View from Pompeys Head [Hardcover]

Hamilton Basso (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1954

The story of a young lawyer named Anson Page, who, after an absence of fifteen years, finds it necessary to return to his home town of Pompey's Head on a singularly curious mission. Book Club Ed

Product Details

• Hardcover: 409 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (June 1954)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9997406974
• ISBN-13: 978-9997406972
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,447,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Story of the South, September 21, 2004

By 

A reader (Charlottesville, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The View from Pompey's Head (Voices of the South) (Paperback)

"The View from Pompey's Head" is set in a fictional small city in the early 1950s. It's reminiscent of Savannnah, GA, but is clearly not intended to be a stand-in for that city. Anson Page, a New York lawyer, must return to his hometown of Pompey's Head, South Carolina on a business trip. Much of the novel consists of flashbacks to Anson's privileged childhood and young adulthood in Pompey's Head. There are so many flashbacks, that one starts to feel impatient and wish that we could just get on with the story.

This is a novel about the snobbery, class and racial prejudice. Anson left his town to get away from the snobbery and yet when he returns, he must confront the fact that Pompey's Head is where he belongs, despite the fact that it is a cultural backwater where narrow mindedness and snobbery prevail.

I enjoyed "The View from Pompey's Head." The writing is finely constructed and Hamilton Basso does an excellent job of depicting the mindset of the mid-century Southern elite. Page is a character with whom it is easy to identify.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Writer from the Recent Past, June 16, 2005

By 

C. C. Justice (Easley, SC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The View from Pompey's Head (Voices of the South) (Paperback)

Recently I read an article published several years ago in The Boston Globe about two prominent 20th Century writers who are now largely forgotten. Perhaps it says something about me that I have read both and enjoyed their work. They are Calder Willingham and Hamilton Basso.

I finished Basso's "The View from Pompey's Head" just last week. It is slow moving in a pleasant, languid, distinctly Southern manner. Basso gradually develops memorable characters, crafts fine scenes and steadily hones the plot - with the ultimate Southern shocker of miscegenation!

"The View From Pompey's head" spent 40 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List in the 1950s and was made into a Hollywood motion picture starring Richard Egan and the ravishing Dana Wynter. Basso published 11 books and edited The New Yorker for 20 years but is virtually forgotten today. Basso and "The View From Pompey's Head" deserve a wider audience and greater appreciation from readers in 2005.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent novel, February 20, 2005

By 

Bomojaz (South Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The View from Pompey's Head (Voices of the South) (Paperback)

A NYC lawyer returns home to Pompey's Head, the small southern town he grew up in, to investigate a divorce case. The novel is a leisurely, old-fashioned study of the way people lived their lives--the novel of manners. Lives are probed and some interesting (and nasty) secrets revealed: rape, incest, and miscegenation among them. Basso is a sophisticatd and compelling writer, in full command of his material. Highly recommended.