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Voyage to Kazohinia
by
Szathmári Sándor
| [an overview of the reviews and critical reactions] |
general information | review summaries | review and reception notes | links | about the author
| Title: | Voyage to Kazohinia |
| Author: | Szathmári Sándor |
| Genre: | Novel |
| Written: | 1941 (Eng. 1975) |
| Length: | 352 pages |
| Original in: | Hungarian |
| Availability: | Voyage to Kazohinia - US |
| Voyage to Kazohinia - UK | |
| Voyage to Kazohinia - Canada | |
| Voyage to Kazohinia - India |
- First published in Hungarian as Gulliver utazása Kazohiniában (1941); republished under various other titles
- Published in Esperanto as Vojaĝo al Kazohinio (1958); there is still some debate about whether or not the novel was originally written in Esperanto
- First published in the this translation as Kazohinia (1975); republished as Voyage to Kazohinia (2012)
- Translated by Inez Kemenes
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Why we haven't reviewed it yet:
Amusing enough, but not quite worth the trouble of a full review
Chances that we will review it:
Slim- Return to top of the page -
| Source | Rating | Date | Reviewer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Publishers Weekly | . | 9/4/2012 | . |
| Wall Street Journal | . | 18/7/2012 | Allan Massie |
From the Reviews:
- "Despite its wit and intelligence, the late Szathmári’s dystopian cult classic (originally published in Hungary in 1941) flounders in a sea of details. (...) There’s no shortage of ponderous material, but by failing to create memorable characters (or, in the case of Gulliver, recreate), the author has not produced -- as Swift before him did -- a timeless classic, but an intermittently interesting artifact." - Publishers Weekly
- "Voyage to Kazohinia is labored and repetitive, burdened with an excess of detail. A good editor could have improved it greatly. You can't help feeling that it must have been enjoyable to write, because the author takes evident pleasure in his elaboration of his imaginary societies. It is less enjoyable to read. The ingenuities, piled up one on top of the other, become wearisome." - Allan Massie, Wall Street Journal
Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.
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Notes about the Reviews
and the Book's Reception:
Originally published in this English translation by Corvina in Hungary, Voyage to Kazohinia was finally brought to the US by New Europe Books in 2012, and they managed to get some decent attention for it.
A variation on Gulliver's Travels, transposed to the mid-twentieth century, the book is also of note as a leading Esperanto text -- there is even some debate as to whether or not Szathmári originally wrote the novel in Esperanto, though it seems most likely that it was written in Hungarian and only translated into Esperanto).
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Voyage to Kazohinia:
- New Europe Books publicity page
- Jurij Finkel (Esperanto)
- ForeWord Reviews
- la nica literatura revuo (Esperanto)
- Publishers Weekly
- See Index of Eastern European literature
- See Index of Books Written Between 1900 and 1945
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Hungarian author Szathmári Sándor (1897-1974) was also an enthusiastic Esperantist.
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