Venusberg

Blurb

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, perhaps a modernist pastiche of the form.
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.