<DIV><B><p>A riotous literary pastiche from the 1930s, in which a young Hungarian scholar confronts dark forces in a Welsh castle shrouded in mystery</B><p><p>"An absolute treat... Szerb is a master novelist, a comedian whose powers transcend time and language" Nicholas Lezard, <I>Guardian</I><p><p>At an end-of-season London soirée a young Hungarian scholar, Dr János Bátky, 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, Bátky receives a mysterious phone call warning him not to go. Once there, nothing is quite as it seems...<p><p>Antal Szerb's first novel is a gently satirical blend of gothic and romantic genres, crossed with a murder mystery to produce a fast-moving and often hilarious romp. But beneath the surface, Szerb's steely intelligence poses disturbingly modern questions about the nature of self and reality.<p><p><B>Antal Szerb</B> was born in Budapest in 1901. Though of Jewish descent, he was baptised at an early age and remained a lifelong Catholic. He rapidly established himself as a formidable scholar, through studies of Ibsen and Blake and histories of English, Hungarian and world literature. He was a prolific essayist and reviewer, ranging across all the major European languages. Debarred by successive Jewish laws from working in a university, he was subjected to increasing persecution, and finally murdered in a forced labour camp in 1945. Pushkin Press publishes his novels <I>The Pendragon Legend</I>, <I>Oliver VII</I> and his masterpiece <I>Journey by Moonlight</I>, as well as the historical study <I>The Queen's Necklace</I> and <I>Love in a Bottle and Other Stories</I>.<p></DIV>