http://www.26books.com/2007/01/jamess-book-seven-the-pendragon-legend-by-antal-szerb/ Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:10:16 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.26books.com/2007/01/jamess-book-seven-the-pendragon-legend-by-antal-szerb/comment-page-1/#comment-27480 steve Tue, 12 May 2009 08:50:46 +0000 http://www.26books.com/?p=18#comment-27480 I can't keep myself from leaving a comment, however late, just to give Szerb his due. You conclude that the 'Pendragon Legend' is rather dispensable reading, and I can understand your reasons. This book comes from a different mold than 'Journey by Moonlight', indeed. It doesn't have the psychological depth of that novel, nor it pretends to, but, in turn, it presents an entertaining formula (dime novel + cultural history) that made Umberto Eco and Dan Brown a worldwide success many decades later. And that is really something to acknowledge. Besides, if you had to deal with the Len Rix translation, your disappointment was granted. Being a native Hungarian, I had the chance to compare it with the original text, and I was simply scandalized. Whole passages ignored, all style, subtext and irony butchered out - the whole charm of it, really. Just like a Watteau snapped with a mobile. Maybe it's not the translator to blame, but the publisher's considerations for the DaVinci Code mob. Either way, it's a shame. After all, it's not by chance that generations of Hungarian readers love this book so much that they voted it into their top 25 favourite books of all time. I can’t keep myself from leaving a comment, however late, just to give Szerb his due. You conclude that the ‘Pendragon Legend’ is rather dispensable reading, and I can understand your reasons. This book comes from a different mold than ‘Journey by Moonlight’, indeed. It doesn’t have the psychological depth of that novel, nor it pretends to, but, in turn, it presents an entertaining formula (dime novel + cultural history) that made Umberto Eco and Dan Brown a worldwide success many decades later. And that is really something to acknowledge. Besides, if you had to deal with the Len Rix translation, your disappointment was granted. Being a native Hungarian, I had the chance to compare it with the original text, and I was simply scandalized. Whole passages ignored, all style, subtext and irony butchered out – the whole charm of it, really. Just like a Watteau snapped with a mobile. Maybe it’s not the translator to blame, but the publisher’s considerations for the DaVinci Code mob. Either way, it’s a shame. After all, it’s not by chance that generations of Hungarian readers love this book so much that they voted it into their top 25 favourite books of all time.

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