Venusberg (novel)

Last updated

First edition
(publ. Duckworth, cover by Misha Black) Venusburg.jpg
First edition
(publ. Duckworth, cover by Misha Black)

Venusberg is the second novel by the English writer Anthony Powell. Published in 1932, it is set in an unidentified Baltic country which draws clearly on Powell's experiences in Finland and Estonia. Some see the novel as part of the Ruritanian tradition (cf. The Prisoner of Zenda ), perhaps a modernist pastiche of the form.

Contents

The novel continues Powell's humorously critical examination of society, its various forms and fashions, this time against a background largely removed from London and English life. Romantic entanglements and the dissatisfactions of love remain a major concern and the novel maintains Powell's characteristic mingling of comedy and embarrassment. Of Powell's novels, Venusberg makes the greatest use of short chapters and quick changes of scene in the plot.

As might be supposed from the title, the novel treats aspects of the Tannhäuser legend. The Baedeker quotation Powell uses as an epigraph is a key to understanding the role the Tannhäuser legend plays. Baedeker combines the myth with reality–stressing the good view from the top of the mountain–signalling to the reader the need to rise above the pettiness in which most of the novel's characters are entrammeled in order to see clearly. Venusberg is thus an anti-Tannhäuser: an anticlimactic, anti-Wagnerian, anti-romantic tone pervades a story in which everyone is somehow let down.

Plot summary

Dissatisfied with life and love in London, Lushington, a journalist, secures a posting in the Baltic and sets sail. Before he even reaches the new country, on board of the ship he has met and become thoroughly entangled with many of the characters who will affect his immediate future, including Ortrud Mavrin, the Russian counts Scherbatcheff and Bobel as well as Baroness Puckler.

Once in the Baltic, Lushington finds himself sharing accommodations with the other party involved in the love triangle that first provoked him into leaving England, one Da Costa. Lushington is soon thoroughly involved in personal and political intrigues, meeting various diplomats, representatives of the State Police, the intrusive valet, Pope (whose name ironically recalls the role played by the Pope in the Tannhäuser legend), the American diplomat Curtis Cortney – even Frau Mavrin's little child who "looks like his father, curiously enough."

Melancholy, shyness and embarrassment dominate the novel, suffusing even those scenes involving sudden violence with a sense of bemused, slightly detached sadness. Lushington's eventual return to England is set against a continued background of misunderstanding and social ineptitude which make clear that Powell has not simply been satirizing how things happen "on the Continent."

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope Urban IV</span> Head of the Catholic Church from 1261 to 1264

Pope Urban IV, born Jacques Pantaléon, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 29 August 1261 to his death. He was not a cardinal; only a few popes since his time have not been cardinals, including Gregory X, Urban V and Urban VI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tannhäuser</span> German poet, composer and musician

Tannhäuser, often stylized "The Tannhäuser", was a German Minnesinger and traveling poet. Historically, his biography, including the dates he lived, is obscure beyond the poetry, which suggests he lived between 1245 and 1265.

<i>Chasing Amy</i> 1997 American romantic comedy-drama film by Kevin Smith

Chasing Amy is a 1997 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Kevin Smith and starring Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, and Jason Lee. The film is about a male comic artist (Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian woman (Adams), to the displeasure of his best friend (Lee). It is the third film in Smith's View Askewniverse series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Cartland</span> English writer and media personality (1901–2000)

Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, was an English writer, known as the Queen of Romance, who published both contemporary and historical romance novels, the latter set primarily during the Victorian or Edwardian period. Cartland is one of the best-selling authors worldwide of the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Powell</span> English novelist (1905–2000)

Anthony Dymoke Powell was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romance novel</span> Genre novel on the theme of romantic love

A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Precursors include authors of literary fiction, such as Samuel Richardson, Jane Austen, and Charlotte Brontë.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish Steps</span> Stairs in Rome, Italy

The Spanish Steps in Rome, Italy, climb a steep slope between the Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinità dei Monti, dominated by the Trinità dei Monti church, at the top.

<i>The Magic Mountain</i> 1924 novel by Thomas Mann

The Magic Mountain is a novel by Thomas Mann, first published in German in November 1924. It is widely considered to be one of the most influential works of twentieth-century German literature.

<i>Legends of the Fall</i> 1994 American epic Western film by Edward Zwick

Legends of the Fall is a 1994 American epic Western drama film directed by Edward Zwick and starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Aidan Quinn, Julia Ormond and Henry Thomas. Based on the 1979 novella of the same title by Jim Harrison, the film is about three brothers and their father living in the wilderness and plains of Montana in the early 20th century and how their lives are affected by nature, history, war, and love. The film's time frame spans from the early 20th century; World War I, through the Prohibition era, and ending with a brief scene set in 1963. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards and won for Best Cinematography. Both the film and book contain occasional Cornish language terms, the Ludlows being a Cornish immigrant family.

A bishōjo game or gal game, is "a type of Japanese video game centered on interactions with attractive girls".

A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their publisher.

<i>Tannhäuser</i> (opera) 1845 opera by Richard Wagner

Tannhäuser is an 1845 opera in three acts, with music and text by Richard Wagner. It is based on two German legends: Tannhäuser, the mythologized medieval German Minnesänger and poet, and the tale of the Wartburg Song Contest. The story centres on the struggle between sacred and profane love, as well as redemption through love, a theme running through most of Wagner's work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Widmerpool</span> Fictional character in Anthony Powells novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time

Kenneth Widmerpool is a fictional character in Anthony Powell's novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time, a 12-volume account of upper-class and bohemian life in Britain between 1920 and 1970. Regarded by critics as one of the more memorable characters of 20th century fiction, Widmerpool is the antithesis of the sequence's narrator-hero Nicholas Jenkins. Initially presented as a comic, even pathetic figure, he becomes increasingly formidable, powerful and ultimately sinister as the novels progress. He is successful in business, in the army and in politics, and is awarded a life peerage. His only sphere of failure is his relationships with women, exemplified by his disastrous marriage to Pamela Flitton. The sequence ends with Widmerpool's downfall and death, in circumstances arising from his involvement with a New Age-type cult.

<i>Afternoon Men</i>

Afternoon Men is the first published novel by the English writer Anthony Powell. In its characters and themes it anticipates some of the ground Powell would cover in A Dance to the Music of Time, a twelve-volume cycle that spans much of the 20th century and is widely considered Powell's masterpiece.

<i>Agents and Patients</i>

Agents and Patients is the fourth novel by the English writer Anthony Powell. It combines two of the aspects of 1930s life, film and psychoanalysis. In what Powell himself has acknowledged is a roman a clef of sorts, a comically critical eye is cast across entre deux guerres society and its often self-indulgent, usually unsatisfied quest for contentment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venusberg (mythology)</span> Mythological Mountain of Venus

Venusberg is a motif of European folklore rendered in various legends and epics since the Late Middle Ages. It is a variant of the folktale topos of "a mortal man seduced by the fairy queen visits the otherworld". In German folklore of the 16th century, the narrative becomes associated with the minnesinger Tannhäuser who becomes obsessed with worshipping the goddess Venus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Müller</span> German painter

Victor Müller (29 March 1829 – 21 December 1871 was a German painter.

<i>Dangerous Innocence</i> 1925 film

Dangerous Innocence is a 1925 American silent romantic comedy film written by Lewis Milestone and James O. Spearing based upon the 1923 novel Ann's an Idiot by Pamela Wynne. Directed by William A. Seiter for Universal Pictures, the film starred Laura La Plante and Eugene O'Brien.

<i>Outlaw</i> (novel) 2009 novel by Angus Donald

Outlaw is the first novel of the eight-part Outlaw Chronicles series by British writer of historical fiction, Angus Donald, released on 10 July 2009 through Little, Brown and Company. The début novel was relatively well received.

Sebile, alternatively written as Sedile, Sebille, Sibilla, Sibyl, Sybilla, and other similar names, is a mythical medieval queen or princess who is frequently portrayed as a fairy or an enchantress in the Arthurian legends and Italian folklore. She appears in a variety of roles, from the most faithful and noble lady to a wicked seductress, often in relation with or substituting for the character of Morgan le Fay. Some tales feature her as a wife of either King Charlemagne or Prince Lancelot, and even as an ancestor of King Arthur.

References