Venusberg

by Anthony Powell

Lushington, a serious young man who believes implicitly in progress, is posted as special correspondent to an obscure Baltic state. There, in the unstable political situation, he hopes to find some newsworthy stories and to forget a failed love affair. But in the frivolous, party-going capital, Lushington becomes involved with some decidedly eccentric individuals -- the egregious valet, Pope, known to army comrades as "the Duke," the ostentatious Count Bobel, who sells face cream and smells of brilliantine, and the mysterious Frau Maavrin, all of whom involve Lushington and the reader in a wry and sophisticated dialogue.

Noted British author Anthony Powell is perhaps best known for his A Dance to the Music of Time. Sun & Moon Press has published Afternoon Men and O, How the Wheel Becomes It!, both planned for future publication in Green Integer. Powell died in 2000.

Genres: Fiction, 20th Century, British Literature

156 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1932

About the author

People best know British writer Anthony Dymoke Powell for A Dance to the Music of Time , a cycle of 12 satirical novels from 1951 to 1975.

This Englishman published his volumes of work. Television and radio dramatizations subjected major work of Powell in print continuously. In 2008, The Times newspaper named Powell among their list of "the fifty greatest British writers since 1945."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony...

Reviews

[Georgia Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Laughter is the best medicine? Not this concoction. Any amusement was intermittent, ran out fast, or left a bad taste in my mouth. Such a waste of good ingredients. Eastern Europe, exiles, diplomats.

I had high hopes. How often do you find English novels set on the Baltic coast? And the diplomatic community as a subject? This sounded right up my alley. Then, I got reading. There were times, I smiled. Some things - form filling and bureaucracy - Powell got right. Apart from that, he never gets under the skin of his setting or characters. He skims the surface. Nothing more. And that I could have forgiven. A light read in summer is swell. Not quite up there with eating watermelon, but good. This book though left me wanting to purge myself.

It is comic only if you like laughing at people different from yourself. Count me out.

(Three stars only because it might spur readers to reach for a better novel set in this part of the world.)

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthony Powell and Marcel Proust must suffer from a similar limitation - their grand works are so grand, few people bother to read anything else. I hadn't planned on any further Powell myself, but this one kind of came my way and only took an evening to read. A "comic" novel from 1932 ("comic" in the sense of Evelyn Waugh, which I find less than laugh out loud funny, but amusing in its way) about a young journalist temporarily posted to a fictitious Baltic country, with recently and somewhat insecurely won independence from Russia on the one hand and Germany on the other. You can probably imagine the stock characters that setting suggests; diplomats, fraudulent aristocracy, cuckolded university professors and the like. It ends on a slightly bleak note but is a bit too lightweight to feel actually tragic.

[David]

What impresses me most about re-reading Powell’s early work is how much humour I missed in my younger years. It is deadpan, dry, quiet humour, but very funny nonetheless. Another aspect of this novel is the way in which the crisis point is foreshadowed. It is not at all obvious on the first reading, but on rereading one is impressed by how it is done. One of those novels in which knowing the end and the surprises makes me appreciate the set-up more. I wonder if I only feel the 'disappointment' when reading crime novels in which I already know most of the secrets... except I have never felt that way with Ian Rankin, especially. Hmmmmmmm?.... Meanwhile, "Bang! Bang!" says the drunken American diplomat. And some people die.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had heard of Powell, but honestly picked this up on a whim, drawn mostly by the striking cover art of the new UChicago Press edition and the description on the back, which made it sound like a more sardonic version of a PG Wodehouse tale. Which is almost exactly what it turned out to be: a genuinely funny, though much darker and more cynical take on feckless young Britons of a certain class. Even just on the strength of this early work, I'm surprised the Powell isn't more well known: a British Stefan Zweig or Robert Walser, as perceptive as either but funnier than both. I can't wait to begin Powell's epoch-spanning Dance to the Music of Time.

[Cera · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't think I'd like Powell, but yes, he's very funny, and the viewpoint character in this one is fairly sympathetic.

Thinking about it more, this novel stands out for me in his early work because the atmosphere of his fictional Baltic city felt so emotionally real. It's a highly stylised place, not meant to be realistic in the traditional sense, but the way the characters move around each other in the space of the city made me feel like I was learning something true about the 1930s in Europe.

[Ryan Murdock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I stumbled across this wonderful early novel by Anthony Powell in a used bookshop. Written a decade before the first of his brilliant A Dance to the Music of Time novels, it contains the humour, melancholy, and brilliant observation of the work that would make him a 20th century literary great.

[Richard Clay · Rating 3 out of 5]

'OMG! Anthony Powell is writing a porno!' was my reaction to the first few chapters. And thus indeed it appeared to be - albeit with all the explicit bits cut out (Thankfully: one senses that, had Powell ever attempted full-on porn, It Would Not Have Ended Well). But the style and tone of the novel's opening is such as one would expect to find on the obvious websites. Later on, though, things sober up a bit and one is left with what was probably to be his most thoughtful novel until 'Hearing Secret Harmonies' (NB. I've not yet read 'Agents and Patients') Many will snigger at this and remark that 'thoughtful' is not exactly what one turns to Powell for and, indeed, 'PG Wodehouse on barbiturates' remains as good a summary of his work as I'll ever be able to come up with. All the same, 'Venusberg''s East European setting is not badly evoked and one senses that, even this least visionary of writers had clocked that there was trouble a-brewing for that part of the world.

[Esther · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought I’d try out a single AP novel to see if tackling the multi-tome A Dance to the Music of Time, would be worth the considerable commitment. So mixed results. No doubting the quality of the prose, the evocation of the unnamed Baltic state around the 1930s full of diplomats, emigres from Russia and various Brits, including our main protagonist Lushington who travels there as a journalist, is great. Some of the funny/absurd moments of humor, are very of their time. Overall none of the characters drew me in, so whilst an interesting read for its 150 or so pages, I doubt I’d be sustained for longer.

[Dajuroka Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a delight! Old fashioned views of a pre-internet world that I have only seen in movies. In places very funny and dense with great characterisations of some complex individuals all prancing around together in a very ephemeral diplomatic world. Will read more of Anthony Powell when I can. Small book but read it slowly as there are many chuckles.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

An inconsequential novel with a bizarre use of anti-semitic references at least once a chapter. Powell, like his French counterpart Proust, is usually referred to as an acquired taste, and after this I see why. I at least haven't acquired it. It's a mildly charming nothing story and I really don't think it translates through the ages.

[Pádraic · Rating 2 out of 5]

A comic novel in the old dry English sense, which is to say, not actually very funny. Points for helping me realise I don't want to read his 12-novel sequence. What a relief. This one's basically fine, inoffensive and a bit tedious at points. For an actual good novel in this vein, see Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Ich bin das hier ziemlich leid. Schließlich muss das Leben doch mehr zu bieten haben als eine Reihe von Walzern mit Mrs. Bellamy, Frau Kuno und Waldemars Verlobter. Dafür kann ich doch nicht in die Welt gekommen sein."
"Ach, ich weiß nicht. Wahrscheinlich doch."

(S. 173)

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably worth a 3 and a half.
This is an enjoyable, funny social commentary based around a short chapter in the life of a man called Lushington. Through him we meet all sorts of colourful characters and get to think about some serious issues, though always through a light touch and some humour.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sad story loosely based on a medieval German legend. Can see how Powell honed his craft later on. Enjoyed it well enough but wasn't spectacular.

[Flob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this one. Set in a time that seems fantastical now but was very real then, full of well drawn characters, good plot. A neat little novel.

[Jordan Ecker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny but ultimately minor book. A less persuasive version of Waugh's A Handful of Dust.

[Catarina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[John Reis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The main character is a journalist named Lushington as he travels to some Baltic country. He leaves behind a woman he loves but she does not love him. He meets a woman on the ship and sleeps with her. When he arrives in the Baltic country his roommate takes him on a night club crawl. They run into the woman he slept with and visit her house. Her name is Ortrud Mavrin and she is married. One thing that is interesting is that the morning after the pub crawl Lushington has a conversation with a manservant, Pope, some thing that did not happen in A Dance to the Music of Time.

Also, I have read a clunky sentence or two which I never found in the longer work.

And of course we don’t really see any of Nick Jenkins emotional life in the longer work.

In chapter 19, Lushington runs into Count Scherbatcheff and goes to his apartment which is filled with his many relatives. They are émigrés from Russia. The count pleads with him to mention him to Madam Mavrin. It’s a bizarre scene and then it ends.

He has a strange conversation with Professor Mavrin about how Ortrud has been behaving melancholy lately. He thinks Ortrud is jealous of de Costa.

Washington has invited the Bellamy‘s to his house. His plans are strained as Count Bobel arrives with two women. Bobel won’t leave even when Lushington implies that a woman is coming over. He finally pushes him out of the apartment.

Lushington is sad when he realizes that he will be returning to England shortly and he won’t see Ortrud again. I don’t recall that we ever know Nick Jenkins feelings. Certainly, Lushington is not Jenkins at all. He’s given to fits of anger

Lushington is at a big ball at the House of the Knights. Quite late in the evening he sees Ortrud. He talks to her on and off through the night but does not get a chance to dance with her. At the end of the night she decides to go home and take advantage of a ride from De Costa.

Washington is awakened just after falling asleep by a call from Pope. He rushes to de Costa’s apartment to discover several people were killed during an assassination attempt on the police chief General Kuno. He is numbed.

Lushington packs for the sea voyage home. Pope chatters on, offering his services while at the same time puffing himself up.

When he gets home he meets with Lucy. She asks about Da Costa and whether he was in love with Ortrud. Lushington says no. She says that they are the only ones left and she supposes that she is his if he wants her.

I did not laugh once while reading this book. But then I have never laughed at anything in any of Powell’s other work. This has a far more ominous feel to it than does A Dance to the Music of Time.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anthony Powell's Venusberg, written between the wars, is a story of unrequited love and one man's way of dealing with it. It is comic and tragic, but all the time shows the qualities of refinement and gentility with which people of a certain class lived.

[l · Rating 3 out of 5]

quite funny

[Sylvia]

I just spent some time reading the Wikipedia article on Venusberg.

[David Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little disappointing after The Music of Time.

[Alvin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A light comic romp with bleak undertones. Reminded me of watching an Ernst Lubitsch film. Mildly entertaining but insubstantial.

[Claudine Mellinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think p Powell may be an acquired taste. I like the quirky characters in his books.