The Pendgragon Legend was presented by critic and writer Paul Bailey at the invitation of Katalin Bogyay, the Hungarian Culture Centre in London?s director. Also attending the event was the book?s translator Len Rix, whose translation of Magda Szabó's The Doors was named among this year?s best literary reads by the Independent.
The Pendragon Legend was published in the UK by Pushkin Press, which also published an English translation of Szerb?s Journey by Moonlight in 2001. Journey by Moonlight, a story of self-discovery which is perhaps Hungarian literature?s funniest sad book, was well-received in the UK press and was even named among the Guardian?s top ten summer reads in 2003.
The Pendragon Legend, first published in 1934, is based on the author?s experiences while living in the UK for a year on scholarship. The book?s main character, the smart, ever curious and often clumsy János Bátky, is a parody of the writer himself. While studying old English manuscripts, Bátky becomes involved in a complicated series of events which unfold as what might equally well be termed a crime story, a love story or a mystery.
Pushkin Press writes on its website that Antal Szerb was born in 1901 into a cultivated Budapest family of Jewish descent. 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, Hungarian, and world literature. In 1933 he was elected President of the Hungarian Literary Academy. In addition to The Pendragon Legend and Journey by Moonlight, Szerb wrote another novel, The Queen?s Necklace, essays and novellas. He died in a forced labour camp at Balf in January 1945.
