Half-Understood Things — Antal Szerb in translation
Antal Szerb
Antal Szerb (1901–1945) was a Hungarian essayist, novelist, and literary critic.
Szerb in English
Szerb's novels, short stories, and a handful of essays are available in English translation. Most of his work, including essays, diaries, letters, lectures, and several books of literary criticism, is not yet translated. My aim with this site is to collate all of Szerb's writing, and eventually to translate all of it into English.
Half-Understood things
The title of this site, 'Half-Understood Things', comes from a line in 'Books and Youth: An Elegy'. The medallion I've used as the logo comes from the cover of the first volume of Nyugat, a Hungarian literary magazine which Szerb often wrote for, first published in January 1908.
Contact
If you'd like to help, or have any questions, you can find me on Twitter (@underthenettle) or send me an email: hello@antalszerb.com.
Books
- ↗ Journey by Moonlight Finding himself restless and agitated on honeymoon in Italy, Mihály makes a series of unexpected decisions driven by fear, neuroticism, and nostalgia for his intense and unconventional teenage friendships.
- ↗ The Pendragon Legend A young Hungarian scholar visits Britain, where a chance meeting with a Welsh aristocrat draws him into a web of intrigue featuring long-dead alchemists, vengeful ghosts, and a secret dungeon full of axolotls.
- ↗ Oliver VII The king orchestrates a coup against himself, and flees to Venice. While there, he falls in with a group of conmen, who propose a daring scam: for their new friend to impersonate the exiled king.
- ↗ The Queen's Necklace A history of the scandal that damaged the reputation of Marie Antoinette.
- ↗ The Third Tower A diary of Szerb's travels through Italy in 1936.
- ↗ Reflections in the Library A selection of Szerb's literary essays.
- ↗ A Martian's Guide to Budapest A short and whimsical guide to Budapest.
Essays
- I Books and Youth: An Elegy Könyvek és ifjúság elégiája Of youth one ought to say with a sigh: 'O, to read Baudelaire once more as I did at eighteen!' It meant more than first love.
- II The Magician Breaks His Staff A varázsló eltöri pálcáját Perhaps in Shakespeare's soul, too, the sober and thrifty burgher always lay hidden, who, having walked the whole round of human passion in his dramas, came to anchor at last where Voltaire's Candide did: we must cultivate our gardens.
- III The Sickness of the Century A század betegsége And when the bust was finished, it did not please him. 'It is no good,' he said; 'I am far more unhappy than that.'