Under Venus

by Peter Straub

Acclaimed pianist-composer Elliott Denmark returns to his home town to find the town itself torn apart and his own feelings torn between his wife and a woman who exerts a mystical power over him

Genres: Horror, Fiction

289 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1985

About the author

Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Gordon Anthony Straub and Elvena (Nilsestuen) Straub.

Straub read voraciously from an early age, but his literary interests did not please his parents; his father hoped that he would grow up to be a professional athlete, while his mother wanted him to be a Lutheran minister. He attended Milwaukee Country Day School on a scholarship, and, during his time there, began writing.

Straub earned an honors BA in English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1965, and an MA at Columbia University a year later. He briefly taught English at Milwaukee Country Day, then moved to Dublin, Ireland, in 1969 to work on a PhD, and to start writing professionally

After mixed success with two attempts at literary mainstream novels in the mid-1970s ("Marriages" and "Under Venus"), Straub dabbled in the supernatural for the first time with "Julia" (1975). He then wrote "If You Could See Me Now" (1977), and came to widespread public attention with his fifth novel, "Ghost Story" (1979), which was a critical success and was later adapted into a 1981 film. Several horror novels followed, with growing success, including "The Talisman" and "Black House", two fantasy-horror collaborations with Straub's long-time friend and fellow author Stephen King.

In addition to his many novels, he published several works of poetry during his lifetime.

In 1966, Straub married Susan Bitker.They had two children; their daughter, Emma Straub, is also a novelist. The family lived in Dublin from 1969 to 1972, in London from 1972 to 1979, and in the New York City area from 1979 onwards.

Straub died on September 4, 2022, aged 79, from complications of a broken hip. At the time of his death, he and his wife lived in Brooklyn (New York City).

Reviews

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-De nuevo, costumbrismo de clase pero visto tras las cortinas.-

Género. Novela.

Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Bajo Venus (publicación original: Under Venus, 1984) nos lleva a conocer a Elliot Denmark que, con su esposa, vuelve a su ciudad natal a la orilla de los Grandes Lagos para un llevar a cabo un concierto de música compuesta por él en la universidad en la que estudió. La familia de Elliot es parte de las fuerzas vivas de la localidad, Plechette City, y sus padres acogen a la pareja hasta que decidan donde residir. Unos años antes, Elliot tuvo una aventura estable con Anita Kellerman, una mujer viuda que le llama cuando vuelve a la ciudad. Ahora vive con una alumna de su fallecido marido, Andy French, una joven terapeuta que le ayuda a cuidar de su Mark.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[Adam Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found my opinion vacillating on this one between apathy and admiration. At times, it feels like a rehash of Marriages, and I began to wonder why Straub was so fascinated by the adultery of his male protagonists--Owen in Marriages and Elliot here. Yes, there is collateral damage from Elliot's affairs, but mostly they are almost treated as an important rite of passage in a man's life. A high-brow intellectual artist of Elliot's caliber simply must have a mistress, and although it hurts his wife, she simply must understand this. I'm disgusted by the thought as a matter of principle. Call me a prude, but I believe in monogamy. Not only that, but as Vera is a faithful wife and not apparently getting her jollies elsewhere, it's rather sexist to ask us to understand and excuse Elliot's adultery. I also don't like Vera's naiveté that would allow her to excuse Elliot's affair with Anita and, in fact, even support his ongoing friendship with her. Vera understands that Anita needs him. She even send Elliot out the door sometimes to be a comfort to Anita. This is nonsensical, and I'm glad Straub's publisher refused to release it. You can get away with this once, but to explore it yet again establishes a pattern, and you run the risk of creating one protagonist after another that the reader finds disgusting. However, there IS more going on here, and when the story is not glossing over Elliot's adultery (which is really rather a small part of this thing, unlike Marriages), it approaches something pretty good. I read this as a part of the Wild Things anthology (I think this is the only place you'll find it now), and I read Straub's introduction to the collection. It softened my feelings for the novel a bit to know its history. This book was a crushing blow to Straub's then-30-year-old ego. He had met with some critical success with Marriages, which really was a well written book. He was going down a track of highly intellectual literary fiction. He was good at it, but it wasn't the Straub I'd come to know and love, and without knowing it at the time, Straub didn't know that this wasn't who he was meant to be. It's incredible how, by closing the door on this track of writing, his publisher was opening another into an excellent career that has produced Ghost Story, Shadowlands, and his collaborations with Stephen King. This novel is an example how the incredible creative power of a publisher's rejection. It makes me very hopeful for my own career--no really means yes, only somewhere else. "Under Venus"'s rejection created a new career trajectory, and reading it gives us a glimpse into what might have been. It's a bit pretentious but does tend toward maturity. At times, Straub seems simply to be showing off a vast encyclopedic of art and artistic movements. It's like finding some opinionated hipster at a party who just wants to rattle off all the obscure bands he likes to listen to and authors he likes to read. But when Straub departs from this and explores emotions, relationships, and ambience, he begins to show a bit of what he was going to come into. I think this exercise was good for him. It was good for him to assure himself that he can write something smart, and then have it rejected on the basis that it's just not his story to tell. I haven't read Julia yet, but I know it's the beginning of his real, actual career. I'm about to get into it. I just remember how novels like Ghost Story, Shadowlands, and The Hellfire Club struck me--always many, many steps ahead of me, keeping me reading with their excellent prose just to find out what in the heck is going on and where Straub is leading me. When the revelation of what the story is actually about finally comes, I find that the journey is in many ways equal to the destination. Straub asks a lot of his reader, then he rewards you richly and in abundance. It's why Ghost Story and Shadowlands both are so darned terrifying. But I'm digressing, so I'll stop.

[Piezke]

Peter Straub: Das geheimnisvolle Mädchen (2006)

Dieses Buch ist eine Mogelpackung. Nicht der Roman selbst, ein Roman kann keine Mogelpackung sein, aber die Umverpackung ist es erstaunlich oft. Gerade im Bereich der Genreliteratur. Was ich damit meine? Es steckt nicht drin, was draufsteht. Im Falle von "Das geheimnisvolle Mädchen" ist das besonders eklatant. Es gibt allenfalls ein sonderbares Mädchen (eigentlich eine junge Frau), das weder ein Geheimnis birgt, noch "grausam verstümmelt" ist, wie es der Buchrücken behauptet. Erwartet habe ich Stuart Gordons "Castle Freak" in Romanform, bekommen habe ich einen Peter Straub, bevor dieser zur Marke wurde.

Andy French ist das Mädchen aus dem Titel. Sie tritt unscheinbar in das Leben von Hauptfigur Elliot Denmark, als dieser mit Ehefrau Vera über Weihnachten zurück in die Heimatstadt fährt. Dort soll er ein Konzert dirigieren. Elliot ist brotloser Komponist, Vera Lehrerin. Die beiden leben sonst in Frankreich. Zuhause trifft Elliot seine alte Geliebte Anita. Andy ist ihre Haushälterin.
Konfliktlinien tun sich auf. Elliot liebt Anita immer noch, aber denkt gar nicht daran, Vera für sie zu verlassen. Ein Bauprojekt spaltet den Ort in Ikonoklasten und jene Alteingesessenen, die ihre Erinnerungen konservieren wollen. Onkel Kai, der die Lagerhaft in Deutschland überlebt hat, hockt als Mahnmal zu Hause. Und die sozialen Bewegungen der '60er kommen langsam auch in der Provinz an.

Straub ist ein exzellenter Schriftsteller, der sich nach "Das geheimnisvolle Mädchen" zu Genreliteratur entschlossen hat, weil die einträglicher ist und sicherlich auch, weil es sein Verlag so verlangt hat. Dabei ist dieser Roman alles andere als exzellent. Die Handlung ist fahrig, ohne Zug. Aber darauf kommt es nicht an. Straub hat mit Elliot (und nur mit Elliot) eine echte Figur geschrieben und psychologische Tiefe bewiesen. Empfehlen würde ich "Das geheimnisvolle Mädchen" trotzdem nicht.

- OT: Under Venus (1974). Die vorliegende Ausgabe, das Copyright existiere erst seit 1984. Ich vertraue Wikipedia.[1]
- Deutsche Übersetzung von Joachim Körber.[2]
- Erscheinen bei Pavillon, wobei es sich um Heyne handeln dürfte. Die Verbindung ist mir jedoch nicht ganz klar. War Pavillon zur Zeit des Drucks ein Inprint? Die deutsche Erstausgabe erschien 1986 im Heyne Verlag.
- 348 Seiten, in drei Teile/Bücher, 23 unbenannte, durchnummerierte Kapitel plus Epilog gegliedert.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_S..., Stand: 01.07.2024
[2]https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim..., Stand: 01.07.2024

[Brandon Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

A largely unmoving, Gatsby-esque foray into the upper echelon of American society (complete with the obligatory dinner parties, mundane plot development battles, and unconcealed infidelity).

Peter Straub is one of the greatest literary authors in the horror/thriller genre, and evidence of work(s) to come like Ghost Story and Shadowland are present in the vivid depictions of setting and social class, though the (lack of) payoff in this one just does not seem to be worth the journey it takes to reach its end. You have to appreciate the ambition in Straub's prose, however, and there is one scene in particular in the novel that will place you directly within its pages as you walk through the shifting of times with the text's central character Elliot Denmark. An essential read for completing this author's worklist, though not an entry point into his writing by any means.

2 stars~

[C. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in the 1970s, before horror writer Peter Straub became Peter Straub: Horror Writer, he was simply Peter Straub: Writer. His first novel, MARRIAGES, was considered a literary mainstream novel, as was his second, UNDER VENUS. The problem was his success wasn’t quite what he’d hoped and UNDER VENUS, the second novel he wrote, wasn’t published until 1985, as his 9th novel. In fact, it wasn’t published on its own until then. It first appeared in 1984 in WILD ANIMALS which collected three Straub novels, JULIA, IF YOU COULD SEE ME NOW, and the unpublished UNDER VENUS. It must have seemed very odd at the time for Straub’s horror fans, who had been through his gothic horror novels, including SHADOWLAND and the wonderful GHOST STORY, or who had first encountered him, as I had, in the Stephen King collaboration THE TALISMAN, to then read this novel about a man who returns home for a month to find himself caught up in the political fumblings of the small town where he grew up.

I can’t imagine readers quite expected THAT from the author of novels like GHOST STORY and SHADOWLAND. Because even though his later novels eschewed the supernatural elements, titles like KOKO and THE THROAT are still decidedly horror. Not so much with UNDER VENUS.

Composer Elliot Denmark and his wife Vera have returned home to Plechette City for a month after living in Paris for the past four years. Elliot is giving a concert in his home town, and they’re going to spend the Christmas holiday with their families.

But instead of the restful welcome home he’s expecting, Elliot is met with conflict and tension. It seems a particularly choice plot of land in town has been bought up by local millionaire, and former classmate of Elliot’s, Ronnie Upp. Ronnie plans to make the land into a business complex, but some citizens insist he donate the land to Plechette City as a park. The real conflict for Elliot here is that his in-laws side with Ronnie Upp, while his own parents oppose the plan and want the land to go to the city. Despite his wishes not to get in the middle of it, Elliot is sucked in anyway.

And then he finds out Ronnie Upp, the source of all this drama, is also growing very close to Anita Kellerman, with whom Elliot had had an affair years ago, and to whom he still feels a strong connection.

UNDER VENUS is an interesting novel. Not so much in the plot itself. Is the question of whether this land becomes a business complex or a park REALLY going to keep readers up at night? I certainly didn’t lose sleep over it. What makes this novel good is the same thing that makes every Straub novel worthwhile: the writing. I tell you, the way he uses language is so humbling, the things he can do with the simplest of sentences genius. And his characters in this novel are rich and detailed. Straub goes to great lengths to develop his characters to the fullest in a small space (I read this novel in the WILD ANIMALS collection, where it only takes up 200 pages) and his effort and skill shine through in every page.

I felt the novel took a little longer to get rolling than I would have liked--and if you look at it in terms of “excitement” I guess it never really did get rolling properly--but once I became invested in the characters, and in their world, I didn’t look back. I finished the last half of this novel in two days.

In traditional terms, I don’t think UNDER VENUS has that classical story structure. There is an introduction to the characters, then the conflict is introduced, but it’s such a non-threatening conflict, it really has no bearing on Elliot’s life after the novel. Once his concert is over, he and Vera are going to return to Paris regardless of the outcome with the land, so any notion of a climax in the expected way is a moot point. And as for Elliot’s issues with Anita, Vera found out about his affair before they ever moved away, and now knows that Elliot and Anita are dear friends who will always love each other, but that Elliot wants to be with Vera--so even that isn’t an issue.

Truth be told, I’m having a hard time really finding the struggle in this novel. Elliot was a strong character, but his investment in the goings-on of Plechette City are so minimal as to be non-existent. And with that in mind, if he doesn’t really care what happens here, why should we?

But despite all that, Straub still keeps us, the readers, invested strictly by the power of his prose. He really is that good.

While UNDER VENUS wasn’t exactly what I’d expected, it was a very good novel, perfectly-written with strong, unique characters and well-developed histories. The city is very richly-detailed, and the prose is full of symbolism. Technically speaking, UNDER VENUS is the perfectly-written literary novel. I just wish there’d been more at stake for Elliot regarding the conflict. As it is, his lack of a stake in the matter lessens the impact of the book as a whole and the reader, in the end, is left with a sense of “Oh. Okay,” that leaves something lacking after the final page is read.

He’s a master of his craft, there’s no doubt there. But UNDER VENUS leaves a tad to be desired in terms of emotional investment from the reader.

[Eloy Nogueira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una novela menor de Peter Straub muy alejada de su genero. Mucho melodrama. Olvidable.

[Pedro Ceballos · Rating 1 out of 5]

No me gustó, ya sabía que no era de terror, pero realmente no se en que género clasificarlo, no es romántico ni erótico ni de suspenso, solo es un relato de lo que ocurre en unos días a una pareja y una amante, nada sorpresivo, ninguna situación de emoción. Me parece el peor libro de Peter Straub.

[Bettina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dieses Buch war für mich die reinste Enttäuschung! Denn es hält nicht, was es verspricht und der Klappentext ist absolut irreführend. Peter Straub wird ja oft als zweiter Stephen King bezeichnet und hat auch mit diesem zusammen schon Bücher geschrieben. Alles schön und gut. Daher dachte ich, dass dieses Buch auch in die Richtung Horror geht – was der Klappentext ja auch vermuten lässt. Aber falsch!
Das “Mädchen” ist eine 21-jährige Studentin und somit absolut kein Mädchen mehr. Ich hatte eher mit einer kleinen 8-jährigen gerechnet. Zudem ist an ihr absolut nichts Geheimnisvolles. Okay, ihr Gesicht ist leicht entstellt, nach einem Autounfall, aber das wird nur am Rande erwähnt, ohne ernennenswerte Details. Überhaupt ist “das geheimnisvolle Mädchen” lediglich eine Nebenrolle und Elliot fühlt sich nicht wirklich zu ihr hingezogen.
Im gesamt Buch geht es vielmehr darum, dass Elliot mit seiner Frau über Weihnachten in den Heimatort zurückkehrt, weil sie das Fest mit ihren Eltern verbringen möchten. Die jeweiligen Eltern bzw. die Väter sind gerade mehr oder weniger in einen Streit verwickelt – über das gesamte Buch hinweg.
Klar, die ehemalige Geliebte von Elliot taucht auch immer mal wieder auf und er ist auch ziemlich oft bei ihr. Aber nun ja – ich weiß nicht einmal, in was für ein Genre ich dieses Buch stecken würde. Auf dem Klappentext steht “Wenn die Vergangenheit zum Albtraum wird” – Ich frage mich nur, wann dieser Albtraum in dem Buch vorkam. Habe ich was verpasst? Bin ich zwischendurch eingeschlafen? Ganz ehrlich, das Buch ist schnarchlangweilig – keine Spannung, kein Nichts!

[Karschtl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hab das Buch nun endlich gelesen, und hatte mir ehrlich gesagt doch ein wenig mehr versprochen. Immerhin wird Straub ja mit Stephen King verglichen, der einer meiner Lieblingsautoren ist.

Doch im Gegensatz zu den King-Büchern fesselte mich diese Story überhaupt nicht. Vielleicht auch deshalb, weil sie sich in so viele verschiedene Nebenstränge aufgliederte, und keine davon irgendwie richtig spannend war.

Die größte Enttäuschung an diesem Buch aber war, dass das geheimnisvolle Mädchen aus dem Titel in keinster Weise geheimnisvoll war, und diese Story zwischen ihr und Elliot noch die kleinste von allen Handlungssträngen war. Sehr unausgegoren und schlecht erzählt.

Generell fand ich, mal abgesehen vom Inhalt, das Buch auch nicht gut geschrieben. Ich musste lange, verschachtelte Sätze oft zweimal lesen, um zu verstehen wer oder was gemeint ist. Der Grund kann eine schlechte Übersetzung sein, oder aber mir liegt der Stil von Mr. Straub einfach nicht.
Aber zumindest habe ich nun endlich mal ein Buch von ihm gelesen, und kann nur hoffen, dass seine Bücher die er zusammen mit King geschrieben hat besser sind.

[Ronald Wilcox · Rating 3 out of 5]

What to say, what to say .... hmmm.

This did not feel like a Peter Straub book at all but instead read like a Gore Vidal novel. Despite that revelation, the book definitely has high and low points. Some parts read like brilliant writing while others slogged along.

Basic storyline - Elliott is a composer who comes back from Paris with his wife to visit family. While home, he becomes obsessed again with a woman he had an affair with in the past. There are a few subplots but that really was the overall gist of it.

Some of his writing really did transport me though and overall I am glad I read this early fictional work by a masterful horror writer.