praise for anthony powell and From a View to a Death

“From a View to a Death belongs in an English fi ctional tra- dition extending roughly from Trollope to Muriel Spark [with] . . . its whippy dialogue, its offhand brightness, and its gallery of amusing eccentrics.” peter wolfe, Saturday Review

“This is no sniffi ng, supercilious novel.” melvin maddocks, Christian Science Monitor

“Powell vividly dramatizes the fragmentation on all levels of a presumably stable society. . . . [This novel] has an acrid vision and a fi rm technique which make it vastly superior to all the current stuff about ‘swinging London.’” richard freedman, Washington Post Book World

“Powell was indeed a literary giant, and eminently deserving of the praise that was lavished on him.” Wall Street Journal

“There is no other living British novelist whose sense of so- cial nuance is so delicate or so subtle, or whose comic range is so wide. . . . And there is certainly no other novelist whose work gives so much or such consistent pleasure.” Times Literary Supplement

“Anthony Powell is our foremost comic writer.” v. s. pritchett

FROM A VIEW TO A DEATH books by ANTHONY POWELL

A Dance to the Music of Time, First Movement (including the following three novels) A Question of Upbringing A Buyer’s Market The Acceptance World A Dance to the Music of Time, Second Movement (including the following three novels) At Lady Molly’s Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant The Kindly Ones

A Dance to the Music of Time, Third Movement (including the following three novels) The Valley of Bones The Soldier’s Art The Military Philosophers A Dance to the Music of Time, Fourth Movement (including the following three novels) Books Do Furnish a Room Temporary Kings Hearing Secret Harmonies

other novels Afternoon Men Venusberg From a View to a Death Agents and Patients Fisher King O, How the Wheel Becomes It! What’s Become of Waring

other works To Keep the Ball Rolling: The Memoirs of Anthony Powell Volume I: Infants of the Spring Volume II: Messengers of Day Volume III: Faces in My Time Volume IV: The Strangers Are All Gone John Aubrey and His Friends Brief Lives: And Other Selected Writings of John Aubrey Miscellaneous Verdicts: Writing on Writers Under Review: Further Writing on Writers, 1946–1990

plays The Garden God The Rest I’ll Whistle FROM A VIEW TO A DEATH A Novel

by Anthony Powell

the university of chicago press The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 Copyright © 1933 by Anthony Powell All rights reserved Originally published in 1933 University of Chicago Press edition 2014 Printed in the United States of America

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isbn-13: 978-0- 226- 13296- 9 (paper) isbn-13: 978-0- 226- 13301- 0 (e-book) doi: 10.7208 / chicago / 9780226133010.001.0001

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Powell, Anthony, 1905–2000, author. From a view to a death / by Anthony Powell. pages cm isbn 978-0-226-13296-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-226-13301-0 (e-book) I. Title. pr6031.o74f76 2014 823'.912—dc23 2013033836

o This paper meets the requirements of ansi / niso z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper). "From a find to a check, from a check to a view, From a view to a death in the morning." John Peel

FROM A VIEW TO A DEATH