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Peter Hargitai
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Traveler and the Moonlight Paperback – February 12, 2016

by Antal Szerb (Author), Peter Hargitai (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 25 ratings
See all formats and editions
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Traveler and the Moonlight by Antal Szerb and translated from the Hungarian by Peter Hargitai recounts the misadventures of a closeted intellectual forced to fit into a life of conventional morality and its notions of manhood. Thirty-six-year-old Mihály takes his new bride to Italy for their honeymoon, where chance separates them, and he finds himself on the run from his marriage. Wandering aimlessly from Perugia to Rome, he begins a break-though journey of fatally erotic longing that culminates on the edge of an abyss too dark to contemplate. Set in Europe during the rise of Fascism, his visionary states are eerily prophetic about one of the darkest periods in human history and of the author’s own doom.

PRAISE:

“A Hungarian Classic, Beautifully Translated.”
– Robert Zaller, Distinguished Professor of History
Elected Fellow to the Royal Historical Society

“Peter Hargitai, a distinguished translator and author in his own right, has given three decades of his life to Szerb and his novel, and the present translation is a revision of the one originally published in 1994. It is a labor of love that well rewards the reader, supple and idiomatic and faithful at all times to the turns – and the high eloquence too – of Szerb’s masterful voice.”
– Hungarian Studies Vol. 30 No. 2 Akadémia Kiadó


"The Traveler's American translator, Peter Hargitai, has written an interesting Afterword in which he reveals some of the 'secrets' of the novel. There is the double lure of androgynous love and sudden death."
– George Gömöri
World Literature Today

“I hope the Traveler reaches thousands and thousands of readers."
–Elie Wiesel
Distinguished Nobel Laureate

"Fine, ambitious, subtle, with something of Thomas Mann in it. The Traveler heads for the depths ... One thing that especially moved me is this idea: The Woman needs to rescue herself from being sold from man to man, and the man needs to rescue himself from being sold to death.”
–Robert Bly
American Poet


“It is remarkable and sad that this fine Kafkaesque Hungarian novel has taken over half a century to reach readers, but in Mr. Hargitai’s inspired translation, at once spare and poetic, they will be serve well. Antal Szerb’s dark, and at times mordantly humorous , tale of androgyny and fatal human relationships trips the pulse with its intricate twists of plot and the mind with its philosophical nuances It easily stands in company with Kafka, Rilke, Walser, and other Middle European masters of the early part of the 20th Century who were precursors of modernism and prophets of the frozen sea.”
–Laurence Donovan
University of Miami

Previous page
  1. Print length
    288 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    February 12, 2016
  4. Dimensions
    5 x 0.72 x 8 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    149178928X
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1491789285
  7. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Antal Szerb (1901–1945) is a Hungarian literary historian, essayist, novelist, and man of letters. Although he is known chiefly for his History of Hungarian Literature (1934), his History of World Literature (1941) and his essays on English literature and cultural history, his novel Utas és holdvilág (1937), variously translated into English as The Traveler (1994), Journey by Moonlight (2001), and Traveler and the Moonlight (2015), is a unique contribution to modern world literature. During a forced march in 1945, Antal Szerb and 2000 fellow Jews were executed by the Nazis and buried in a mass grave in the obscure village of Balf, Hungary.

In memory of Antal Szerb, the translator continues to donate his royalties from the sale of this book to the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg. https://www.flholocaustmuseum.org/support/donate-now/

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ iUniverse (February 12, 2016)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 149178928X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1491789285
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.72 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 25 ratings

About the author

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Peter Hargitai

Peter Hargitai

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I’m a retired Senior Lecturer in English, a literary translator, poet, and novelist, and a pariah. I had taught at the University of Miami, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and at Florida International University. My unorthodox and unstructured teaching style combined free writing, flow theory, and stand-up comedy. As a bonus, I also taught Hungarian literature in the guise of English Composition. That proved to have profound repercussions, but it was through my efforts, back in the stone age of the 70’s to my retirement in 2012, that American students were introduced to the works of Attila József and Antal Szerb in translation (my own). My rank-obsessed colleagues at FIU were critical of a professor using his own books in class and had to be reminded that the author did not profit from the sale of his books as he contributed all royalties to the FIU Foundation to be used for educational and charitable purposes. When one fundamentalist Director of Composition urged me to eschew my own books in favor of traditional rhetoric where students could write about how to make a perfect peanut butter and jelly sandwich, I respectfully declined. It must have galled him and his cult members, that my translation of Attila József’s poems in Perched on Nothing’s Branch was awarded the Harold Morton Landon Translation Prize by the Academy of American Poets, and that my own poem, “Mother’s Visit No. 29” appeared in Sixty Years of American Poetry, introduced by Robert Penn Warren, with a Preface by Richard Wilbur. When I was listed in Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages, that was the last straw. That’s when things went from bad to testicular. Either they avoided me in the hall or ambushed me at meetings where they called me out for not being a team-player and accused me of being a ‘pain in the ass.’ Not in those words, of course. Instead, they resorted to language like 'eccentric, truculent, and bizarre.' My response was a shrill and sustained mad guffaw. The Chair of the Department shouted, 'This is outrageous!' but I just kept on laughing. I couldn't stop. I was over the moon. That made my day. Come to think of it, that was also my last day.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
25 global ratings
Inspirational Memoir
5 Stars
Inspirational Memoir
The story of a young man's journey from a traumatic childhood in an obscure Hungarian village and the yoke of Communism to America, Silicon Valley and the world stage makes for riveting reading. Our recent loss of Andrew Grove underscores theprofound importance of legacy. Laszlo Meszaros's memoir offers a detailed testament to the indomitable human spirit, its power in the face of political tyranny, terror, uncertainty and change. What inspirs us most is Meszaros's gift for adapting to the most challenging circumstances, including his incredible escape over barbed wire, his creative solutions to every roadblock -- some seemingly insurmountable -- that life has thrown into his path. We have here in a single individual a rare example of how the right and left side of the brain can work together in perfect symbiosis; Meszaros is at once the scientist, the artist and the entrepeneur, not not only a self-made Rennaisance man, but the best in us all, a humanist in the most venerable sense of the word. The memoir is not so much about Hungarians or Americans, but about the human spirit, one that will always prevail to reach a dream, no matter how elusive that dream may be.
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Top reviews from the United States

Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational Memoir
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2016
Verified Purchase
The story of a young man's journey from a traumatic childhood in an obscure Hungarian village and the yoke of Communism to America, Silicon Valley and the world stage makes for riveting reading. Our recent loss of Andrew Grove underscores the
profound importance of legacy. Laszlo Meszaros's memoir offers a detailed testament to the indomitable human spirit, its power in the face of political tyranny, terror, uncertainty and change. What inspirs us most is Meszaros's gift for adapting to the most challenging circumstances, including his incredible escape over barbed wire, his creative solutions to every roadblock -- some seemingly insurmountable -- that life has thrown into his path. We have here in a single individual a rare example of how the right and left side of the brain can work together in perfect symbiosis; Meszaros is at once the scientist, the artist and the entrepeneur, not not only a self-made Rennaisance man, but the best in us all, a humanist in the most venerable sense of the word. The memoir is not so much about Hungarians or Americans, but about the human spirit, one that will always prevail to reach a dream, no matter how elusive that dream may be.
Customer image
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Inspirational Memoir
Reviewed in the United States on October 27, 2016
The story of a young man's journey from a traumatic childhood in an obscure Hungarian village and the yoke of Communism to America, Silicon Valley and the world stage makes for riveting reading. Our recent loss of Andrew Grove underscores the
profound importance of legacy. Laszlo Meszaros's memoir offers a detailed testament to the indomitable human spirit, its power in the face of political tyranny, terror, uncertainty and change. What inspirs us most is Meszaros's gift for adapting to the most challenging circumstances, including his incredible escape over barbed wire, his creative solutions to every roadblock -- some seemingly insurmountable -- that life has thrown into his path. We have here in a single individual a rare example of how the right and left side of the brain can work together in perfect symbiosis; Meszaros is at once the scientist, the artist and the entrepeneur, not not only a self-made Rennaisance man, but the best in us all, a humanist in the most venerable sense of the word. The memoir is not so much about Hungarians or Americans, but about the human spirit, one that will always prevail to reach a dream, no matter how elusive that dream may be.
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Matt K.
5.0 out of 5 stars A major addition to the Hungarian literary canon
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2017
Verified Purchase
This book is one of the best known Hungarian novels of the early 20th century and one of the more important European modernist novels; having said that, unlike many classics it's a really easy, enjoyable read. Szerb has a wonderful, playful, sometimes ironic writing style that's a true joy to read. He is erudite but doesn't lecture or try to impress (although he does). The story is simple - Mihály travels to Venice with his wife Erzsi and once there, abandons her to wander around the city and afterwards Tuscany and all the way to Rome, looking for something that naturally doesn't really exist. At once a beginner's guide to early Freudian psychoanalysis, a critique of Hungarian bourgeois life, an exploration of different meanings of freedom.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars "...A joy to read. "
Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2016
Verified Purchase
Peter Hargatai captures the lyrical language of the original while portraying the psychologically complex relationships between the main characters. Hargatai's natural poetic ear uplifts the translation making it a joy to read.
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Les Gartner
5.0 out of 5 stars Translation
Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2020
Verified Purchase
Excellent translation.
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Edith Racine
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2016
Verified Purchase
Fine translation of a wonderful book
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Michele Levy
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, riveting, as psycho-spiritual journey and evocation of the storm gathering in Europe.
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2023
Beautifully translated, this novel was riveting—not the way we speak of thrillers these days, but with a journey that recalls what Campbell called the monomyth. Into the abyss of self to meet and conquer the demons and with clear eyes face the future.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Bizarre!!!
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2020
One of my favourite scenes is Mihaly’s hallucination (or mystic vision) at the American Archaeological Society’s garden party in Rome:
“They sang clearly on the other side of the wall, men probably, a keening chant unlike anything else, in which certain distinct yet nonsensical words returned with a rhythmic insistence. A deep and tragic note ran through the melody, not a human voice so much, but beyond that, more like an animal howl in the night, an ancient cry of pain, left over from the age of balsam, from the age of trees. Mihály sat down, leaned against the balsam tree and closed his eyes. These were not men’s voices from the other side but the voices of women, and already they were passing in front of him in a curious cast, reminding him of the surreal world of Nakonxipan in a Gulácsy painting, its haunting figures dressed in flowing lilac-hued vestments, and it occurred to him that they were mourning the gods, Attis, Adonis… and Tamás Ulpius, his dear friend Tamás, who had to die unmourned, who lay in state now since the beginning of time, over whose pale features day was breaking on the other side of the wall.”
It was worth my while to look up “Nakonxipan.” The strange word refers to the private surreal world of the artist -- a fantasy universe between the moon and Japan. Wow. Finally, the whole novel made sense. Traveller and the Moonlight is a requiem for a dream that can only exist in fantasy. Beautiful and bizarre.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Hargitai does a phenomenal recreation of the novel with brilliant blend of thrill and escape
Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2016
Mr. Hargitai does a phenomenal recreation of the novel with brilliant blend of thrill and escape. His poetic tongue makes it easy to get caught up in the book without a chance of putting it down.
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Top reviews from other countries

Client d'Amazon
4.0 out of 5 stars Very entertaining, easy to read
Reviewed in France on April 4, 2016
Verified Purchase
Very good translation of this beautiful story, entertaining, pleasant writing style, easy to read.
Now when can we get the French version on Kindle?
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