POWELL, Anthony
[207] pp.
John Lehmann
1948
7″ x 5″
From a View to a Death is the third novel by the English writer Anthony Powell. It combines comedy of manners with Powells usual interest in the subtleties of British 20th-century society in a bitterly funny narrative. Here, Powell begins to write in the mode that he would perfect in A Dance to the Music of Time.
Published in 1933, the novel is set largely in and around Passenger Court, the country seat of the Passenger family. In its depiction of village pageants, churchgoing, village idiots and eccentrics, and, above all, the hunt, From a View to a Death is Powells most rural novel. Change in setting notwithstanding, Powells habitually Burtonesque laughter at human foibles remains consistent.
The novel focuses on the inevitable conflict occurring when two men, each considering himself a Nietzschean bermensch, collide. Other conflicts involve shooting rights, parent-child tensions, and, as always in Powells work, the dissatisfactions of romance and sex, this time including cross-dressing. Though some interpret the novel as a reaffirmation of traditional English values, no characterwhether for reason of class, place of residence, intelligence, or genderescapes Powells increasingly subtle critical examination of human life.
