A Dance to the Music of Time

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A Dance to the Music of Time is a 12-volume roman-fleuve by English writer Anthony Powell, published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim. The story is an often comic examination of movements and manners, power and passivity in English political, cultural and military life in the mid-20th century. The books were inspired by the painting of the same name by French artist Nicolas Poussin.

Contents

The sequence is narrated by Nicholas Jenkins. At the beginning of the first volume, Jenkins falls into a reverie while watching snow descending on a coal brazier. This reminds him of "the ancient world—legionaries ... mountain altars ... centaurs ..." These classical projections introduce the account of his schooldays, which opens A Question of Upbringing .

Over the course of the following volumes, he recalls the people he met over the previous half a century and the events, often small, that reveal their characters. Jenkins's personality is unfolded slowly, and often elliptically, over the course of the novels. [1] [2]

Bernard Stacey compiled a catalog and analysis of the poetic allusions in the novel. [3]

Time magazine included the novel in its list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. [4] The editors of Modern Library ranked the work as 43rd-greatest English-language novel of the 20th century. [5] The BBC ranked the novel 36th on its list of the 100 greatest British novels. [6] In 2019 Christopher de Bellaigue wrote in The Nation that A Dance to the Music of Time is "perhaps the supreme London novel of the 20th century, an examination of the human behavior that defines the upper echelons of this brash, resilient, often pitiless place." [7] Volumes 7-9, "The War Trilogy," -- The Valley of Bones , The Soldier's Art and The Military Philosophers —are the focus of Bernard Stacey's War Dance. [8]

Inspiration

Poussin's painting, c. 1636, which gives its name to Powell's sequence of novels, Wallace Collection, London The dance to the music of time c. 1640.jpg
Poussin's painting, c. 1636, which gives its name to Powell's sequence of novels, Wallace Collection, London

Jenkins reflects on the Poussin painting in the first two pages of A Question of Upbringing:

These classical projections, and something from the fire, suddenly suggested Poussin's scene in which the Seasons, hand in hand and facing outward, tread in rhythm to the notes of the lyre that the winged and naked greybeard plays. The image of Time brought thoughts of mortality: of human beings, facing outward like the Seasons, moving hand in hand in intricate measure, stepping slowly, methodically sometimes a trifle awkwardly, in evolutions that take recognisable shape: or breaking into seemingly meaningless gyrations, while partners disappear only to reappear again, once more giving pattern to the spectacle: unable to control the melody, unable, perhaps, to control the steps of the dance.

Poussin's painting is housed at the Wallace Collection in London.

Analysis

Its 12 novels have been acclaimed by such critics as A. N. Wilson and fellow writers including Evelyn Waugh and Kingsley Amis as among the finest English fiction of the 20th century. Auberon Waugh dissented, calling it "tedious and overpraised—particularly by literary hangers-on". [9] The work was more heavily criticised towards the late 1960s, seen as being old-fashioned. [2] Long-time friend V. S. Naipaul cast similar doubts regarding the work, if not the Powell oeuvre. Naipaul described his sentiments after a long-delayed review of Powell's work following the author's death this way: "it may be that our friendship lasted all this time because I had not examined his work". [10]

While the work is often compared to Proust, others find the comparison "obvious, although superficial", [11] with its narrator's voice more like the participant-observer of The Great Gatsby than that of Proust's self-regarding narrator. [12] Two essays by Perry Anderson demonstrate significant differences between the two writers. [13] The comparative analysis, A Dance to Lost Time: Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' compared with Anthony Powell's 'A Dance to the Music of Time' by Patrick Alexander explores the reception of the two. [14]

Powell's official biographer, Hilary Spurling, [15] has published Invitation to the Dance – a Handbook to Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time. [16] This annotates, in dictionary form, the characters, events, art, music, and other references. She has also calculated the timeline employed by the author: this is used in the synopses linked from the novels below.

The various aspects of the novel-sequence are also analysed in An Index to 'A Dance to the Music of Time' by B. J. Moule, [17] D. McLeod, [18] and Robert L. Selig. [19]

The novels

Published dates are those of the first UK publication. The narrative is rarely specific about the years in which events take place. Those below are suggested by Hilary Spurling in Invitation to the Dance – a Handbook to Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time. Dust jackets of the first editions were designed by James Broom-Lynne.

OrderTitleStory timelinePublished
1 A Question of Upbringing 1921–19241951
2 A Buyer's Market 1928 or 19291952
3 The Acceptance World 1931–19331955
4 At Lady Molly's 19341957
5 Casanova's Chinese Restaurant 1928 or 1929, 1933–19371960
6 The Kindly Ones 1914, 1938–19391962
7 The Valley of Bones 19401964
8 The Soldier's Art 19411966
9 The Military Philosophers 1942–19451968
10 Books Do Furnish a Room 1945–19471971
11 Temporary Kings 1958–19591973
12 Hearing Secret Harmonies 1968–19711975

Principal characters

CharacterDetailsHistorical inspirations [20]
Nick JenkinsNarratorA cypher, everyman; Powell himself
Isobel TollandOne of the Tolland sisters, whom Jenkins later marriesPowell's wife Lady Violet Pakenham, third daughter of the 5th Earl of Longford.
Kenneth Widmerpool A mediocre student whose rise seems unstoppable.Powell confirmed character inspired by Col. Denis Capel-Dunn, under whom he served in the Cabinet Office. Plus an element from Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller's schooldays. Soviet bloc connection may be intended to suggest Labour MP Denis Nowell Pritt.
Charles StringhamSchoolfriend of Nick's. A romantic.Drawn from Hubert Duggan, whose glamorous mother married Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India. Not, as is often supposed, based on Powell's friend and fellow author Henry Green.
Uncle Giles ("Captain Jenkins")Nick's uncle, unreliable and usually untraceable.
Peter TemplerRaffish schoolfellow of Nick'sbased on John Spencer, friend of the author's.
Jean TemplerPeter Templer's sister; Nick's lover
Bob DuportJean Templer's first husband, businessman
SilleryManipulative Oxford donProfessor Sir Ernest Barker, and "Sligger" Urquhart. Not Sir Maurice Bowra as often suggested.
Myra ErdleighClairvoyante
Pamela FlittonFemme Fatale Married Kenneth Widmerpool based on Barbara Skelton, tempestuous sometime wife of Cyril Connolly.
Mark MembersPromising poet Peter Quennell, all-purpose literary personage, poet, and cultural historian. The name and the conference-going suggest Stephen Spender.
MaclintickMusic critic Peter Warlock.
Audrey MaclintickMarried to and widow of Maclintik; later companion to Hugh Moreland
Edgar Bosworth DeaconPainter and antique dealerCombination of Mr Bailey, an alcoholic antiques dealer, and eccentric bookseller Christopher Millard.
Gypsy Jonesanti-war friend of Mr. Deacon, Communist Party member
Dr TrelawneyOccultist Aleister Crowley, self-styled Great Beast 666
The Field MarshalLeader of desert warfare Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
David PennistoneMajor assigned to liaison work with exiled Allied governmentsAlexander Dru [21]
X. TrapnelNovelist and parodist Julian Maclaren-Ross
Russell GwinnettBiographer of X.Trapnel and academic.
Hugh MorelandComposer Constant Lambert
St John ClarkePassé author John Galsworthy
Max PilgrimEntertainerin the manner of Noël Coward inspired by Douglas Byng
Gibson DelavacqueriePoet, public relations at Donners-BrebnerLaurence Cotteril, Poet/businessman Roy Fuller and also V.S.Naipaul, novelist from Trinidad
Scorpio Murtlockcult leader
Sir Magnus DonnersMagnate and government ministerpartly drawn from Lord Beaverbrook also from Desmond Morton [22]
J. G. QuigginMarxist writer
Erridge (Earl of Warminster)Socialist peer; Jenkins's brother-in-lawThe Earl of Longford, Powell's brother-in-law. Also Powell's friend George Orwell – lives as a tramp for a time, fights in Spanish Civil War, dies in his forties.

Adaptations

The cycle was adapted by Frederick Bradnum as a Classic Serial on BBC Radio 4. In order to fit the material in, it was broadcast as four separate serials each based on a set of three books: the first three serials had six episodes, the last eight. The series were broadcast between 1979 and 1982. [23] The cycle was adapted again as a six-part Classic Serial on BBC Radio 4 from 6 April to 11 May 2008, directed by John Taylor. The cycle was adapted as a four-part TV series A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell and Hugh Whitemore for Channel 4 in 1997, directed by Christopher Morahan and Alvin Rakoff.[ citation needed ]

Character1997 TV series2008 radio drama1979 radio drama
Narrator Corin Redgrave Noel Johnson
Kenneth Widmerpool Simon Russell Beale Anthony Hoskyns
Mark Heap
Brian Hewlett
Nicholas Jenkins James d'Arcy James Purefoy
John Standing
Tom McHugh
Alex Jennings
Gareth Johnson, Noel Johnson
Charles Stringham Luke de Lacey Paul Rhys David Oakes
Timothy Watson
Simon Cadell
Peter Templer Jonathan Cake Jolyon Coy
Ronan Vibert
Christopher Good
Jean Templer Claire Skinner Emma Powell Jane Asher
Bob Duport Nicholas Jones
OrnDag Soerlie Christopher Bidmead
LindquistChristian Rubeck Eric Allan
Prof. Sillery Alan Bennett Paul Brooke Preston Lockwood
J.G. Quiggin Adrian Scarborough Julian KerridgeGordon Dulleu
Gypsy Jones Nicola Walker Emma Powell Susan Sloman
Suzette
Barbara Goring
Abigail HollickJosie Kidd
ErridgeOsmund BullockJonathan Keeble Alexander John
Mona Annabel Mullion Abigail Cruttenden Tamara Ustinov
Myra Erdleigh Gillian Barge
Lady Molly Jeavons Sarah Badel Heather Tracy Sian Phillips
Ted Jeavons Michael Williams
Lady Isobel Tolland Emma Fielding Zoe Waites Elizabeth Proud

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Powell</span> English novelist (1905–2000)

Anthony Dymoke Powell was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975. It is on the list of longest novels in English.

A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their publisher.

<i>Casanovas Chinese Restaurant</i> 1960 book by Anthony Powell

Casanova's Chinese Restaurant is a novel by Anthony Powell (ISBN 0-09-947244-9). It forms the fifth volume of the twelve-volume sequence A Dance to the Music of Time, and was originally published in 1960. Many of the events of the novel were included in the television adaptation broadcast on the United Kingdom's Channel 4 in 1997, comprising part of the second of four episodes. There was also an earlier, more comprehensive, BBC Radio adaptation.

<i>A Question of Upbringing</i> Book by Anthony Powell

A Question of Upbringing is the opening novel in Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, a twelve-volume cycle spanning much of the 20th century.

Susan Hilary Spurling is a British writer, known for her work as a journalist and biographer.

<i>A Buyers Market</i> Book by Anthony Powell

A Buyer's Market is the second novel in Anthony Powell's twelve-novel series A Dance to the Music of Time. Published in 1952, it continues the story of narrator Nick Jenkins with his introduction into society after boarding school and university.

<i>The Acceptance World</i>

The Acceptance World is the third book of Anthony Powell's twelve novel sequence, A Dance to the Music of Time. Nick Jenkins continues the narration of his life and encounters with friends and acquaintances in London, between 1931 and 1933. In an analysis of Powell's absorbing interest in literary and visual art Kerry McSweeney highlights his use of a reference to Joseph Conrad in a virtuoso description of a private hotel in Bayswater.

<i>At Lady Mollys</i> Book by Anthony Powell

At Lady Molly's is the fourth volume in Anthony Powell's twelve-novel sequence, A Dance to the Music of Time. Winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize 1957, At Lady Molly's is set in England of the mid-1930s and is essentially a comedy of manners, but in the background, the rise of Hitler and of worldwide Fascism are not ignored. The driving theme of At Lady Molly's is married life; marriages – as practised or mooted – among the narrator's acquaintances in bohemian society and the landed classes are pondered. Meanwhile, the career moves of various characters are advanced, checked or put on hold.

<i>The Military Philosophers</i> Novel by Anthony Powell

The Military Philosophers is the ninth of Anthony Powell's twelve-novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time. First published in 1968, it covers the latter part of Nicholas Jenkins' service in World War II. It is the last in Powell's war trilogy, and Jenkins is assigned to a War Office Section with the Allies of World War II.

<i>The Valley of Bones</i>

The Valley of Bones is the seventh novel in Anthony Powell's twelve-volume series A Dance to the Music of Time. Published in 1964, it is the first of the war trilogy.

<i>The Soldiers Art</i> Eighth novel in Anthony Powells twelve-volume A Dance to the Music of Time,

The Soldier's Art is the eighth novel in Anthony Powell's twelve-volume masterpiece A Dance to the Music of Time, and the second in the war trilogy. The title is from the poem by Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, fifth line, “think first, fight afterwards – the soldier’s art.”

<i>Books Do Furnish a Room</i> Book by Anthony Powell

Books Do Furnish a Room is a novel by Anthony Powell, the tenth in the twelve-novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time. It was first published in 1971 and, like the other volumes, remains in print.

<i>Temporary Kings</i> Novel by Anthony Powell

Temporary Kings is a novel by Anthony Powell, the penultimate in his twelve-volume novel, A Dance to the Music of Time. It was published in 1973 by Heinemann and remains in print as does the rest of the sequence. It takes place at a fictional 1958 symposium in Venice.

<i>Hearing Secret Harmonies</i> The final novel in Anthony Powells twelve-volume A Dance to the Music of Time

Hearing Secret Harmonies is the final novel in Anthony Powell's twelve-volume series, A Dance to the Music of Time. It was published in 1975, twenty-four years after the first book, A Question of Upbringing, appeared in 1951. No other novel series is based on the formal pictorial principles as A Dance to the Music of Time. The book ends with a torrential passage from The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Widmerpool</span> Fictional character in Anthony Powells novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time

Kenneth Widmerpool is a fictional character in Anthony Powell's novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time, a 12-volume account of upper-class and bohemian life in Britain between 1920 and 1970. Regarded by critics as one of the more memorable characters of 20th century fiction, Widmerpool is the antithesis of the sequence's narrator-hero Nicholas Jenkins. Initially presented as a comic, even pathetic figure, he becomes increasingly formidable, powerful and ultimately sinister as the novels progress. He is successful in business, in the army and in politics, and is awarded a life peerage. His only sphere of failure is his relationships with women, exemplified by his disastrous marriage to Pamela Flitton. The sequence ends with Widmerpool's downfall and death, in circumstances arising from his involvement with a New Age-type cult.

<i>From a View to a Death</i> Book by Anthony Powell

From a View to a Death is the third novel by the English writer Anthony Powell. It combines comedy of manners with Powell’s 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.

Cecil William Turpie Gray was a Scottish music critic, author and composer.

Adrian Maurice Daintrey, RWA (1902–1988) was a British portrait and landscape painter.

<i>King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid</i> (painting) Painting by Edward Burne-Jones

King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid is an 1884 painting by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones. The painting illustrates the story of 'The King and the Beggar-maid", which tells the legend of the prince Cophetua who fell in love at first sight with the beggar Penelophon. The tale was familiar to Burne-Jones through an Elizabethan ballad published in Bishop Thomas Percy's 1765 Reliques of Ancient English Poetry and the sixteen-line poem The Beggar Maid by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

<i>A Dance to the Music of Time</i> (painting) Painting by Nicolas Poussin

A Dance to the Music of Time is a painting by Nicolas Poussin in the Wallace Collection in London. It was painted between c. 1634 and 1636 as a commission for Giulio Rospigliosi, who according to Gian Pietro Bellori dictated its detailed iconography. The identity of the figures remains uncertain, with differing accounts.

References

  1. Hitchens, Christopher (1998). "Powell's Way," New York Review (May 28, 1998).
  2. 1 2 Bellaigue, Christopher de (24 January 2019). "The Near-Miss Generation". The Nation. ISSN   0027-8378 . Retrieved 17 November 2024.
  3. Stacey, Bernard and Anthony Powell Society. Poetic Dance: A Catalogue and Analysis of the Poetic References Found in Anthony Powell's a Dance to the Music of Time. Anthony Powell Society 2018.
  4. "All-Time 100 Novels". Time . 16 October 2005. Archived from the original on 13 March 2010. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  5. "The Modern Library, 100 Best, Novels". Randomhouse.com. Archived from the original on 7 February 2010. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  6. Ciabattari, Jane (7 December 2015). "The 100 greatest British novels". BBC. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  7. De Bellaigue, Christopher, "The Near-Miss Generation: Anthony Powell's England." The Nation (January 24, 2019).
  8. Stacey, Bernard. War Dance : A Glossary of the Military Terms and References in the War Trilogy Novels in Anthony Powell's "A Dance to the Music of Time." Greenford: Anthony Powell Society; 2017.
  9. Alan Watkins, Brief Lives with Some Memoirs (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1982), 197
  10. V. S. Naipaul. A Writer's People 36–40, Knopf, 2007
  11. Compare Birns, ix, and Neil McEwan, Anthony Powell (NY: St. Martin's Press, 1991), 121–2
  12. Barber, 120, 211–2, 226, 231–2
  13. Perry Anderson London Review of Books 19 July & 2 August 2018
  14. Alexander, Patrick. (2022). A Dance to Lost Time: Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' compared with Anthony Powell's 'A Dance to the Music of Time.' Lanehouse Publications: Miami, FL
  15. Hughes-Hallett, Lucy (8 October 2017). "Dancing to the Music of Time: the intriguing and elusive Anthony Powell". New Statesman. Retrieved 17 November 2024.
  16. Spurling, Hilary. (2005). Invitation to the Dance: A Handbook to Anthony Powell's a Dance to the Music of Time. London: Arrow. ISBN   0-09-948436-6. OCLC   60511965.
  17. The timeline of the novels, how the various episodes recur in the movement of the Dance and the career, character and relationships of Kenneth Widmerpool are analysed in extracts taken from An Index to 'A Dance to the Music of Time' by B. J. Moule (published by consent). The latter extract is accessible in standard format at Kenneth Widmerpool
  18. McLeod D. "Anthony Powell: Some notes on the art of the sequence novel". Studies in the Novel. 1971;3(1): 44-63.
  19. Robert L. Selig, Time and Anthony Powell: A Critical Study, Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1991.
  20. "Anthony Powell Society – A Dance to the Music of Time Character Models". Anthonypowell.org.uk. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2011.
  21. Spurling, Hilary (2017) Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time. Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Books, p.396.
  22. Bennett, Gill. 2006. Churchill’s Man of Mystery: Desmond Morton and the World of Intelligence. London: Routledge, p.xvii
  23. Marshall, Keith (15 February 2005). "Dance on BBC Radio 4". Archived from the original on 20 September 2008.