At Doreen's in April 2015

"Journey by Moonlight”- introduction and discussion questions

Antal Szerb (1901-1945) was a writer, scholar, critic and translator born to Jewish parents but baptized 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.

“Journey by Moonlight”

1.      Did you like this book? 

2.      What do you think about  Mihaily and Erzsi as a  newly-weds and their honeymoon in Venice?

3.      Did it surprise you when Mihaily suddenly left his new wife in the hotel room and was wandering the back streets until dawn?

4.      Why Erzsi’s ex-husband Zoltan, writes to Mihaily, giving him instructions on how to care for Erzsi?

5.      How important for Mihaily is his past circle of friends he was part of? (Tamas and his sister Eva, Ervin, and Janos)

6.      Why all of them were obsessed with drama and death?

7.      Hwo would you describe Mihaly’s relationship with Tamas and Eva?  Was this a true friendship?

8.      Did it surprise you when Mihaily  left his wife at a railway station (although we all know the possibilities for getting on the wrong train at a busy station) and  when he realizes that  he has done the wrong thing  he run  away?

9.      When Erzsi realizes that her marriage is based on fiction?

10.  How would you describe Mihaly’s relationship with Tamas?  Was this a true friendship?

11.  While wondering  through Italy, Mihaily meets with two people from the past, János Szepetneki, an arch-manipulator and now a motorcycle-riding criminal, and the Catholic convert Ervin, who appears as Father Severinus.  What do we learn from these meetings?

12.  After the “incidental” separation with Mihaily, Erszi goes to Paris and lives with her girlfriend.  How do you describe her life in Paris?

113.  Is nostalgia what eats at Mihály? Mihály told his doctor “I know what’s wrong with me… Acute nostalgia. I want to be young again. Is there a cure for that?” 

14.  Why Mihaily is obsessed with Eva?  What happen after they finally meets? 

15.  Do you agree with this opinion that “Szerb’s narrative is a remarkable, painstaking study of a man’s fascination with his own mortality.”?

116.  Later we learn that Mihaily is Journeying from Venice to Ravenna, Florence and Rome, loses himself in in the Tuscan and Umbrian countryside.  What is he searching for? Is he trying to resurrect his lost youth?  Is this the last change to have scandalous adventures before  he returns to the dull adult life?

17.  Do you agree with this opinion that “Szerb’s narrative is a remarkable, painstaking study of a man’s fascination with his own mortality”?

18.  Did the ending of this book surprise you?  Why?

On Books...

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” 
― Charles William Eliot