Journey by Moonlight (novel)

Journey by Moonlight
Author(s)	Antal Szerb
Original title	Utas és holdvilág
Translator	Len Rix, Peter Hargitai
Country	Hungary
Language	Hungarian
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Pushkin Press
Publication date	1937 (English: 2001, 2003)
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	368 pp
ISBN	ISBN 1-901285-37-5, ISBN 0595795080
OCLC Number	47978000
Dewey Decimal	894.51133 21
LC Classification	PH3351.S86 U813 2001

Journey by Moonlight (in Hungarian, Utas és holdvilág which literally means "Traveler and Moonlight") is among the best-known novels in contemporary Hungarian literature. Written by Antal Szerb, it was first published in 1937. According to Nicholas Lezard, it is "one of the greatest works of modern European literature...I can't remember the last time I did this: finished a novel and then turned straight back to page one to start it over again. That is, until I read Journey by Moonlight." A number of scholars regard it to be unfortunate that it was written in Hungarian rather than English, for it would doubtless be far more prominent and influential if it had been intended for an anglophone audience.

Plot introduction

The novel features the romantic figure of Mihály, aloof and poetic, but struggling to break with an adolescent rebelliousness which he tries to quell under respectable bourgeois conformism, but also with the disturbing attraction of an erotic death-wish. While there is no doubt an element of (the then especially influential and risqué) Freudianism in this, as well as perhaps the sexual and emotional claustrophobia of a society with strong Catholic and martial traditions, it also has a distinct originality.^{[citation needed]}

The novel follows Mihály, a Budapest native from a bourgeois family on his honeymoon in Italy, as he encounters and attempts to make sense of his past.

Characters in "Journey by Moonlight"

• Mihály – a native resident of Budapest
• Erzsi – his wife
• János Szepetneki, Ervin Tamás and Éva Ulpius: Mihály's old friends
• Zoltán Pataki: Erzsi's first husband

Release details

• 1937, Hungary, Révai ISBN ?, Pub date ? ? 1937, paperback (Hungarian first edition)
• 2001, London, Pushkin Press ISBN 1-901285-37-5, Pub date 1 May 2001, paperback (as "Journey by Moonlight", by Len Rix (this translation's first edition)
• 2003, USA, Authors Choice Press, ISBN 0595795080, hardcover, as "The Traveler", translated by Peter Hargitai
• 2006, London, Pushkin Press ISBN 1-901285-50-2, Pub date 27 February 2006, paperback (as "Journey by Moonlight")

Beside English, the novel has been translated into German, French, Italian, Spanish and Dutch.