Stewart
16-Jul-2008, 20:06
Antal Szerb (May 1, 1901, Budapest - January 27, 1945, Balf) was a noted Hungarian scholar and writer. He is recognized as one of the major Hungarian literary personalities 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 ?s holdvil?g, 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. He was 43.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Az angol irodalom kist?kre (1929) [Eng: An Outline of English Literature]
Cynthia (1932)
A magyar irodalom t?rt?nete, (1934) [Eng: History of Hungarian literature]
A Pendragon legenda (1934) [Eng: The Pendragon Legend)
Szerelem a palackban (1935) [Eng: Love in the Bottle, short stories]
Budapesti ?tikalauz marslak?k sz?m?ra (1935) [Eng: A Martian's Guide to Budapest]
Utas ?s holdvil?g (1937) [Eng: Journey by Moonlight]
A vil?girodalom t?rt?nete (1941) [Eng: History of World Literature]
VII. Oliv?r (1943) [Eng: Oliver VII]
A kir?lyn? nyakl?nca (1943) [Eng: The Queen's Necklace]
Sz?z vers (1943/1944) [Eng: 100 poems]
RELATED LINKS
Szerb Antal on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antal_Szerb)
Essay by Poszler Gy?rgy (http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no167/2.html) (from Hungarian Quarterly (http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/))
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 ?s holdvil?g, 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. He was 43.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Az angol irodalom kist?kre (1929) [Eng: An Outline of English Literature]
Cynthia (1932)
A magyar irodalom t?rt?nete, (1934) [Eng: History of Hungarian literature]
A Pendragon legenda (1934) [Eng: The Pendragon Legend)
Szerelem a palackban (1935) [Eng: Love in the Bottle, short stories]
Budapesti ?tikalauz marslak?k sz?m?ra (1935) [Eng: A Martian's Guide to Budapest]
Utas ?s holdvil?g (1937) [Eng: Journey by Moonlight]
A vil?girodalom t?rt?nete (1941) [Eng: History of World Literature]
VII. Oliv?r (1943) [Eng: Oliver VII]
A kir?lyn? nyakl?nca (1943) [Eng: The Queen's Necklace]
Sz?z vers (1943/1944) [Eng: 100 poems]
RELATED LINKS
Szerb Antal on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antal_Szerb)
Essay by Poszler Gy?rgy (http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/no167/2.html) (from Hungarian Quarterly (http://www.hungarianquarterly.com/))