθε ηλικία,σε κάθε ιδιοσυγκρασία.
Είναι ένα σκοτεινό και μελαγχολικό δράμα με εξωπραγματικές αντανακλάσεις,παραληρήματα ενδοσκόπησης και νοσταλγίας,εκρήξεις χρόνιων καταπιέσεων σε ψυχούλες ονειροπόλες και διαταραγμένες απο έρωτα και νοσταλγική μνήμη.
Όταν όλο σου το είναι κατακλύζεται απο επιθυμίες απραγματοποίητες,απωθημένα πάθη και σκληρούς αποχωρισμούς, έρχεται η ψυχική διαταραχή να σου επιβάλει τον πόνο της χαμένης αθωότητας και τον πόθο του θανάτου.
Φτάνει η στιγμή του απολογισμού των χαμένων προορισμών και ονείρων και στο μέτρημα των ανταλλαγών για την ευτυχία και την ολοκλήρωση υπερτερούν κατα πολύ οι επιβεβλημένες επιθυμίες και οι αναγκαστικές δεσμεύσεις.
Αυτομάτως δημιουργείται σοβαρό πλεονέκτημα σε ψυχολογικά συμπλέγματα και προσωπικούς λαβυρίνθους που οδηγούν σε εγκλωβισμό και κατάρρευση.
Ο Ταξιδιώτης μας μπλέκει στην κατάκτηση της αυτογνωσίας οπλισμένος με απωθημένα,φαντάσματα,ενοχές,δεσμεύσεις και μια εξιδανικευμένη παιδική εμμονή για το κορίτσι των εφηβικών του παθών.
Όλα αυτά συσωρευμένα σε πολλά χρόνια αναγκαστικής καταπίεσης και κοινωνικών συμβάσεων γίνονται ο επιθανάτιος ρόγχος της ενήλικης και κατ'επιφασιν τακτοποιημένης ζωής του.
Γίνονται παρέμβασεις,προφάσεις, ελιξίρια και παραισθησιογόνα που τον καταστρέφουν.
Παραπέει ανάμεσα σε ρεαλισμό και βιώματα. Αναζητά απεγνωσμένα να ικανοποιήσει με όποιο κόστος τα «θέλω» της χαμένης του νεότητας.
Ένα φλέρτ θανάτου,ένα μοιραία αναχρονιστικό μα αναμενόμενο δράμα,ένας στοχασμός στα μέγιστα ανθρώπινα ζητήματα που καθορίζουν το ντόμινο της προσωπικής ευτυχίας.
«Ο έρωτας διαφυλάσσει μέχρι τέλους τη στιγμή που γεννήθηκε κι αυτή που αγαπιέται δεν γερνάει ποτέ ...»
Καλή ανάγνωση!!
Πολλούς ασπασμούς!!
WHO I AM
παρέα με με έναν αυτόχειρα φιλόσοφο της ουτοπίας, μια τραγικά μοιραία γυναίκα,έναν απόλυτο εραστή της ποίησης και της απομόνωσης και έναν επαγγελματία φίλο με έμφυτο ταλέντο στην εκμετάλλευση των πάντων.
Το φεγγαρόφωτο
παρέα με τους νεανικούς έρωτες,την ξενοιασιά των εφηβικών εσωτερικών αναζητήσεων,τους ευσεβείς πόθους για επιτυχία στη ζωή,την επιβολή της γυναικείας σαγήνης στους πάντα ανώριμους ανδρικούς πόθους,την πραγματικότητα,τη συμβατικότητα,την ωρίμανση,και την όψιμη επανάσταση που καταντάει επαναστατημένη και αποτυχημένη στάση ζωής.
Κατάληξη: μεταμέλεια και συμβιβασμός ή αυτογνωσία και μοιραίος ερωτικός προορισμός;
Ο Ταξιδιώτης των ναυαγισμένων προσδοκιών και το φεγγαρόφωτο των ασημένιων ονείρων που ξεθωριάζουν με το φως του ήλιου και της πραγματικότητας,συνιστούν ένα υπεροχο μυθιστόρημα.
Μια διαχρονικά ανεξίτηλη πραγματεία πανανθρώπινης θεματικής έκτασης απευθυνόμενη σε κάθε εποχή,σε κάθε ηλικία,σε κάθε ιδιοσυγκρασία.
Είναι ένα σκοτεινό και μελαγχολικό δράμα με εξωπραγματικές αντανακλάσεις,παραληρήματα ενδοσκόπησης και νοσταλγίας,εκρήξεις χρόνιων καταπιέσεων σε ψυχούλες ονειροπόλες και διαταραγμένες απο έρωτα και νοσταλγική μνήμη.
Όταν όλο σου το είναι κατακλύζεται απο επιθυμίες απραγματοποίητες,απωθημένα πάθη και σκληρούς αποχωρισμούς, έρχεται η ψυχική διαταραχή να σου επιβάλει τον πόνο της χαμένης αθωότητας και τον πόθο του θανάτου.
Φτάνει η στιγμή του απολογισμού των χαμένων προορισμών και ονείρων και στο μέτρημα των ανταλλαγών για την ευτυχία και την ολοκλήρωση υπερτερούν κατα πολύ οι επιβεβλημένες επιθυμίες και οι αναγκαστικές δεσμεύσεις.
Αυτομάτως δημιουργείται σοβαρό πλεονέκτημα σε ψυχολογικά συμπλέγματα και προσωπικούς λαβυρίνθους που οδηγούν σε εγκλωβισμό και κατάρρευση.
Ο Ταξιδιώτης μας μπλέκει στην κατάκτηση της αυτογνωσίας οπλισμένος με απωθημένα,φαντάσματα,ενοχές,δεσμεύσεις και μια εξιδανικευμένη παιδική εμμονή για το κορίτσι των εφηβικών του παθών.
Όλα αυτά συσωρευμένα σε πολλά χρόνια αναγκαστικής καταπίεσης και κοινωνικών συμβάσεων γίνονται ο επιθανάτιος ρόγχος της ενήλικης και κατ'επιφασιν τακτοποιημένης ζωής του.
Γίνονται παρέμβασεις,προφάσεις, ελιξίρια και παραισθησιογόνα που τον καταστρέφουν.
Παραπέει ανάμεσα σε ρεαλισμό και βιώματα. Αναζητά απεγνωσμένα να ικανοποιήσει με όποιο κόστος τα «θέλω» της χαμένης του νεότητας.
Ένα φλέρτ θανάτου,ένα μοιραία αναχρονιστικό μα αναμενόμενο δράμα,ένας στοχασμός στα μέγιστα ανθρώπινα ζητήματα που καθορίζουν το ντόμινο της προσωπικής ευτυχίας.
«Ο έρωτας διαφυλάσσει μέχρι τέλους τη στιγμή που γεννήθηκε κι αυτή που αγαπιέται δεν γερνάει ποτέ ...»
Καλή ανάγνωση!!
Πολλούς ασπασμούς!!
WHO I AM
February 24, 2021
Antal Szerb manages with his novel “Yolcu ve Ayisigi” to set a deep regressive element, the unfulfilled dreams of youth, which shape the life of every adult in some way. This psychological novel captivates with its diversity. In beautiful sentences Antal Szerb illustrates the Tuscan Villages and the Umbrain villages. He writes wonderfully calm, poetic and full of symbolism and each sentence is a pleasure to read. The book describes the process of self-discovery, because each of the described characters is searching for the meaning of his life. With a clear, understandable and perfectly fitting language the author manages to get the readers full concentration.
October 17, 2023
One would like to think that after a recent marriage, the happy couple would set their sights on radiant and flourishing years spent in each others harmonious company; swanning off on a honeymoon filled with memories of passion and delights. Forget the past. Look to the future.
Antal Szerb is having none of it. As this novel is predominantly about nostalgia. A heavy nostalgia that is dragged around like weights tied to one's feet. There is no escape from it, there is no cure.
Hungarian newlyweds Mihály and Erzsi are taking in the pleasures of Tuscany by train, after a stay in Venice before heading on to Rome. But end up getting separated, leaving Erzsi to travel on alone. Early on, there is already a turbulent signal that their relationship is doomed. Mihály, lives a conventional bourgeois life, part of his father's firm and set up reasonably well financially, you would think he is a man with no problems. But he cannot let go of the past, and in particular his love for Éva, the sister of his old friend Tamás, who apparently took his own life. To escape his nostalgia, he seduces Erzsi from a friend, she gets divorced, and marries him. Whilst honeymooning the spotlight falls on Mihály, although well travelled he has always avoided Italy, we soon find out why. A flashback story commences after bumping into an old acquaintance, he opens up to Erzsi on his youth in Pest, and the reasons for his re-emerging nostalgia. Although this flashback sequence is pivotal to the whole novel, the great thing also, is that it goes on for some time and reads like a Superbly told short-story itself.
As the novel progresses, other themes crop up, religion, fascism (this being Mussolini's Italy) and even magic realism, that are intricately woven into the tapestry of Szerb's story. Erzsi herself seems to be negotiating a path that mirrors and sometimes inverts Mihály's. After leaving Rome for Paris later on, she succumbs to the power of her previous husband who is planning a financial deal to get her back. The reader then starts to take on a parallel narrative, looking at their their journeys and experiences that play out like a musical counterpoint in a two-voice fugue. The psychological study of Mihály under great turmoil is observed perfectly, as he wanders aimlessly around Italy without Erzsi, but she is already almost forgotten. Money is a problem and he is crippled by an immense fatigue. It's at this point the faces of the past start to reemerge, not just in his mind, but actually. Could Éva still hold the key to his future?
Antal Szerb is another in a list of lost Hungarian maestros of literature, and he struck all the right notes for me. With Journey by Moonlight, hardly a single metaphor or vivid image fails to recur elsewhere, although varied, not a single thread is left on the reel in the way Szerb meticulously handles his work. And another aspect you take on board away from the characters is how the landscape shapes the novel, taking in places like Venice, Florence, Siena, Rome and Paris. Places you would think would work wonders for most couples; but not here. In fact Szerb based some of the journeying on his own trip to Italy in 1936, which was recorded in a philosophical travelogue (The Third Tower)..."I always travel to Italy as if it were my last time there, and when I first see one of its towns, it is as if I were revisiting it and, at the same time, also bidding it farewell".
Whether in the depths of nostalgia, this collectivist authoritarian state was a growing concern for Jewish-born Szerb, as the dark clouds of Fascism and Nazism started there own journey towards war. And these concerns show up in the novel only in the most delicate allusions, like when reading a newspaper, or talking briefly with the locals. You feel Mihály's own storm brewing from within. Like war, unsure of its outcome.
Can't remember who recommended this, but thank you. I owe you one. I loved it; I loved everything about it. One of great European novels from the first half of the 20th century.
October 26, 2023
First of all, let me tell you as a Hungarian who read the novel both in Hungarian and in English that the translation is simply brilliant. Len Rix, did full credit to the original text and Antal Szerb's genius.
So, praising the translation to the skies was the easy part. The hard part is, why I love this book so much.
There are people who like entertaining the idea that they are simply not of this world.
The main character, Mihály certainly likes to think of himself as such a person.
In his youth, he belonged to a very select "gang" of intellectuals pushing things to the limit of morality and beyond: playing weird games sometimes endangering their own lives. He thinks of himself as the Great Outsider who still has the insight into life's mysteries that is denied to ordinary mortals.
During the exposé of his past and his present and his almost picaresque journey, the author first leads the readers to believe it is so, just to rap both us and the MC on the nose sharply and prove that it's nothing of the sort. Mihály is just like a rest of us: thinking of his own inner dramas as something momentous, disparaging other people and in the meantime totally misjudging them (like he does his own wife). He is mercilessly mocked and yet deeply understood & accepted by the author. And that is what makes Antal Szerb such wonderful writer: you truly believe he has The Insight into the human mind & heart & soul.
I think the novel is essentially a comedy, yet it balances on the precarious precipice of the tragic, where you think it will eventually fall, but Antal Szerb handles the narrative wonderfully and never loses the balance or the focus.
So, praising the translation to the skies was the easy part. The hard part is, why I love this book so much.
There are people who like entertaining the idea that they are simply not of this world.
The main character, Mihály certainly likes to think of himself as such a person.
In his youth, he belonged to a very select "gang" of intellectuals pushing things to the limit of morality and beyond: playing weird games sometimes endangering their own lives. He thinks of himself as the Great Outsider who still has the insight into life's mysteries that is denied to ordinary mortals.
During the exposé of his past and his present and his almost picaresque journey, the author first leads the readers to believe it is so, just to rap both us and the MC on the nose sharply and prove that it's nothing of the sort. Mihály is just like a rest of us: thinking of his own inner dramas as something momentous, disparaging other people and in the meantime totally misjudging them (like he does his own wife). He is mercilessly mocked and yet deeply understood & accepted by the author. And that is what makes Antal Szerb such wonderful writer: you truly believe he has The Insight into the human mind & heart & soul.
I think the novel is essentially a comedy, yet it balances on the precarious precipice of the tragic, where you think it will eventually fall, but Antal Szerb handles the narrative wonderfully and never loses the balance or the focus.
December 5, 2017
Yolcu ve Ayışığı, tarif edilmesi çok zor bir kitap. Öncelikle içerik bakımından, birçok farklı temayı içinde barındıran ve bundan 80 yıl önce yayımlanmasına rağmen (ilk basımı 1937) tartıştığı her kavram günümüzde aynen devam eden çağının üstü bir büyük eser. Kararsız, ne mutlu ne mutsuz, hiçbir türün içine sığmayacak kadar özel bir kitap. Kitabın kendi içindeki her element, birbiriyle o kadar sağlam bir şekilde birbirine geçirilmiş bir durumda yazılmış ki, hayranlık duymaktan ve saygı duymaktan öteye gidemiyorsunuz.
Kitabın genel yorumuna geçmeden önceden "Antal Szerb ve Macar Edebiyatı" konusunda genel bir bilgi vermenin yorumun algılanmasında çok önemli olduğunu düşünüyorum. Çünkü okuma sırasında ve sonrasında kendi araştırmalarım doğrultusunda bulduğum olguların, bu kitabın "bence neden çok özel bir kitap olduğunun bir nevi savı aynı zamanda da yeni okuyacaklar için önemli bir yol haritası meydana getirecek ve bunun yanında kurgusal yapının da bu genel çerçeve dahilinde daha da anlaşılır kılacaktır."
En başta belirttiğim gibi Yolcu ve Ayışığı’nı tarifsiz kılan en büyük temellerden biri, Antal Szerb’in kendisi tahmin edebileceğimiz gibi. Szerb, ne yazık ki 43 yaşında elinde tüm imkanlar olmasına rağmen son nefesini son derece trajik bir kurban olarak nazi toplama kampında veriyor. Bu [Yahudi Soykırımı etkilerinin] bizim için Yolcu ve Ayışığı’nda yer alan ana karakterimiz olan Mihaly (mihay diye okunuyor) ve çevresindeki olan gelişimi anlamamız için en önemli anahtar olgulardan biri.
Macar edebiyatı açısından baktığımızda da Batı Edebiyat tarihinde en fazla sansürlenen, cezalandırılan yazarlar Macar edebiyatında yer alıyor.*.Bu nedenle de kendi içinde asilik, karşı gelme, yıkıcı olma gibi kavramlar fazlasıyla kullanılıyor. Fakat anarşist bir bakış içinde mi? Bu ciddi anlamda tekrardan düşünülmesi gereken bir durum. Belki Albert Camus'un en çok “başkaldıran insanında” yer alan boyutunda yer olabilir. Karar size kalmış.
Kitabın Yazılış Süreci
1936 yılında Szerb, Mussolini İtalyasına, Venedik şehrine gitmek için yola çıkmaya karar veriyor. Basının, Mussolini İtalyasını insanların aşırı mutlu bir şekilde göstermesi, italya mükemmel şeyler oluyor diye atılan manşetler bu yolculuğun başlanmasının temelini oluşturuyor. Yolcu ve Ayışığı’nı yazmaya başlıyor. Yolcu ve Ayışığı, bu abartılı oluşturulan algıya karşı oluşturulan müthiş bir karşı geliş romanı
Bir Bohem Rapsodi
Mihaly ve Ersiz İtalya’ya balaylarını geçirmek için gelen, birbirilerini aslında çok tanımayan iki genç aşık. Mihaly’in İtalya’ya gelmesi sürecinde gençlik döneminden bir arkadaşıyla karşılamasıyla her şey tepetaklak oluyor. Mihaly’in kendi yaşamsal varoluşunu, hayatın, kendi burjuva yaşamında hapsolmuş ilkelerinin, kendi özgürlüğünün ve haliyle kendisine olan başkaldırının boyutlarını okuyoruz.
İtalya, kitabın merkezinde aynı zamanda Faustvari ve Antik Yunan bir manifesto olarak karşımıza çıkıyor. Szerb, son derece zekice mistik öğeler ekleyerek Mihaly’ın bu keşfediş deneyimini bazen tragedya ve komedya referansları ekleyerek okura müthiş bir edebi deneyime maruz bırakıyor. Tragedya etkisini Szerb, seçtiği diğer yan karakterlerde de çok net bir şekilde görünür kılınıyor.
Kitap 4 bölümden oluşuyor. Kitabın ilerleyen bölümlerinde değişen süreçleri, mekanları eş zamanlı olarak okuyoruz.
Sonuç :
Yolcu ve Ayışığı, benim çok sevdiğim ve öncesinde buna yakın bir kitap okumadığımı hissettiren bir kitap oldu. Varoluş sorunlarını, insanlığın kendi kimlik arayışını aile ve kader üçlemesinde son derece etkiliyeci bir biçimde ortaya koyduğunu düşünüyorum. Yaşam ve anın önemini, müthiş derece antik yunana ve rönesansa göndermelerle yapan harika bir kitap.
Kitap çeviri anlamında da, basım olarak da , kullanılan yazı karakteri olarak da harika. Aylak Adam cidden harika işler çıkarıyor.
Kesinlikle 1 kez okunup kenara koyabileceğim bir kitap değil. Tekrar okuyacağım yakınlarda.
Mihaly’ın kadim dostlarının dediği gibi : Foeid vinom pipafo,car carefo: “Bugün şarap içiyorum, yarın olmayabilir”
Keyifle okumalar!
10/10
“ İşte sana bir insan, olanaksızı olanaklı kılan diye düşündü kendi kendine; bu arada Waldheim çiğ jambonları tıkıştırıyor ve açıklamalar yapıyordu. İşte sana bir insan, kendisine uygun bir yaştayken donup kalmasını başaran biri. Çünkü her insanın kendisine uygun düşen tek bir yaşı vardır, bu kesin. Tüm yaşamları boyunca çocuk kalanlar vardır, bu kesin.Tüm yaşamları boyunca davranışlarında beceriksiz, çevresine uyum gösteremeyen bir türlü yerlerin bulamayan insanlar vardır ve bunlar bir anda bilge ve güzel yaşlı hanımlar ya da yaşlı beyler oluverirler: Yaşlarına geri dönmüşlerdir” sf:218
--
*https://theculturetrip.com/europe/hun...
Kitabın genel yorumuna geçmeden önceden "Antal Szerb ve Macar Edebiyatı" konusunda genel bir bilgi vermenin yorumun algılanmasında çok önemli olduğunu düşünüyorum. Çünkü okuma sırasında ve sonrasında kendi araştırmalarım doğrultusunda bulduğum olguların, bu kitabın "bence neden çok özel bir kitap olduğunun bir nevi savı aynı zamanda da yeni okuyacaklar için önemli bir yol haritası meydana getirecek ve bunun yanında kurgusal yapının da bu genel çerçeve dahilinde daha da anlaşılır kılacaktır."
En başta belirttiğim gibi Yolcu ve Ayışığı’nı tarifsiz kılan en büyük temellerden biri, Antal Szerb’in kendisi tahmin edebileceğimiz gibi. Szerb, ne yazık ki 43 yaşında elinde tüm imkanlar olmasına rağmen son nefesini son derece trajik bir kurban olarak nazi toplama kampında veriyor. Bu [Yahudi Soykırımı etkilerinin] bizim için Yolcu ve Ayışığı’nda yer alan ana karakterimiz olan Mihaly (mihay diye okunuyor) ve çevresindeki olan gelişimi anlamamız için en önemli anahtar olgulardan biri.
Macar edebiyatı açısından baktığımızda da Batı Edebiyat tarihinde en fazla sansürlenen, cezalandırılan yazarlar Macar edebiyatında yer alıyor.*.Bu nedenle de kendi içinde asilik, karşı gelme, yıkıcı olma gibi kavramlar fazlasıyla kullanılıyor. Fakat anarşist bir bakış içinde mi? Bu ciddi anlamda tekrardan düşünülmesi gereken bir durum. Belki Albert Camus'un en çok “başkaldıran insanında” yer alan boyutunda yer olabilir. Karar size kalmış.
Kitabın Yazılış Süreci
1936 yılında Szerb, Mussolini İtalyasına, Venedik şehrine gitmek için yola çıkmaya karar veriyor. Basının, Mussolini İtalyasını insanların aşırı mutlu bir şekilde göstermesi, italya mükemmel şeyler oluyor diye atılan manşetler bu yolculuğun başlanmasının temelini oluşturuyor. Yolcu ve Ayışığı’nı yazmaya başlıyor. Yolcu ve Ayışığı, bu abartılı oluşturulan algıya karşı oluşturulan müthiş bir karşı geliş romanı
Bir Bohem Rapsodi
Mihaly ve Ersiz İtalya’ya balaylarını geçirmek için gelen, birbirilerini aslında çok tanımayan iki genç aşık. Mihaly’in İtalya’ya gelmesi sürecinde gençlik döneminden bir arkadaşıyla karşılamasıyla her şey tepetaklak oluyor. Mihaly’in kendi yaşamsal varoluşunu, hayatın, kendi burjuva yaşamında hapsolmuş ilkelerinin, kendi özgürlüğünün ve haliyle kendisine olan başkaldırının boyutlarını okuyoruz.
İtalya, kitabın merkezinde aynı zamanda Faustvari ve Antik Yunan bir manifesto olarak karşımıza çıkıyor. Szerb, son derece zekice mistik öğeler ekleyerek Mihaly’ın bu keşfediş deneyimini bazen tragedya ve komedya referansları ekleyerek okura müthiş bir edebi deneyime maruz bırakıyor. Tragedya etkisini Szerb, seçtiği diğer yan karakterlerde de çok net bir şekilde görünür kılınıyor.
Kitap 4 bölümden oluşuyor. Kitabın ilerleyen bölümlerinde değişen süreçleri, mekanları eş zamanlı olarak okuyoruz.
Sonuç :
Yolcu ve Ayışığı, benim çok sevdiğim ve öncesinde buna yakın bir kitap okumadığımı hissettiren bir kitap oldu. Varoluş sorunlarını, insanlığın kendi kimlik arayışını aile ve kader üçlemesinde son derece etkiliyeci bir biçimde ortaya koyduğunu düşünüyorum. Yaşam ve anın önemini, müthiş derece antik yunana ve rönesansa göndermelerle yapan harika bir kitap.
Kitap çeviri anlamında da, basım olarak da , kullanılan yazı karakteri olarak da harika. Aylak Adam cidden harika işler çıkarıyor.
Kesinlikle 1 kez okunup kenara koyabileceğim bir kitap değil. Tekrar okuyacağım yakınlarda.
Mihaly’ın kadim dostlarının dediği gibi : Foeid vinom pipafo,car carefo: “Bugün şarap içiyorum, yarın olmayabilir”
Keyifle okumalar!
10/10
“ İşte sana bir insan, olanaksızı olanaklı kılan diye düşündü kendi kendine; bu arada Waldheim çiğ jambonları tıkıştırıyor ve açıklamalar yapıyordu. İşte sana bir insan, kendisine uygun bir yaştayken donup kalmasını başaran biri. Çünkü her insanın kendisine uygun düşen tek bir yaşı vardır, bu kesin. Tüm yaşamları boyunca çocuk kalanlar vardır, bu kesin.Tüm yaşamları boyunca davranışlarında beceriksiz, çevresine uyum gösteremeyen bir türlü yerlerin bulamayan insanlar vardır ve bunlar bir anda bilge ve güzel yaşlı hanımlar ya da yaşlı beyler oluverirler: Yaşlarına geri dönmüşlerdir” sf:218
--
*https://theculturetrip.com/europe/hun...
Shelved as 'spurned'
January 6, 2011The odds that I will finish this book are, according to most statisticians, negligible, so I should just dispense with the charade and chuck this bitch on the discard pile. It's currently on the far side of my bedside table, where it continues to collect a thin layer of what I would call picturesque dust. I look at it before I go to sleep every night, but only out of the corner of my eyes, because it silently accuses me of failure, and as the days go by its silence grows louder and louder and more prosecutorial. I really should stop thinking of book-finishing as a moral issue. This isn't an abandoned lover or friend or a shirked duty. I owe absolutely nothing to Antal Szerb or to his book Journey by Moonlight, which so far as I can remember appears to be about ennui, of the distinctly midcentury European variety. Those of you who've endured Antonioni's Italian travelogue L'Avventura know exactly what I'm talking about here. Those of you who haven't... well, picture some inscrutable Hungarian dude going on a honeymoon in Italy and then accidentally-intentionally taking the wrong train and abandoning his wife. (I say 'abandoning' because when he realizes his 'mistake' he doesn't attempt to meet up with her again.) He's a pretty flat and boring guy, and we have no real sense of why he's doing what he's doing. Just blame it on good old-fashioned bourgeois indolence, I suppose. But why do novels and movies about indolence have to be so indolent themselves?
Anyway, I feel extra-guilty for giving this book heave-ho because Antal Szerb is a Jew who died in a concentration camp. I realize this fate has nothing whatsoever to do with his abilities as a writer of fiction, but books by Jews who die in concentration camps should be good books, or better than this book. This is exactly the kind of decadent art that had Hitler cowering behind his landscape paintings and his collection of Greek nudes. Is it just me or are the modernists looking worn to the nubbin as time goes on? All these people in chinos and espadrilles wandering purposelessly across pastoral landscapes, bothered by some vague, indefinable something... which is all very fine and good if the book gives me an entryway into the individual's crisis (for lack of a better word) and not a droning nothingness. But don't take my word for it. I'm a quitter. Maybe this book kicks into gear somewhere beyond the one-third marker, which is where my drug store receipt bookmark is and will remain. I consider myself duped by this looker of a book cover. Look at that photograph of the horse on the bridge in Venice. It suggests a certain greatness to simple minds. In other words, marketing is the last great art.
Anyway, I feel extra-guilty for giving this book heave-ho because Antal Szerb is a Jew who died in a concentration camp. I realize this fate has nothing whatsoever to do with his abilities as a writer of fiction, but books by Jews who die in concentration camps should be good books, or better than this book. This is exactly the kind of decadent art that had Hitler cowering behind his landscape paintings and his collection of Greek nudes. Is it just me or are the modernists looking worn to the nubbin as time goes on? All these people in chinos and espadrilles wandering purposelessly across pastoral landscapes, bothered by some vague, indefinable something... which is all very fine and good if the book gives me an entryway into the individual's crisis (for lack of a better word) and not a droning nothingness. But don't take my word for it. I'm a quitter. Maybe this book kicks into gear somewhere beyond the one-third marker, which is where my drug store receipt bookmark is and will remain. I consider myself duped by this looker of a book cover. Look at that photograph of the horse on the bridge in Venice. It suggests a certain greatness to simple minds. In other words, marketing is the last great art.
June 30, 2020
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. The author is Hungarian, and the novel was originally published in 1937; its English translation appeared in 2000. 'Journey by Moonlight' is unlike any novel I've read: the atmosphere is both dreamy & descriptive, rich in history and detail. The characters are interesting, and the dialogue is excellent. It's insightful, among other things, about love and relationships, life and death. Mihaly is passive and moody and abandons his wife on their honeymoon on the train in Umbria. 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. The novel also follows Mihaly's wife and her point of view in sections (she takes up a new life in Paris, rather than returning to Budapest), and there is a very funny letter from her first husband to Mihaly early on in the novel. I forgot to mention that the novel is quite funny (dryly so) in places. A rich novel, one that is idiosyncratic and mysterious, unclassifiable: the best sort.
June 29, 2020
Over the last few years I’ve had a lot of pleasure and satisfaction from books set in and around Eastern Europe*. I was inspired to seek more interesting Eastern European books, and so it was that I came across Journey by Moonlight.
At the time of writing, the most liked review of Journey by Moonlight on GoodReads, and the third most liked review, were from readers who were unable to finish this book. That concerned me. I do not generally have much patience with difficult books. I adore beautiful, atmospheric writing but not at the expense of clarity. When I noticed the phrase "modernist masterpiece" in amongst some praise for the book, I was even more apprehensive. So, I am pleased and relieved to report that Journey by Moonlight is both easy to read and enjoyable, and this English translation by Len Rix, from the original Hungarian, is beautiful.
Journey by Moonlight is concerned with that hoary old chestnut, life, what’s it all about? The question is explored through the central character, Mihály, a dreamy, distracted person who has drifted into the family business and a life of compromised bourgeois tedium and respectability, and which is at odds with his bohemian past. Whilst on his honeymoon, Mihály has a crisis which sees him looking back on his past and considering the best way to live his life.
Journey by Moonlight is a wonderfully subtle, surprising and original book. Whilst I have some sympathy with those readers who might have got exasperated with it, I can assure you that perseverance pays rich dividends. Beautifully written, unpredictable, playful, intelligent and quietly profound, and it got progressively more interesting and beguiling. By around the halfway point I was captivated, and each time I put it down I couldn't wait to pick it back up again.
So who was Antal Szerb? According to Pushkin Press, who published this English edition of this book in 2001, Antal Szerb (1901-1945) was a writer, scholar, critic and translator born to Jewish parents but baptised Catholic. Multilingual, he lived in Hungary, France, Italy and England, and after graduating in German and English he rapidly established himself as a prolific scholar, publishing books on drama and poetry, studies of Ibsen and Blake, and histories of English and Hungarian literature. At the age of 39, Szerb wrote an authoritative History of World Literature. He wrote his first novel, The Pendragon Legend, in 1934, followed by Journey by Moonlight in 1937 and The Queen's Necklace in 1943. These, and a collection of his short stories, Love in a Bottle, are also published in English by Pushkin Press. Szerb was killed in a concentration camp in January 1945.
At the end of the Pushkin Press edition, in Len Rix’s translator’s note, he mentions that this is the book that all Hungarians read as students, which reinforces one of my burgeoning beliefs, Hungarians have got great taste.
5/5
* For example, Seven Terrors by Selvedin Avdić, The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War by Tim Butcher, Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig, Dostoevsky: Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Between the Woods and the Water + A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor. I recommend them all.
At the time of writing, the most liked review of Journey by Moonlight on GoodReads, and the third most liked review, were from readers who were unable to finish this book. That concerned me. I do not generally have much patience with difficult books. I adore beautiful, atmospheric writing but not at the expense of clarity. When I noticed the phrase "modernist masterpiece" in amongst some praise for the book, I was even more apprehensive. So, I am pleased and relieved to report that Journey by Moonlight is both easy to read and enjoyable, and this English translation by Len Rix, from the original Hungarian, is beautiful.
Journey by Moonlight is concerned with that hoary old chestnut, life, what’s it all about? The question is explored through the central character, Mihály, a dreamy, distracted person who has drifted into the family business and a life of compromised bourgeois tedium and respectability, and which is at odds with his bohemian past. Whilst on his honeymoon, Mihály has a crisis which sees him looking back on his past and considering the best way to live his life.
Journey by Moonlight is a wonderfully subtle, surprising and original book. Whilst I have some sympathy with those readers who might have got exasperated with it, I can assure you that perseverance pays rich dividends. Beautifully written, unpredictable, playful, intelligent and quietly profound, and it got progressively more interesting and beguiling. By around the halfway point I was captivated, and each time I put it down I couldn't wait to pick it back up again.
So who was Antal Szerb? According to Pushkin Press, who published this English edition of this book in 2001, Antal Szerb (1901-1945) was a writer, scholar, critic and translator born to Jewish parents but baptised Catholic. Multilingual, he lived in Hungary, France, Italy and England, and after graduating in German and English he rapidly established himself as a prolific scholar, publishing books on drama and poetry, studies of Ibsen and Blake, and histories of English and Hungarian literature. At the age of 39, Szerb wrote an authoritative History of World Literature. He wrote his first novel, The Pendragon Legend, in 1934, followed by Journey by Moonlight in 1937 and The Queen's Necklace in 1943. These, and a collection of his short stories, Love in a Bottle, are also published in English by Pushkin Press. Szerb was killed in a concentration camp in January 1945.
At the end of the Pushkin Press edition, in Len Rix’s translator’s note, he mentions that this is the book that all Hungarians read as students, which reinforces one of my burgeoning beliefs, Hungarians have got great taste.
5/5
* For example, Seven Terrors by Selvedin Avdić, The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War by Tim Butcher, Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig, Dostoevsky: Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Between the Woods and the Water + A Time of Gifts by Patrick Leigh Fermor. I recommend them all.
March 24, 2020
Özensiz bir çeviri, orada olmayan bir editör ve ne işe yaradığı muamma olan son okuma ile heba edilmiş özgün ve özel bir kitap. Başka dillerden okuyun ama buradan okumayın.
Aylak Adam yayınları çok iyi metinleri dilimize kazandırıyor ama bu baştan savmacılığı Taş Taş Üstüne'de de görmüş ve rahatsız olmuştum. Umarım bu sorunları çözer ve biz de bu güzelim kitapları ıkınmadan okuyabiliriz.
Aylak Adam yayınları çok iyi metinleri dilimize kazandırıyor ama bu baştan savmacılığı Taş Taş Üstüne'de de görmüş ve rahatsız olmuştum. Umarım bu sorunları çözer ve biz de bu güzelim kitapları ıkınmadan okuyabiliriz.
March 19, 2024
R/AmItheAsshole . 4 hr. ago
Introspectiveboy_37
AITA for leaving my ex-wife sleeping in a train during our honeymoon in Italy, following a midlife crisis instigated by a letter from her ex-husband implying he knows her better and can take better care of her than I?
Me (m, 38) and my ex-wife E (w, I honestly never bothered asking her age) married after a yearlong affair. At that time, she was married to Z, but their relationship was already in tatters since Z was having many sexual adventures with too many of his secretaries. E is really hot and, like, classy and all, so even though we haven't much in common I thought she's a real catch and a trophy wife. How wrong I was… On our honeymoon in Italy, I felt I couldn't really warm up to her. It's not really her fault, but Idk, I'd much, much rather be alone. This feeling was reinforced when I bumped into an old childhood friend of mine, reviving childhood memories and when I received a rude and arrogant letter from Z implying E is high maintenance and I can't afford to care of her. He even offered to send us money regularly, what a prick! Especially the letter threw me totally off and I lost all confidence, catapulting me into a hefty midlife crisis.
Well, one thing led to another, and I found myself wanting to have un caffè ristretto during rest on our way to Rome, after which I genuinely, sincerely by accident took the wrong train and it so happened that I left my wife alone sleeping in our train compartment while I changed my course to Perugia.
I have since then not pursued her and went about my own business, traveling across Italy, looking for my old flame, meeting a delightful young but dull American (AMERICAN, mind you!) tourist, a superstitious doctor and a reclusive priest along the way.
No one made any reproaches but… I can’t shake the feeling I might be TA here. So, AITA?
ETA
Joke aside, I kind of understand Mihály, I just don’t marry my booty call and leave them hanging, but maybe things were different in the 30’s? Some things were ridiculously dated, naturally, but overall it was very much fun to read.
Erzsi... 😂🙈
ESH – sorry for turning goodreads into reddit.
Introspectiveboy_37
AITA for leaving my ex-wife sleeping in a train during our honeymoon in Italy, following a midlife crisis instigated by a letter from her ex-husband implying he knows her better and can take better care of her than I?
Me (m, 38) and my ex-wife E (w, I honestly never bothered asking her age) married after a yearlong affair. At that time, she was married to Z, but their relationship was already in tatters since Z was having many sexual adventures with too many of his secretaries. E is really hot and, like, classy and all, so even though we haven't much in common I thought she's a real catch and a trophy wife. How wrong I was… On our honeymoon in Italy, I felt I couldn't really warm up to her. It's not really her fault, but Idk, I'd much, much rather be alone. This feeling was reinforced when I bumped into an old childhood friend of mine, reviving childhood memories and when I received a rude and arrogant letter from Z implying E is high maintenance and I can't afford to care of her. He even offered to send us money regularly, what a prick! Especially the letter threw me totally off and I lost all confidence, catapulting me into a hefty midlife crisis.
Well, one thing led to another, and I found myself wanting to have un caffè ristretto during rest on our way to Rome, after which I genuinely, sincerely by accident took the wrong train and it so happened that I left my wife alone sleeping in our train compartment while I changed my course to Perugia.
I have since then not pursued her and went about my own business, traveling across Italy, looking for my old flame, meeting a delightful young but dull American (AMERICAN, mind you!) tourist, a superstitious doctor and a reclusive priest along the way.
No one made any reproaches but… I can’t shake the feeling I might be TA here. So, AITA?
ETA
Joke aside, I kind of understand Mihály, I just don’t marry my booty call and leave them hanging, but maybe things were different in the 30’s? Some things were ridiculously dated, naturally, but overall it was very much fun to read.
Erzsi... 😂🙈
ESH – sorry for turning goodreads into reddit.
September 22, 2023
1 star
English title: "Journey by Moonlight" or "Traveller and the Moonlight". Orig: Utas és holdvilág, Hungary, 1937
Short review for busy readers: Total waste of time. Don't bother...unless you are Hungarian and have to read it for school.
In detail
(This review is a postcard from Outlier Island, as this book currently has a GR rating of 4.22 stars. Beats me how. )
When I was growing up in the US, I always heard really bad things about continental European literature.
It's all depressing, introvertedly existentialist, and it never stops raining.
The characters walk around in a fuge of Weltschmerz, bemoaning fate, but never doing anything to alter their horrid, depressing lives. Just moan, moan, moan about how awful life is and wonder if they should kill themselves... until they either contract some wasting disease or are stabbed by their wife's boyfriend's lover's jealous dog walker.
The women are all either domineering, manipulative witches or simple idiots. The men are all either emotionally obsessive wimps or brutal, semi-criminal drunkards.
France happens a lot.
And it never stops raining.
Well, I've never actually run across anything in Europe that resembles this very blanket judgement...until now! With the exception of the constant rain, this novel from 1937 contains EVERYTHING Americans at that time believed European literature is. And they were right about one thing: it's horrible and horribly boring.
The only reason I kept listening after the 50% mark was to see if it got better.
Didn't.
Although, to Szerb's credit, he does try to make an uplifting statement out of what is essentially a totally inane plot with an utterly slapable ninny of an MC. Unfortunately, to today's understanding, his 'uplifting' could have easily been taken from an office inspirational poster, it's so cliche.
But we shouldn't judge 1937 against circa 90 years later, so we won't.
The only good thing I can say about this one is that the German audiobook was fabulously read by German actor Heikko Deutschmann. Other than that...pffffffft.
English title: "Journey by Moonlight" or "Traveller and the Moonlight". Orig: Utas és holdvilág, Hungary, 1937
Short review for busy readers: Total waste of time. Don't bother...unless you are Hungarian and have to read it for school.
In detail
(This review is a postcard from Outlier Island, as this book currently has a GR rating of 4.22 stars. Beats me how. )
When I was growing up in the US, I always heard really bad things about continental European literature.
It's all depressing, introvertedly existentialist, and it never stops raining.
The characters walk around in a fuge of Weltschmerz, bemoaning fate, but never doing anything to alter their horrid, depressing lives. Just moan, moan, moan about how awful life is and wonder if they should kill themselves... until they either contract some wasting disease or are stabbed by their wife's boyfriend's lover's jealous dog walker.
The women are all either domineering, manipulative witches or simple idiots. The men are all either emotionally obsessive wimps or brutal, semi-criminal drunkards.
France happens a lot.
And it never stops raining.
Well, I've never actually run across anything in Europe that resembles this very blanket judgement...until now! With the exception of the constant rain, this novel from 1937 contains EVERYTHING Americans at that time believed European literature is. And they were right about one thing: it's horrible and horribly boring.
The only reason I kept listening after the 50% mark was to see if it got better.
Didn't.
Although, to Szerb's credit, he does try to make an uplifting statement out of what is essentially a totally inane plot with an utterly slapable ninny of an MC. Unfortunately, to today's understanding, his 'uplifting' could have easily been taken from an office inspirational poster, it's so cliche.
But we shouldn't judge 1937 against circa 90 years later, so we won't.
The only good thing I can say about this one is that the German audiobook was fabulously read by German actor Heikko Deutschmann. Other than that...pffffffft.
July 1, 2016
To step off. The train. The bus. The world. The marriage. Surely you've thought of it.
This is Europe before World War II. But that's not essential to the story. Mussolini is mentioned but he has no moment. It is not that kind of allegory.
It is Mihály who steps off, stepping off the train during his honeymoon in Italy. He leaves his new bride Erzsi on the train. It seems an accident when Mihály steps off, but it is no accident. There was a group of friends in Mihály's impressionable years. Of his friends - and they all play a part in the story - it is Éva he is chasing. But, to keep the story going, he does not know that.
Chasing Éva. Chasing Amy. ......
Silent Bob: So there's me and Amy, and we're all inseparable, right? Just big time in love. And then four months down the road, the idiot gear kicks in, and I ask about the ex-boyfriend. Which, as we all know, is a really dumb move. But you know how it is: you don't wanna know, but you just have to, right? Stupid guy bullshit. So, anyway, she starts telling me about him... how they fell in love, and how they went out for a couple of years, and how they lived together, her mother likes me better, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... and I'm okay. But then she drops the bomb on me, and the bomb is this: it seems that a couple of times, while they were going out, he brought some people to bed with them. Ménage à trois, I believe it's called. Now this just blows my mind, right? I mean, I am not used to this sort of thing. I mean, I was raised Catholic, for God's sake.
Jay: Saint Shithead.
Silent Bob: So I'm totally weirded out by this, right? And then I just start blasting her. Like... I don't know how to deal with what I'm feeling, so I figure the best way is by calling her a slut, right? And tell her she was used. I'm... I'm out for blood. I really wanna hurt this girl. I'm like, "What the fuck is your problem?", right? And she's just all calmly trying to tell me, like, it was that time and it was that place and she doesn't think she should apologize because she doesn't feel that she's done anything wrong. I'm like, "Oh, really?" That's when I look her straight in the eye, I tell her it's over. I walk.
Jay: Fuckin' A!
Silent Bob: No, idiot. It was a mistake. I didn't hate her. I wasn't disgusted with her. I was afraid. At that moment, I felt small, like... like I'd lacked experience, like I'd never be on her level, like I'd never be enough for her or something like that, you know what I'm saying? But, what I did not get, she didn't care. She wasn't looking for that guy anymore. She was... she was looking for me, for the Bob. But, uh, by the time I figure this all out, it was too late, man. She moved on, and all I had to show for it was some foolish pride, which then gave way to regret. She was the girl, I know that now. But I pushed her away. So, I've spent every day since then chasing Amy... so to speak. ......
I dropped in Silent Bob not to be glib, or in any way a dimunition of this book. It just came up, maybe obviously. I didn't see the difference.
Apparently, in pre-WWII Italy suicide was something of a sport. People step off a lot in this book.
I have not stepped off. If I have regrets, it is not stepping on.
I would be remiss in not mentioning that Szerb does a very nice job of channeling different nationalities. None better than when he introduces us to Millicent, the American student. Skewers us, he does.
This is Europe before World War II. But that's not essential to the story. Mussolini is mentioned but he has no moment. It is not that kind of allegory.
It is Mihály who steps off, stepping off the train during his honeymoon in Italy. He leaves his new bride Erzsi on the train. It seems an accident when Mihály steps off, but it is no accident. There was a group of friends in Mihály's impressionable years. Of his friends - and they all play a part in the story - it is Éva he is chasing. But, to keep the story going, he does not know that.
Chasing Éva. Chasing Amy. ......
Silent Bob: So there's me and Amy, and we're all inseparable, right? Just big time in love. And then four months down the road, the idiot gear kicks in, and I ask about the ex-boyfriend. Which, as we all know, is a really dumb move. But you know how it is: you don't wanna know, but you just have to, right? Stupid guy bullshit. So, anyway, she starts telling me about him... how they fell in love, and how they went out for a couple of years, and how they lived together, her mother likes me better, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah... and I'm okay. But then she drops the bomb on me, and the bomb is this: it seems that a couple of times, while they were going out, he brought some people to bed with them. Ménage à trois, I believe it's called. Now this just blows my mind, right? I mean, I am not used to this sort of thing. I mean, I was raised Catholic, for God's sake.
Jay: Saint Shithead.
Silent Bob: So I'm totally weirded out by this, right? And then I just start blasting her. Like... I don't know how to deal with what I'm feeling, so I figure the best way is by calling her a slut, right? And tell her she was used. I'm... I'm out for blood. I really wanna hurt this girl. I'm like, "What the fuck is your problem?", right? And she's just all calmly trying to tell me, like, it was that time and it was that place and she doesn't think she should apologize because she doesn't feel that she's done anything wrong. I'm like, "Oh, really?" That's when I look her straight in the eye, I tell her it's over. I walk.
Jay: Fuckin' A!
Silent Bob: No, idiot. It was a mistake. I didn't hate her. I wasn't disgusted with her. I was afraid. At that moment, I felt small, like... like I'd lacked experience, like I'd never be on her level, like I'd never be enough for her or something like that, you know what I'm saying? But, what I did not get, she didn't care. She wasn't looking for that guy anymore. She was... she was looking for me, for the Bob. But, uh, by the time I figure this all out, it was too late, man. She moved on, and all I had to show for it was some foolish pride, which then gave way to regret. She was the girl, I know that now. But I pushed her away. So, I've spent every day since then chasing Amy... so to speak. ......
I dropped in Silent Bob not to be glib, or in any way a dimunition of this book. It just came up, maybe obviously. I didn't see the difference.
Apparently, in pre-WWII Italy suicide was something of a sport. People step off a lot in this book.
I have not stepped off. If I have regrets, it is not stepping on.
I would be remiss in not mentioning that Szerb does a very nice job of channeling different nationalities. None better than when he introduces us to Millicent, the American student. Skewers us, he does.
October 24, 2020
المسافر ونور القمر ....أنتل سرب
ت/ نافع معلا
الرواية دي اثبات واضح وصريح على تقصير الترجمة العربية بخصوص بعض البلدان في شرق أوروبا، وباستثناء بعض الاسماء المهمة عالميا الا اننا نعرف القليل عن اداب دول زي صربيا وكرواتيا والبانيا واوكرانيا وغيرهم من البلدان واللي بيجمع بيننا ظروف متشابهة كثيرة، وأحداث مهمة قوية أكيد كان لها تأثير ظهر في الاداب بتاعتهم وخاصة انها دول عاشت سنوات طويلة في حالة غليان وثورات.
أما عن عذه الرواية فهي من المجر، ح��ى وان دارت بعض احداثها في غرب أوروبا، وحتى التفصيلية دي كانت واضحة ومختلفة، نظرة المغترب أو الضيف لوهج الحضارة الاوروبية الحديثة بتكون حقيقية وصادقة اكثر من أهل هذه البلدان، لكن من أول الرواية والكاتب قادر على وضع الفارق وتوضيحه، وإيجاد صلة ما مع القاريء للتفاعل مع ما يدور على الصفحات المكتوبة.
كأنك بتقرأ مآساة روسية لعينة، ولكنها ممزوجة بخفة ولطف (اظن انه مميز للشرقيين بشكل عام)، فتتأثر بما تقرأ وتعيد التفكير فيه ولوهلة تعتقد ان الكاتب يقصدك انت، وسرعان ما تتابع القراءة منتظر الاحداث كتلميذ متحمس.
الرواية سلسة جدا، والترجمة كانت ممتازة ووافية.
ت/ نافع معلا
الرواية دي اثبات واضح وصريح على تقصير الترجمة العربية بخصوص بعض البلدان في شرق أوروبا، وباستثناء بعض الاسماء المهمة عالميا الا اننا نعرف القليل عن اداب دول زي صربيا وكرواتيا والبانيا واوكرانيا وغيرهم من البلدان واللي بيجمع بيننا ظروف متشابهة كثيرة، وأحداث مهمة قوية أكيد كان لها تأثير ظهر في الاداب بتاعتهم وخاصة انها دول عاشت سنوات طويلة في حالة غليان وثورات.
أما عن عذه الرواية فهي من المجر، ح��ى وان دارت بعض احداثها في غرب أوروبا، وحتى التفصيلية دي كانت واضحة ومختلفة، نظرة المغترب أو الضيف لوهج الحضارة الاوروبية الحديثة بتكون حقيقية وصادقة اكثر من أهل هذه البلدان، لكن من أول الرواية والكاتب قادر على وضع الفارق وتوضيحه، وإيجاد صلة ما مع القاريء للتفاعل مع ما يدور على الصفحات المكتوبة.
كأنك بتقرأ مآساة روسية لعينة، ولكنها ممزوجة بخفة ولطف (اظن انه مميز للشرقيين بشكل عام)، فتتأثر بما تقرأ وتعيد التفكير فيه ولوهلة تعتقد ان الكاتب يقصدك انت، وسرعان ما تتابع القراءة منتظر الاحداث كتلميذ متحمس.
الرواية سلسة جدا، والترجمة كانت ممتازة ووافية.
July 25, 2017
Self-Discovery
I'm not sure how well I can review this; it was the right book at the wrong time—though the fact that it was able to sustain my interest for over a week, when I could only manage a few pages a day, speaks well for it. But how much better if I could have given it the space it needs,while at the same time reading quickly enough to appreciate its grand formal arch! I would have made a point of noting down Szerb's marvelous observations on life, death, and Italian culture, though I am pretty sure that I could look now at almost any page and find something worth quoting. In short, I think this is probably an excellent book and regret that I was not in a position to enjoy it fully.
Published in 1937 by a Hungarian writer who was later to die in the Holocaust, the novel is nonetheless not overtly political. The death and displacement that it deals with are psychological rather than literal, though there is a hint that the existential Angst of the central character may be the symbolic reflection of an unstable Zeitgeist. Certainly you can forget the Alan Furst resonances of the title, enhanced by the dark almost monochrome cover painting on the NYRB edition. But look at the detail of that painting by the Spanish artist Federico Beltrán Masses (I have lightened it a little for clarity), and you will see what an appropriate choice it was. It shows a couple in a Venetian gondola, he ardent, she swooning in passion; it is moonlight on the Grand Canal, but dark and a little sinister, a Venetian Liebestod with the Church of the Salute in the background like a looming mausoleum. Love and death are closely entwined in the story, and the novel makes more significant use of its Italian settings than almost anything I can think of. And then there is that brief opening paragraph:
I'm not sure how well I can review this; it was the right book at the wrong time—though the fact that it was able to sustain my interest for over a week, when I could only manage a few pages a day, speaks well for it. But how much better if I could have given it the space it needs,while at the same time reading quickly enough to appreciate its grand formal arch! I would have made a point of noting down Szerb's marvelous observations on life, death, and Italian culture, though I am pretty sure that I could look now at almost any page and find something worth quoting. In short, I think this is probably an excellent book and regret that I was not in a position to enjoy it fully.
Published in 1937 by a Hungarian writer who was later to die in the Holocaust, the novel is nonetheless not overtly political. The death and displacement that it deals with are psychological rather than literal, though there is a hint that the existential Angst of the central character may be the symbolic reflection of an unstable Zeitgeist. Certainly you can forget the Alan Furst resonances of the title, enhanced by the dark almost monochrome cover painting on the NYRB edition. But look at the detail of that painting by the Spanish artist Federico Beltrán Masses (I have lightened it a little for clarity), and you will see what an appropriate choice it was. It shows a couple in a Venetian gondola, he ardent, she swooning in passion; it is moonlight on the Grand Canal, but dark and a little sinister, a Venetian Liebestod with the Church of the Salute in the background like a looming mausoleum. Love and death are closely entwined in the story, and the novel makes more significant use of its Italian settings than almost anything I can think of. And then there is that brief opening paragraph:
On the train everything seemed fine. The trouble began in Venice, with the back-alleys.Mihály, a reluctant businessman from Budapest in his mid-thirties, is on his honeymoon with Erzsi (Elizabeth), his wife that he has stolen from her richer first husband. Erzsi prefers Mihály because "he is not like other men." And indeed he is not. On one of their first nights in Venice, he stays out till dawn wandering those back alleys. In Ravenna, he tells her of his time as a young man, in the thrall of a pair of sibling lovers, Tamás and Éva Ulpius. By the time they have reached Arezzo, Erzsi is convinced that he is still haunted by Éva, and she is right. On one of their next train journeys, Mihály gets separated, boards the wrong train and, instead of rejoining his bride, spends much of the rest of the book on his own, visiting a number of other hill towns in central Italy and eventually winding up in Rome. Szerb will continue with Erzsi's personal enlightenment as well, as she journeys to Paris and thence back to Rome, but his focus is Mihály. His Journey of the title is not one of a single night, but lasts for months; the Moonlight is a state of mental entrancement, sometimes bemused delight, sometimes fatalistic despair. A fairer description might be the book's first epigraph, taken from Villon:
Mutinously I submit to the claims of law and order.It is a quotation full of paradoxes: "mutinously" and yet "law and order"; the world that both "accepts and rejects." If such riddles intrigue you, and you want to spend a few days with an author who writes in a constant state of spiritual intoxication, then stop reading me and reach for the Szerb.
What will happen? I wait for my journey's wages
In a world that accepts and rejects me.
June 3, 2022
The first time I've heard about Antal Szerb was no more than two months ago. Since then, I managed to put my hands onto all the novels by Szerb translated into English, whose number equals to three.
I had the luck to make a good catch while visiting an Oxfam charity shop in lovely Bath, UK.
Bless the kind reader who donated Szerb's novels to Oxfam!
'Journey by Moonlight' ('Utas és holdvilág'), published in 1937, is widely considered as Szerb's masterpiece, but I must confess that I liked 'The Pendragon Legend' - his first novel - a hint more.
Nevertheless, this novel came very close to the intellectual pleasure I felt while reading Szerb's previous work and is considered a milestone of Hungarian literature.
Antal Szerb had the rare talent to combine serious and farcical elements into his novels. What we have into this one is a post-wedding personality crisis of a Hungarian man - Mihaly - who is still tied to his adolescence, prone to womanising and cannot really cope with the social and moral responsabilities brought by adulthood.
From the very first sentence of the book, we know that something odd is going to happen to Mihaly. He's travelling through Italy on honeymoon with his newly-wed wife Erszi, a pretty but rather boring socialite whom he took away from her previous wealthy husband out of an extramarital fling.
Unlike his wife, it's the first time that Mihaly visits Italy and he's deeply fascinated by the country due to its glorious past rather than because of what he sees around him. To Mihaly, Italy means first and foremost Goethe, the Renaissance and the Ancient Romans' deeds in a dramatic and sentimental manner that brought to my mind 'Peter Camenzind' by Herman Hesse.
But whereas Hesse really meant what he wrote writing his idyllic postcards from a non-existent Italy (with an involuntary comic effect) Szerb is able to cast some clever observations on Italy in the 1930s between the lines thus stressing out the absurdity of Mihaly's behaviour in being tied to a Grand Tour-shaped past.
Art, food, sensual pleasures and architecture aside, what Mihaly really pines for is wondering and wandering around the alleyways of Venice, the hills of Tuscany and the forests of Umbria preferably by night and in a state of self-indulged introspective stupor which leads him to take impulsive and absurd decisions.
Erszi is rather tolerant of her husband's recurring oddities but all the same she doesn't care a bit to catch him when Mihaly - unaware and aware at the same time - leaves her behind by boarding a wrong train. From this point on, Szerb focuses on Mihaly's identity crisis and the interesting people and the former acquaintances he meets through his Italian adventure. Some of these encounters happen by chance, some others not but all leave a mark in Mihaly's tormented story.
The author shows us a man who rebelled against a petty bourgeois life, but poor Mihaly doesn't quite know what led him to rebel and what he's inclined to pursuit and how. By writing so, Szerb tells us about the protagonist's personal defeat and evokes the topic of suicide which is a taboo much dear to his fellow Hungarians.
And yet, don't look at 'Journey by Moonlight' as your dark and depressing novel spiralling downwards to the abyss of human nihilism as Szerb's peculiarity and ability is that he always knew how to cheer you up with a touch of lightness. Go and read yourselves.
I had the luck to make a good catch while visiting an Oxfam charity shop in lovely Bath, UK.
Bless the kind reader who donated Szerb's novels to Oxfam!
'Journey by Moonlight' ('Utas és holdvilág'), published in 1937, is widely considered as Szerb's masterpiece, but I must confess that I liked 'The Pendragon Legend' - his first novel - a hint more.
Nevertheless, this novel came very close to the intellectual pleasure I felt while reading Szerb's previous work and is considered a milestone of Hungarian literature.
Antal Szerb had the rare talent to combine serious and farcical elements into his novels. What we have into this one is a post-wedding personality crisis of a Hungarian man - Mihaly - who is still tied to his adolescence, prone to womanising and cannot really cope with the social and moral responsabilities brought by adulthood.
From the very first sentence of the book, we know that something odd is going to happen to Mihaly. He's travelling through Italy on honeymoon with his newly-wed wife Erszi, a pretty but rather boring socialite whom he took away from her previous wealthy husband out of an extramarital fling.
Unlike his wife, it's the first time that Mihaly visits Italy and he's deeply fascinated by the country due to its glorious past rather than because of what he sees around him. To Mihaly, Italy means first and foremost Goethe, the Renaissance and the Ancient Romans' deeds in a dramatic and sentimental manner that brought to my mind 'Peter Camenzind' by Herman Hesse.
But whereas Hesse really meant what he wrote writing his idyllic postcards from a non-existent Italy (with an involuntary comic effect) Szerb is able to cast some clever observations on Italy in the 1930s between the lines thus stressing out the absurdity of Mihaly's behaviour in being tied to a Grand Tour-shaped past.
Art, food, sensual pleasures and architecture aside, what Mihaly really pines for is wondering and wandering around the alleyways of Venice, the hills of Tuscany and the forests of Umbria preferably by night and in a state of self-indulged introspective stupor which leads him to take impulsive and absurd decisions.
Erszi is rather tolerant of her husband's recurring oddities but all the same she doesn't care a bit to catch him when Mihaly - unaware and aware at the same time - leaves her behind by boarding a wrong train. From this point on, Szerb focuses on Mihaly's identity crisis and the interesting people and the former acquaintances he meets through his Italian adventure. Some of these encounters happen by chance, some others not but all leave a mark in Mihaly's tormented story.
The author shows us a man who rebelled against a petty bourgeois life, but poor Mihaly doesn't quite know what led him to rebel and what he's inclined to pursuit and how. By writing so, Szerb tells us about the protagonist's personal defeat and evokes the topic of suicide which is a taboo much dear to his fellow Hungarians.
And yet, don't look at 'Journey by Moonlight' as your dark and depressing novel spiralling downwards to the abyss of human nihilism as Szerb's peculiarity and ability is that he always knew how to cheer you up with a touch of lightness. Go and read yourselves.
June 11, 2018
Δεν ξέρω αν έχει συμβεί και σε άλλους αλλά εξαφανίζονται βιβλία!!!
Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο το είχα διαβάσει πριν 1-2 χρόνια αλλά το σχόλιο μου χάθηκε και το βιβλίο "έφυγε" από τα ράφια μου.
Σε επικοινωνία με το Goodreads μου είπαν ένα σωρό βλακείες με συμπέρασμα "αν θέλετε ξαναπροσθέστε το στα ράφια σας και γράψτε και σχόλιο πάλι".
Το συγκεκριμένο βιβλίο το είχα διαβάσει πριν 1-2 χρόνια αλλά το σχόλιο μου χάθηκε και το βιβλίο "έφυγε" από τα ράφια μου.
Σε επικοινωνία με το Goodreads μου είπαν ένα σωρό βλακείες με συμπέρασμα "αν θέλετε ξαναπροσθέστε το στα ράφια σας και γράψτε και σχόλιο πάλι".
May 25, 2020
إلى شخص الكاتب الكريم: " أنا هزعلك وهجيب ناس تزعلك "
أولى قراءات العيد، وأول رجوع إلى الروايات بعد التوقف خلال شهر رمضان. جئتها محملة بالشوق والآمال العريضة، لكنها كانت لئيمة فجحدت لهفتي ورمتني بالخذلان.
الفكرة الرئيسية التي تعالجها الرواية هي الضياع والبحث عن الذات، موضوع مكرر ويعاد عرضه دوماً. ومع ذلك أنا أستمتع بالروايات التي تحكي عن حالة التوهان المُلهمة واللذيذة تلك، أما أن تقولَ لي أنها قد وجدت الطريق في النهاية وأبطلت السحر فذلك هو الغباء بعينه.
بالتوازي مع المحور السابق هناك فكرة أخرى متعلقة بثنائية الحياة والموت؛ فكرة مرضيّة إن صحّ القول.. قد تصيب بعض الناس، أو كثير من الناس لكن لوهلة قصيرة. أنا أيضاً أحب القراءة عن الاختلالات النفسية والاعتقادات الغرائبية، لكني لم أنجذب ولم أقتنع، هناك نقص لم أستطع تحديد مكانه لكنه محسوس بشدة.
عموماً رواية ضعيفة، مكتوبة بشكل سيء وغير احترافي. لا أدري علامَ حظيت بكل تلك التقييمات العالية !
أولى قراءات العيد، وأول رجوع إلى الروايات بعد التوقف خلال شهر رمضان. جئتها محملة بالشوق والآمال العريضة، لكنها كانت لئيمة فجحدت لهفتي ورمتني بالخذلان.
الفكرة الرئيسية التي تعالجها الرواية هي الضياع والبحث عن الذات، موضوع مكرر ويعاد عرضه دوماً. ومع ذلك أنا أستمتع بالروايات التي تحكي عن حالة التوهان المُلهمة واللذيذة تلك، أما أن تقولَ لي أنها قد وجدت الطريق في النهاية وأبطلت السحر فذلك هو الغباء بعينه.
بالتوازي مع المحور السابق هناك فكرة أخرى متعلقة بثنائية الحياة والموت؛ فكرة مرضيّة إن صحّ القول.. قد تصيب بعض الناس، أو كثير من الناس لكن لوهلة قصيرة. أنا أيضاً أحب القراءة عن الاختلالات النفسية والاعتقادات الغرائبية، لكني لم أنجذب ولم أقتنع، هناك نقص لم أستطع تحديد مكانه لكنه محسوس بشدة.
عموماً رواية ضعيفة، مكتوبة بشكل سيء وغير احترافي. لا أدري علامَ حظيت بكل تلك التقييمات العالية !
July 13, 2016
Journey by Moonlight is an apt title for this surreal story about a Hungarian man, Mihaly, longing for the world of his youth and taking an emotional journey to his future. He had made the effort to live a conventional middle-class life, work in finance in a family firm, and marry a proper woman. On their honeymoon in Italy, Mihaly mixes up the trains and finds himself separated from his wife. He wonders if the marriage was a mistake, and does not try to find her.
It's an opportunity to escape his bourgeois life and return to his romantic bohemian youth. He needs to connect with his old friends and work through some unfinished emotional baggage. Images of death lurk in the background as Mihaly moves through his Italian journey of self-discovery. Meanwhile, his wife is on her own, making her personal discoveries, and deciding what she wants in life.
There are many moments of dark humor in the book. The cast of characters is mostly composed of eccentric non-conformists. The atmosphere is Gothic and dreamy. Journey by Moonlight is an unusual and entertaining book where the reader should just go with the flow, and see where author Antal Szerb takes you.
It's an opportunity to escape his bourgeois life and return to his romantic bohemian youth. He needs to connect with his old friends and work through some unfinished emotional baggage. Images of death lurk in the background as Mihaly moves through his Italian journey of self-discovery. Meanwhile, his wife is on her own, making her personal discoveries, and deciding what she wants in life.
There are many moments of dark humor in the book. The cast of characters is mostly composed of eccentric non-conformists. The atmosphere is Gothic and dreamy. Journey by Moonlight is an unusual and entertaining book where the reader should just go with the flow, and see where author Antal Szerb takes you.
Read
June 16, 2020Logic is certainly not a concept that I would associate with this novel. I’m not trying to say that there has to be a certain sense in a story for it to work. 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. Nonetheless, in Journey by Moonlight everything seems to follow a certain order, or disorder I should say, in which the author seems to be convinced that the plot at all times must mislead the reader. And he does it admirably.
The story opens in Venice, a city that perfectly fits the plan of the story. As every visitor knows, the city has two faces to offer: one is the favorite of tourists, with all the important buildings that any good guide includes; the other is the hidden city, where back alleys and narrow streets are part of a complicated maze of incredible sophistication. While I’m writing these lines, Nicolas Roeg’s cult film Don’t look now comes to mind.
The traveler would find himself walking across a small bridge while looking at his map and making a right turn and then two lefts followed by a right, arriving at a small piazza; walking past it and crossing another bridge over a much narrow canal and making a quick right and then two lefts he would arrive at another piazza, quite similar to the first one. Where am I?, would be his first question, a simple and practical one, and not the hypothetical full of philosophical implications. Have I walked in circles? In his aim to retrace steps by following a quick recap of his journey he would find himself completely lost and quite far from his original point of departure. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler gets lost, we can well imagine what could happen if it were a clear spring night…
In my view, the traveler’s journey through Venice is quite similar to that of the reader following the story, narrated with great talent by the Hungarian writer Antal Szerb, whose own life story is as extraordinary as this one. The epigraph right at the beginning, from a text by the French Renaissance poet François Villon could well be the perfect description of our main character and the journey in which he is about to embark:
“Mutinously I submit to the claims of law and order.
What will happen? I wait for my journey’s wages
In a world that accepts and rejects me”
Ambivalence is the main feature of Mihály’s personality, and his actions sometimes rebellious and others simply capricious, lead the story to unimaginable developments that reflect in Szerb’s narrative, ranging from sophistication to a simplicity that perfectly serves the purposes of the plot. Newlywed, Mihály is on his way to Venice with Erzi on their honeymoon. The opening sentence is like a warning to the reader: “On the train everything seemed fine. The trouble began in Venice, with the back alleys.” And yes, if on a spring’s night a traveler gets lots, then the traveler must be Mihály.
From then on, the novel embarks in a grand excursion through Italy, with the most extraordinary characters, from a Franciscan monk and a Persian opium dealer, to an Italian fortune teller (in the christening of a bambino) and an American tourist that regrets having trusted a French man about a supposed Da Vinci painting, in the charming little town of Forigno.
Mihály shows the whole palette of his personality early on: mistakes of interpretation, doubts, good humor, and cleverness. As early as the first chapter he realizes, with less surprise than irony, that he does not know his new wife well and even questions his own decision to marry her. With the idea of a story in within a story (a narrative style that prevails throughout the first part of the novel), he tells part of his to Erzi, who mirroring her own insecurities, realizes as well, how little she knows Mihály.
With great precision Szerb paints distinctive portraits for each of his characters. That in itself is quite an accomplishment, since they all follow different paths. Through internal dialogue he uncovers not only the real intentions but the hesitations that leads to a decision, disclosing important details that will prove valuable later on; first impressions change radically, revealing a fresh new approach that often contradicts our expectations, giving the plot a new flow that is sometimes reflected in a variation in the rhythm of the prose. A sudden and unexpected knock on the door happens frequently, and each time it serves as a change of direction; the variation can be subtle, but it often represents a radical remaking of the story. As in any good Hungarian novel, suicide is present more than once, and throughout its pages, there is a constant sense of nostalgia, a sentimental yearning for youth, for social class, for the homeland or simply for a long gone dream.
Journey by Moonlight was written in 1937. Considered a masterpiece of Modernist literature, it was a great success at the time of its publication. Antal Szerb was born in Budapest in 1901 (he is an exact contemporary of his countryman Sándor Márai, a writer I particularly admire). Due to his Jewish ancestry he was deported to a labor camp in Balf. In 1945, right before the war ended, he was atrociously killed and buried in a mass grave.
___
The story opens in Venice, a city that perfectly fits the plan of the story. As every visitor knows, the city has two faces to offer: one is the favorite of tourists, with all the important buildings that any good guide includes; the other is the hidden city, where back alleys and narrow streets are part of a complicated maze of incredible sophistication. While I’m writing these lines, Nicolas Roeg’s cult film Don’t look now comes to mind.
The traveler would find himself walking across a small bridge while looking at his map and making a right turn and then two lefts followed by a right, arriving at a small piazza; walking past it and crossing another bridge over a much narrow canal and making a quick right and then two lefts he would arrive at another piazza, quite similar to the first one. Where am I?, would be his first question, a simple and practical one, and not the hypothetical full of philosophical implications. Have I walked in circles? In his aim to retrace steps by following a quick recap of his journey he would find himself completely lost and quite far from his original point of departure. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler gets lost, we can well imagine what could happen if it were a clear spring night…
In my view, the traveler’s journey through Venice is quite similar to that of the reader following the story, narrated with great talent by the Hungarian writer Antal Szerb, whose own life story is as extraordinary as this one. The epigraph right at the beginning, from a text by the French Renaissance poet François Villon could well be the perfect description of our main character and the journey in which he is about to embark:
“Mutinously I submit to the claims of law and order.
What will happen? I wait for my journey’s wages
In a world that accepts and rejects me”
Ambivalence is the main feature of Mihály’s personality, and his actions sometimes rebellious and others simply capricious, lead the story to unimaginable developments that reflect in Szerb’s narrative, ranging from sophistication to a simplicity that perfectly serves the purposes of the plot. Newlywed, Mihály is on his way to Venice with Erzi on their honeymoon. The opening sentence is like a warning to the reader: “On the train everything seemed fine. The trouble began in Venice, with the back alleys.” And yes, if on a spring’s night a traveler gets lots, then the traveler must be Mihály.
From then on, the novel embarks in a grand excursion through Italy, with the most extraordinary characters, from a Franciscan monk and a Persian opium dealer, to an Italian fortune teller (in the christening of a bambino) and an American tourist that regrets having trusted a French man about a supposed Da Vinci painting, in the charming little town of Forigno.
Mihály shows the whole palette of his personality early on: mistakes of interpretation, doubts, good humor, and cleverness. As early as the first chapter he realizes, with less surprise than irony, that he does not know his new wife well and even questions his own decision to marry her. With the idea of a story in within a story (a narrative style that prevails throughout the first part of the novel), he tells part of his to Erzi, who mirroring her own insecurities, realizes as well, how little she knows Mihály.
With great precision Szerb paints distinctive portraits for each of his characters. That in itself is quite an accomplishment, since they all follow different paths. Through internal dialogue he uncovers not only the real intentions but the hesitations that leads to a decision, disclosing important details that will prove valuable later on; first impressions change radically, revealing a fresh new approach that often contradicts our expectations, giving the plot a new flow that is sometimes reflected in a variation in the rhythm of the prose. A sudden and unexpected knock on the door happens frequently, and each time it serves as a change of direction; the variation can be subtle, but it often represents a radical remaking of the story. As in any good Hungarian novel, suicide is present more than once, and throughout its pages, there is a constant sense of nostalgia, a sentimental yearning for youth, for social class, for the homeland or simply for a long gone dream.
Journey by Moonlight was written in 1937. Considered a masterpiece of Modernist literature, it was a great success at the time of its publication. Antal Szerb was born in Budapest in 1901 (he is an exact contemporary of his countryman Sándor Márai, a writer I particularly admire). Due to his Jewish ancestry he was deported to a labor camp in Balf. In 1945, right before the war ended, he was atrociously killed and buried in a mass grave.
___
February 21, 2013
Boy, am I ever having a problem finishing books lately! This one has almost grabbed me, and I've made it to within 50 pages of its 230-page end, but I can't help noticing it's been almost grabbing me since I started it, with no increase in my interest since. Granted, it's hard to read when you've just fallen in love, with a woman with three rowdy sons, and moved house 1000kms, and when you're not absorbed in deep conversation or communion or trying to entertain or discipline children can hardly focus your thoughts for wondering and hoping and worrying about the future. BUT how glorious it would be to have a decent book to escape into now and then! And this too youthful, too loosely constructed, too ultimately mundane and unchallenging, ever-so-slightly tantalisingly dreamlike but in the final analysis cod-realist episodic novel is just not enough! At times - at times - it seems about to break its bonds and careen into unreality, but too quickly it's back behind the safety barrier, as if its author were afraid to break the mold he has selected for his fairly safe, fairly unoriginal and not very inspiring ruminations on Europe and civilisation between the two world wars. It's frustrating, because somewhere in here is the spark of something that could really come to life, rather than the cardboard shadowplay of talking heads - dense with ludicrous coincidences - that this monument to authorial indecision so often becomes. You want to know what it's like, try early Paul Auster with a slight bit more naturalness and less weirdness (and a lot more sociology, rudimentary as it is). It's almost interesting, but I can't help suspecting Szerb of wanting to pay the bills more than he wanted to get to the root of anything, despite the meaningful poses he has his cartoon characters striking in various picturesque locations throughout. The modernist Auster? That's a 3-star maximum, no matter how you cut it. Now for f**k's sake what can I read that will grab me?!
October 4, 2020
Yakın bir zamanda yazacağım hele dün Mişi’nin gezdiği yerlere doğru yaptığım yolculuk bir an beni anlatının içine tekrar yerleştirdi. Okuyanlar mutlaka biliyorlar oldukça etkili bir eser kitap bittiğinde dahi düşüncelerinizde yer alıyor . Değişik ve gerçekten oldukça iyi bir eser.
https://serserikuslar.blogspot.com/20...
https://serserikuslar.blogspot.com/20...
September 27, 2022
The one book hardly anyone has ever heard of that everyone must read.
Antal Szerb writes in that ironic, self-reflective, clever way of Eastern Europeans brought up on a diet of good literature, music and art. There’s a comfort in the forms of art and the mind. His writing life was spent in between the wars; Journey by Moonlight is a product of that time - the late 1930s. Set in Italy, the protagonist, Mihaliy often asks whether the locals are as happy under the gaze of Il Duce as they appear to be. Mihaliy calls the errand boy a little fascista, no artist can resist wise-cracking about the puffed up ideas of dictators and the machinery with which they operate the land. Despite all this, Mihaliy is free to travel around and spend his money; you see he’s on his honeymoon with the beautiful and well brought up Erszi. Italy, with its nostalgic equivocating romance for the past, is the perfect setting for Mihaliy’s actual journey - backwards in time to his own love of beautiful Eva and the friendship group that centred on her house with her brother Tamas. Some of the plot lines are so silly, you wonder how it all comes together. It's as though the novel takes place in a brief, inspired emotionally charged moment of time.
It’s a fun ride, full of lateral story-lines: Erzsi’s ex husband is pursuing her with his own true love for her, too. Despite his 'love' for Erzsi, Mihalyi lives in the half-light of moonlight throughout, an irrational zone of possibilities. He is easily deceived by an old friend who once stole his gold watch, who then tries to steal Erzsi away from him then selling her off to either the ex-husband or a shady Persian opium seller making a movie about how down to earth and decent opium farmers are. The half light world of moonlight stages everything in this novel. Monastary rules prohibit Fr Severius, really an old friend who converted from Judaism to catholicism, meeting Mihalyi until midnight. He too suffered from the love of the past and the beautiful Eva. Perhaps he's in hiding as a monk, living a half-life to forget her. In a fugue moment, Mihaliy leaves a town and spends the night in a forest, ending up half mad with exhaustion.
Umbria and Tuscany are wonderful places to get lost in. No one ends up seeing all the art and architecture on show. Mihayli and Erzsi plan to: it doesn’t happen. Is that a joke, perhaps about honeymooners who supposedly only ever see the inside of their hotel rooms? And there are English speakers everywhere: the doctor who heals Mihayli's exhaustion and the young American art historian on a self-funded tour of everything an art historian must see in Italy. This was all before the era of mass tourism, when an American needed the extensive notes of a teacher to advise where to go, and a copy of Baedeker. Was an Italy controlled by fascists the perfect place for an American to holiday? The Rockefellers loved fascists.
Will Mihaliy ever see Eva again? The real plot-line. It’s all a little soap-opera-ish when you tell it. Most of what happens in this novel is absurd, as was the world at the time. Reminds me of Iron Curtain writing from Czech, Poland and the like. You can’t really describe the world as it is - you’d never get published. But then the world under dictatorships, left or right, doesn't make sense, so how can anyone write realism? The long chapter on Mihaly, Eva and Tamas as teenagers role playing is so weird, only great writing can pull it off. It is so absorbing while simultaneously incredulous. Perhaps that’s what moonlight is like to travel in.
Szerb’s little travel book Red Tower is set on holiday in Italy around 1935 or 36. The attitude is the same about fascism, it’s a great place to take a holiday if you don’t notice the dictatorship.
Szerb is one of those ‘if only’ writers of the 20thC. Had he survived the war, he may be more popular, or well known, or lauded. Certainly any outspoken anti-fascist after WW2 would’ve been highly regarded. Instead he died like everyone else fighting a corrupt world. He’s worth remembering as our own times darken a little every day.
Antal Szerb writes in that ironic, self-reflective, clever way of Eastern Europeans brought up on a diet of good literature, music and art. There’s a comfort in the forms of art and the mind. His writing life was spent in between the wars; Journey by Moonlight is a product of that time - the late 1930s. Set in Italy, the protagonist, Mihaliy often asks whether the locals are as happy under the gaze of Il Duce as they appear to be. Mihaliy calls the errand boy a little fascista, no artist can resist wise-cracking about the puffed up ideas of dictators and the machinery with which they operate the land. Despite all this, Mihaliy is free to travel around and spend his money; you see he’s on his honeymoon with the beautiful and well brought up Erszi. Italy, with its nostalgic equivocating romance for the past, is the perfect setting for Mihaliy’s actual journey - backwards in time to his own love of beautiful Eva and the friendship group that centred on her house with her brother Tamas. Some of the plot lines are so silly, you wonder how it all comes together. It's as though the novel takes place in a brief, inspired emotionally charged moment of time.
It’s a fun ride, full of lateral story-lines: Erzsi’s ex husband is pursuing her with his own true love for her, too. Despite his 'love' for Erzsi, Mihalyi lives in the half-light of moonlight throughout, an irrational zone of possibilities. He is easily deceived by an old friend who once stole his gold watch, who then tries to steal Erzsi away from him then selling her off to either the ex-husband or a shady Persian opium seller making a movie about how down to earth and decent opium farmers are. The half light world of moonlight stages everything in this novel. Monastary rules prohibit Fr Severius, really an old friend who converted from Judaism to catholicism, meeting Mihalyi until midnight. He too suffered from the love of the past and the beautiful Eva. Perhaps he's in hiding as a monk, living a half-life to forget her. In a fugue moment, Mihaliy leaves a town and spends the night in a forest, ending up half mad with exhaustion.
Umbria and Tuscany are wonderful places to get lost in. No one ends up seeing all the art and architecture on show. Mihayli and Erzsi plan to: it doesn’t happen. Is that a joke, perhaps about honeymooners who supposedly only ever see the inside of their hotel rooms? And there are English speakers everywhere: the doctor who heals Mihayli's exhaustion and the young American art historian on a self-funded tour of everything an art historian must see in Italy. This was all before the era of mass tourism, when an American needed the extensive notes of a teacher to advise where to go, and a copy of Baedeker. Was an Italy controlled by fascists the perfect place for an American to holiday? The Rockefellers loved fascists.
Will Mihaliy ever see Eva again? The real plot-line. It’s all a little soap-opera-ish when you tell it. Most of what happens in this novel is absurd, as was the world at the time. Reminds me of Iron Curtain writing from Czech, Poland and the like. You can’t really describe the world as it is - you’d never get published. But then the world under dictatorships, left or right, doesn't make sense, so how can anyone write realism? The long chapter on Mihaly, Eva and Tamas as teenagers role playing is so weird, only great writing can pull it off. It is so absorbing while simultaneously incredulous. Perhaps that’s what moonlight is like to travel in.
Szerb’s little travel book Red Tower is set on holiday in Italy around 1935 or 36. The attitude is the same about fascism, it’s a great place to take a holiday if you don’t notice the dictatorship.
Szerb is one of those ‘if only’ writers of the 20thC. Had he survived the war, he may be more popular, or well known, or lauded. Certainly any outspoken anti-fascist after WW2 would’ve been highly regarded. Instead he died like everyone else fighting a corrupt world. He’s worth remembering as our own times darken a little every day.
Read
March 30, 2021
"... çok iyi bir insan, ama bu dünyaya göre değil."
(s.273)
Hiçbir kategoriye sokulamayacak, özgün, benzersiz bir kitap!
Macar edebiyatıyla tanışmam 2016 yılında Imre Kertész ile oldu. Daha sonra da Arthur Koestler ile tanıştım. Şimdi Antal Szerb ile el sıkışıyorum bu kitabıyla.
Szerb, en acı tabirle, talihsiz bir yazar. 44 yaşında Naziler tarafından toplama kampında öldürülen yazar ülkemizde pek bilinmiyor aslında. Ülkemizde okurun kendisiyle tanışması ilk defa 2008 yılında Vural Savaş'ın çevirdiği Dünya Yazın Tarihi isimli eserle oluyor. 2016 yılında da Yolcu ve Ayışığı bu defa Vural Yıldırım tarafından dilimize kazandırılıyor.
Kitabın sade bir tasarımı var. Kağıt kalitesi fena değil. Puntolar okunaklı. Lakin cildi çabuk deforme oluyor özellikle köşelerinden zarar görmeye başladı şimdiden. Geçtiğimiz yıl kütüphaneme giren kitabı goodreads sayesinde keşfettiğimi söyleyebilirim.
İçeriğine gelince, her şeyden evvel şunu söyleyebilirim ki kitapta Freud etkisi yoğun olarak hissediliyor. Bir dönem popüler bir tabir olan "psikolojik roman" terimi bu kitaba tam olarak uyuyor. Özellikle ölüm, cinsel arzu, bilinç altı, tabular gibi konular kitabın tamamında hakim temalar olmakla beraber kitabın ana teması varoluş sancısı diyebiliriz.
Kitabın parçalar halinde yazıldığına yönelik bir his oluşturan kesilmeleri var. Fakat bu kesilmeler okurun dikkatini dağıtmıyor, yumuşak geçişlerle sağlanmış bu. Kitapta özgün bulduğum bir anlatım yöntemi var. Yazar adeta bir kamera gibi kişiden kişiye aktarıyor birinci şahıslığı. Böylece sanki bedenler arasında geçişler yapan ruhuz. Üçüncü tekil şahıs olarak karakterleri tanımlarken birden karakter olarak konuşuyoruz, sonra bir başka karaktere geçiş yapıyoruz. Bu geçişler insanı sıkmıyor, dikkati de dağıtmıyor.
Çeviriyi çok başarılı bulduğumu söyleyemem. 109. sayfada geçen "yürüyerek gitmek" anlamında kullanılan "tabanvay" kelimesi hoş olmamış. 182. sayfada Milletler Cemiyeti'nin Birleşmiş Milletler olarak çevirilmesi 1937 yılında basılan kitabın BM'yi 8 sene önceden tahmin etmesi mümkün olamayacağına göre bariz bir çeviri hatası. 333. sayfada geçen "çay pişirmek" deyimi de muhtemelen Macarcadan birebir çeviriden kaynaklı.
Okumak, yazmak, ve yaşamak!
Yılın 17. Kitabı
Mehmet Baran
https://agacingovdesi.com/2021/03/30/...
Hiçbir kategoriye sokulamayacak, özgün, benzersiz bir kitap!
Macar edebiyatıyla tanışmam 2016 yılında Imre Kertész ile oldu. Daha sonra da Arthur Koestler ile tanıştım. Şimdi Antal Szerb ile el sıkışıyorum bu kitabıyla.
Szerb, en acı tabirle, talihsiz bir yazar. 44 yaşında Naziler tarafından toplama kampında öldürülen yazar ülkemizde pek bilinmiyor aslında. Ülkemizde okurun kendisiyle tanışması ilk defa 2008 yılında Vural Savaş'ın çevirdiği Dünya Yazın Tarihi isimli eserle oluyor. 2016 yılında da Yolcu ve Ayışığı bu defa Vural Yıldırım tarafından dilimize kazandırılıyor.
Kitabın sade bir tasarımı var. Kağıt kalitesi fena değil. Puntolar okunaklı. Lakin cildi çabuk deforme oluyor özellikle köşelerinden zarar görmeye başladı şimdiden. Geçtiğimiz yıl kütüphaneme giren kitabı goodreads sayesinde keşfettiğimi söyleyebilirim.
İçeriğine gelince, her şeyden evvel şunu söyleyebilirim ki kitapta Freud etkisi yoğun olarak hissediliyor. Bir dönem popüler bir tabir olan "psikolojik roman" terimi bu kitaba tam olarak uyuyor. Özellikle ölüm, cinsel arzu, bilinç altı, tabular gibi konular kitabın tamamında hakim temalar olmakla beraber kitabın ana teması varoluş sancısı diyebiliriz.
Kitabın parçalar halinde yazıldığına yönelik bir his oluşturan kesilmeleri var. Fakat bu kesilmeler okurun dikkatini dağıtmıyor, yumuşak geçişlerle sağlanmış bu. Kitapta özgün bulduğum bir anlatım yöntemi var. Yazar adeta bir kamera gibi kişiden kişiye aktarıyor birinci şahıslığı. Böylece sanki bedenler arasında geçişler yapan ruhuz. Üçüncü tekil şahıs olarak karakterleri tanımlarken birden karakter olarak konuşuyoruz, sonra bir başka karaktere geçiş yapıyoruz. Bu geçişler insanı sıkmıyor, dikkati de dağıtmıyor.
Çeviriyi çok başarılı bulduğumu söyleyemem. 109. sayfada geçen "yürüyerek gitmek" anlamında kullanılan "tabanvay" kelimesi hoş olmamış. 182. sayfada Milletler Cemiyeti'nin Birleşmiş Milletler olarak çevirilmesi 1937 yılında basılan kitabın BM'yi 8 sene önceden tahmin etmesi mümkün olamayacağına göre bariz bir çeviri hatası. 333. sayfada geçen "çay pişirmek" deyimi de muhtemelen Macarcadan birebir çeviriden kaynaklı.
Okumak, yazmak, ve yaşamak!
Yılın 17. Kitabı
Mehmet Baran
https://agacingovdesi.com/2021/03/30/...
August 18, 2019
I don't give out five stars easily, but every once in a while a book comes along that's so good it makes me reassess all those other books I've given five stars to. Truly, if "Journey by Moonlight" is the standard by which all other books should be judged, very few others would receive top marks from me.
I had never heard of the Hungarian author Antal Szerb before, nor had I ever heard of this book. It was only back in 2017 when, visiting my brother in Boston, I stepped inside the Harvard Bookshop, read the back of this one and, deciding it sounded interesting enough, purchased it. It then sat on my shelf for the next two years, where I stared at it in complete ignorance of just how good it was.
This book is the perfect example of why, despite all the unread books currently sitting on my shelf, I cannot help but buy more. You never know which of those unread books is a "Journey by Moonlight", a book that has the capacity to add something to your life and change your outlook, even if only slightly.
Antal Szerb is one of those unfortunate authors more famous for the tragedy of his real life than the remarkable things he wrote. Szerb's life was defined by the Second World War which had particularly fatal consequences for him. Although he was a practicing Catholic, he was born Jewish and was a strident anti-fascist. His life came to an end in 1944 when he was beaten to death in a labor camp in German-occupied Hungary.
Death is the dominant theme in "Journey to Midnight", which is nevertheless a hopeful, at times wickedly funny book. Szerb himself is said to have been something of an optimist, albeit one known for his rich use of irony. Reading this, one is struck by how much we have lost due to his murder at the hands of those barbarians, and how much richer humanity would be if he had been allowed to live a full life.
Perhaps I can do little more to convince you of what an astoundingly rewarding read this is than by quoting the critic Nicholas Lezard, whose words are shared following the summary on the backcover: "No one who has read it has failed to love it." I too find it hard to fathom anyone reading this book and failing to love it. It is so relatable, so topical, so human ... it feels almost more perfect for the disillisionment and capitalistic fatigue of our current times than for those of late-1930s Europe, when it was written.
It almost reads like a sort of European Into the Wild. Our complicated protagonist, Mihály, is a successful newlywed who, tired of attempting to conform to what's expected of him, finally rejects society's expectations to go off on a personal journey of his own. In the process, he battles the demons of his past, the inner urge for annihilation, and his nostalgic nature.
It's not only one of the very best things I've read this year but one of the best things I've read in any year. Antal Szerb is an author who deserves to be much more widely read outside his native Hungary. His legacy ought to endure far longer than his tragically short life.
I had never heard of the Hungarian author Antal Szerb before, nor had I ever heard of this book. It was only back in 2017 when, visiting my brother in Boston, I stepped inside the Harvard Bookshop, read the back of this one and, deciding it sounded interesting enough, purchased it. It then sat on my shelf for the next two years, where I stared at it in complete ignorance of just how good it was.
This book is the perfect example of why, despite all the unread books currently sitting on my shelf, I cannot help but buy more. You never know which of those unread books is a "Journey by Moonlight", a book that has the capacity to add something to your life and change your outlook, even if only slightly.
Antal Szerb is one of those unfortunate authors more famous for the tragedy of his real life than the remarkable things he wrote. Szerb's life was defined by the Second World War which had particularly fatal consequences for him. Although he was a practicing Catholic, he was born Jewish and was a strident anti-fascist. His life came to an end in 1944 when he was beaten to death in a labor camp in German-occupied Hungary.
Death is the dominant theme in "Journey to Midnight", which is nevertheless a hopeful, at times wickedly funny book. Szerb himself is said to have been something of an optimist, albeit one known for his rich use of irony. Reading this, one is struck by how much we have lost due to his murder at the hands of those barbarians, and how much richer humanity would be if he had been allowed to live a full life.
Perhaps I can do little more to convince you of what an astoundingly rewarding read this is than by quoting the critic Nicholas Lezard, whose words are shared following the summary on the backcover: "No one who has read it has failed to love it." I too find it hard to fathom anyone reading this book and failing to love it. It is so relatable, so topical, so human ... it feels almost more perfect for the disillisionment and capitalistic fatigue of our current times than for those of late-1930s Europe, when it was written.
It almost reads like a sort of European Into the Wild. Our complicated protagonist, Mihály, is a successful newlywed who, tired of attempting to conform to what's expected of him, finally rejects society's expectations to go off on a personal journey of his own. In the process, he battles the demons of his past, the inner urge for annihilation, and his nostalgic nature.
It's not only one of the very best things I've read this year but one of the best things I've read in any year. Antal Szerb is an author who deserves to be much more widely read outside his native Hungary. His legacy ought to endure far longer than his tragically short life.
July 17, 2017
"Tigre, Tigre, brilho ardente,
Lá nas florestas da noite;
Que olho, que mão traçaria
Tua feroz simetria?
Em que infernos, em que céus
Arde o fogo dos teus olhos?
Que fole o pôde soprar?
Que mão tal fogo agarrar?
(...)"
— William Blake, Cantigas da Experiência
"Os olhos dele pareciam os de um animal, e davam-lhe a sensação de segurança. Sim, este homem gosta de mulheres... mas não de uma maneira gratuita... não gosta delas por ser homem, mas por elas serem mulheres amáveis, que merecem ser amadas. Sim: ama-as como um verdadeiro amigo dos cães ama os cães. E, se calhar, isso é o máximo que uma mulher pode desejar."
Antal Szerb nasceu em Budapeste em 1901, numa família judia convertida ao catolicismo. Morreu em Janeiro de 1945, num campo de concentração.
Viajante à Luz da Lua, publicado em 1937, é a história de um homem atormentado em busca de si próprio. Durante a lua-de-mel, em Itália, perde-se (foge) da mulher e vagueia pelo país, escondendo-se e procurando aqueles que na sua juventude amou e perdeu. Nesta demanda, dois poderes se cruzam: o Amor e a Morte; em que o desejo pelo ser amado pode ser tão devastador como a tentação pelo nada...
"As coisas são assim: desejamos alguém de maneira obsessiva e perdidamente, no limiar entre o Inferno e a morte, procuramos essa pessoa, perseguimo-la em vão e a nossa vida consome-se por essa nostalgia."
(Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Night)
"... enquanto se está vivo, pode sempre acontecer alguma coisa."
April 1, 2011
Very intelligent and well read author. His light touch but weighty contemplation reminds me of Proust and Walser. He is compared to Schulz but I think that's most likely due to their shared tragic deaths. This is a book of intrigues but it won't be off-putting to those that abhore such typical subjects because the writing is so skilled. 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. Fans of Stendhal's Charterhouse of Parma will enjoy this work. Like most Hungarian fiction I've read - there is no clear judgement of the characters and their behavior, no saints beyond reproach, no sinners beyond understanding. Like many have said - this is one of the best books I've ever read and Szerb ranks among Europe's greatest writers. I guess that some will not enjoy this because the "warts and all" depictions of the characters. But who that's read Proust didn't want to smack the living crap out of most of the characters and the writer himself for all their neurotic indulgences? There's no moralizing here - just a keen understanding of the nature of human relationships.
January 27, 2023
Yolcu ve Ayışığı bir arayış romanı. 36 yaşında olan Mihaly’nin balayında çıktığı İtalya yolculuğunda eski bir arkadaşıyla karşılaşmasıyla birlikte girdiği varoluş krizini, hayatını sorgulamasını ve geçmişle şimdiki zaman arasındaki bağları ele alarak geleceği kurmaya çalışmasını anlatıyor. İnanç, ölüm, intihar, arzu, burjuvazi, aşk, faşizm (ufak detaylarla) vs. gibi başka temalar da hikaye boyunca bize yer yer eşlik ediyor. Mihaly’nin yaşadığı arafta olma hali (kendisinden bekleneni yapmaya çalıştıkça sürekli başarısız, tatminsiz olması ve her şeyi her an yarım bırakıp gidecek olması) aslında tüm karakterler içinde geçerli. Normlara uymakla uymamak arasında savrulan karakterler (özellikle burjuvalar) zaman zaman radikalleşerek kendilerini anlamlandırmaya çalışıyorlar. Kitabın iki dünya savaşı arasında geçtiğini ve faşizmin yükselişte olduğunu düşünürsek (ki yazar bu yükselişi öyle güzel detaylarla araya serpiştirmiş ki hayran kalmamak elde değil); yazar bireylerin hikayelerinden toplumlara dair bir çıkarımda da bulunuyor. Bu açıdan kitabın hayli sıkı bir burjuvazi eleştirisi olduğunu da söylemek mümkün. Yazarın diğer kitaplarını da çok merak ediyorum.
January 28, 2018
this is beautifully written but somehow it did not resonate with me. set in Europe between the wars it tells the tale of a newly married man who has unresolved issues from his past
he ends up deserting his wife whilst they are on honeymoon in Italy (they are from Hungary), what an utter cad. following this he mooches around Italy in a funk, while friends from his past flit in and out, a monk, borderline gangster and his unrequited love who it turns out has murdered her brother
wifey ends up in Paris where borderline gangster seduces her and schemes to sell her off to either her ex husband or a louche Persian film director
stylish and not a little strange worth a read of you are up for something different
he ends up deserting his wife whilst they are on honeymoon in Italy (they are from Hungary), what an utter cad. following this he mooches around Italy in a funk, while friends from his past flit in and out, a monk, borderline gangster and his unrequited love who it turns out has murdered her brother
wifey ends up in Paris where borderline gangster seduces her and schemes to sell her off to either her ex husband or a louche Persian film director
stylish and not a little strange worth a read of you are up for something different
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