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