The Pendragon Legend

Antal Szerb

Pushkin Press, Limited, 2007 - Fiction - 234 pages

At an end-of-the London season soiree, the young Hungarian scholar-dilettante Janos Batky is introduced to the Earl of Gwynedd, a reclusive eccentric who is the subject of strange rumours. Invited to the family seat, Pendragon Castle in North Wales, Batky receives a mysterious phone-call warning him not to go... Antal Szerb's first novel The Pendragon Legend (1934), set in Wales is a gently satirical blend of gothic and romantic genres, crossed with the murder mystery format to produce a fast-moving and often hilarious romp. But beneath the surface, the reader becomes aware of a steely intelligence probing moral, psychological and religious questions.

About the author

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. His first novel, The Pendragon Legend, was written in 1934. Journey by Moonlight appeared in 1937, followed in 1943 by The Queen's Necklace and various volumes of novellas. He died in a forced-labour camp at Balf in January 1945.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Pendragon Legend; Pushkin Collection
• Author: Antal Szerb
• Translated by: Len Rix
• Edition: revised
• Publisher: Pushkin Press, Limited, 2007
• ISBN: 1901285898, 9781901285895
• Length: 234 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Classics; Fiction / Literary; Fiction / Mystery & Detective / General; Fiction / Psychological; Fiction / Romance / Suspense; Fiction / Satire; Fiction / Thrillers / General