At Lady Molly's

Last updated


At Lady Molly's
AtLadyMollys.jpg
First edition cover
Author Anthony Powell
Cover artist James Broom-Lynne
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Series A Dance to the Music of Time
Publisher Heinemann
Publication date
1957
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages239 pp
Preceded by The Acceptance World  
Followed by Casanova's Chinese Restaurant  

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 (Nick Jenkins) acquaintances in bohemian society and the landed classes are pondered. Meanwhile, the career moves of various characters are advanced, checked or put on hold. [1]

Contents

The portrait of the aristocratic Tolland family is sourced in part from Powell's own in-laws, the Pakenhams.

Plot summary

Of course you hardly ever meet intelligent people there... And you rarely see anyone whom I call really smart. All the same, you may find absolutely anybody at Aunt Molly's. [2] - Chips Lovell

It is 1934 and Nick is working, without great success, as a script writer at a film company. He gets invited by a colleague, Chips Lovell, to a party at the home of Lady Molly Jeavons. There he learns that Widmerpool is to marry the twice widowed, somewhat notorious (somewhat insane according to Nick) Mrs. Mildred Haycock. Nick subsequently has to endure having to lunch with Widmerpool and fending-off questions from Widmerpool's prospective in-laws becomes, for Nick, a motif throughout the novel. Also re-encountered at Lady Molly's gathering is old Alfred Tolland.

A chance meeting by Nick with Quiggin (at a cinema where Man of Aran is showing) leads to a surprising and rather mysterious invitation of a weekend visit to the country. Quiggin and Mona Templer are staying in a cottage loaned to them by Erridge (Lord Warminster, eccentric head of the Tolland family). While there, they all visit the Tolland ancestral home, Thrubworth Park, for a frugal but eventful dinner.

Just as the meal is finishing two Tolland sisters, Susan and Isobel, arrive. A while later Nick meets Lady Molly's husband, Ted Jeavons, in a Soho pub and they visit Umfraville's nightclub. They encounter Widmerpool (suffering another bout with jaundice), Mrs Haycock and Templer.

In Autumn 1934 Jenkins becomes engaged to Isobel. Erridge, wanting to study conditions for himself, goes to China at a time when the Japanese army are undertaking offensive operations. Mona goes with him, ditching Quiggin. Widmerpool's engagement to Mildred Haycock is broken off in farcical and, to most men, crushing circumstances. However, Widmerpool remains undaunted.

Criticism

Tariq Ali, in what is really a defence of Powell and his work, doesn't comment about At Lady Molly's in particular but writes of A Dance to the Music of Time, "By the time he came to write the Dance, Powell's style had become almost antique, baroque – and that lifted the comedy to a much higher level than one finds in the early novels." Powell's early novels are described as witty whereas the "Dance" books are of a higher order because the style "had become much more reflective." Ali also remarked in the same article, "Coincidence plays an important part in the characters' many encounters. Yet, structured as art, the coincidences build up into a greater patterning." [3]

Auberon Waugh took exception to this reflective style complaining of the number of clauses in some of Powell's sentences and attacking the use of "the diffident double-negative" as well as the "'elegant' or dissociative inverted comma." He dismissed A Dance to the Music of Time, At Lady Molly's not excepted, with: "As an early upmarket soap opera, it undoubtedly gave comfort to a number of people, becoming something of a cult during the 1970s in the London community of expatriate Australians. Perhaps it afforded them the illusion of understanding English society, even a vicarious sense of belonging to it. If so, it was one of the cruellest practical jokes ever played by a Welshman." These remarks appeared in a piece by Auberon Waugh in the Sunday Telegraph 27 May 1990, "Judgment on a Major man of letters". [4]

One such expatriate Australian Clive James, has been widely quoted (particularly on the back of any the sequence's British paperback editions) as holding the opinion that "The Dance...was the greatest modern novel in English since (James Joyce's) Ulysses."

Norman Shrapnel, in making a comparative literary point, at the same time attacks the "soap opera" idea, with the judgement: "He [Powell] lacks what Amis and most of the later English humorists have possessed – sentimentality. That would have destroyed the work." [5] —sentimentality being the bedrock of the soap opera genre.[ citation needed ]

Characters new to the series

Molly again met Cap. Teddy Jeavons at the car show at the Olympia and they later married. Living on, as Lovell surmised, about £100 a year of her own money with Jeavons not bringing in a cent [18] the Jeavonses' kept open house at their home at South Kensington, a social no-man's land [19] where one could meet all kinds [20] (excepting working class types unless they were employees). It was at Lady Molly's that Widmerpool first met Mildred, Mrs Haycock. Nick Jenkins re-encounters Alfred Tolland and Mark Members there.

Established characters

Themes

"What, then, is the central theme of the series? Creativity – the act of production. Of literature, of books, of paintings, of music; that is what most of the central characters are engaged in for the whole of their lives. Moreland composes, Barnby paints, X Trapnel writes, Quiggin, Members and Maclintick criticise and the narrator publishes books and then becomes a writer. What excites the novelist is music and painting, literature and criticism. It's this creativity, together with the comedy of everyday life, that sustains the Dance" [3] Of the characters mentioned above, the narrator (Nick), Members—a poet as well as a critic, Quiggin and Barnby all appear or are quoted in At Lady Molly's.

At Lady Molly's is dedicated to Powell's son, J.M.A.P. (John Marmion Anthony Powell) [34]

See also

Footnotes

  1. Spurling, Hilary. Invitation to the Dance: A Guide to Anthony Powell’s Dance to the Music of Time. 1st American ed. Boston: Little, Brown,1978.
  2. At Lady Molly's Pp.125
  3. 1 2 Ali, Tariq (26 January 2008). "Tariq Ali rereads Anthony Powell's a Dance to the Music of Time". The Guardian.
  4. The Daily Telegraph
  5. Shrapnel, Norman (29 March 2000). "Anthony Powell". The Guardian.
  6. At Lady Molly's Pp. 5
  7. At Lady Molly's Pp 5
  8. At Ledy Molly's Pp 5
  9. At Lady Molly's Pp 34
  10. Pp 6
  11. At Lady Molly's Pp 184
  12. 1 2 At Lady Molly's Pp 8
  13. At Lady Molly's Pp 9
  14. At Lady Molly's Pp 173
  15. At Lady Molly's Pp 23
  16. Pp 16
  17. At Lady Molly's p 17
  18. At Lady Molly's Pp 18
  19. Pp 157
  20. At Lady Molly's Pp 59
  21. At Lady Molly's Pp 162
  22. Pp 178
  23. Pp 180
  24. Pp 174
  25. A Buyer's MarketPp 43
  26. Pp 113
  27. Pp 19
  28. 1 2 Pp 167
  29. Pp 148
  30. 1 2 Pp 150
  31. Pp 145
  32. Pp 177
  33. Pp 187
  34. Jay, Mike. (2013) "Who Were the Dedicatees of Powell’s Works?" The Anthony Powell Society Newsletter.50 (spring): 9-10.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Stanwyck</span> American actress (1907–1990)

Barbara Stanwyck was an American actress, model and dancer. A stage, film, and television star, during her 60-year professional career she was known for her strong, realistic screen presence and versatility. She was a favorite of directors, including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang, and Frank Capra, and made 85 films in 38 years before turning to television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Powell</span> American actress (1929–2021)

Jane Powell was an American actress, singer, and dancer who first appeared in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musicals in the 1940s and 50s. With her soprano voice and girl-next-door image, Powell appeared in films, television and on the stage, performing in the musicals A Date with Judy (1948), Royal Wedding (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and Hit the Deck (1955).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eleanor Powell</span> American tap dancer, actress, (1912–1982)

Eleanor Torrey Powell was an American dancer and actress. Best remembered for her tap dance numbers in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s, she was one of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's top dancing stars during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Powell appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, and most prominently, in a series of movie musical vehicles tailored especially to showcase her dance talents, including Born to Dance (1936), Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), Rosalie (1937), and Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940). She retired from films in the mid-1940s but resurfaced for the occasional specialty dance scene in films such as Thousands Cheer. In the 1950's she hosted a Christian children's TV show and eventually headlined a successful nightclub act in Las Vegas. She died from cancer at 69. Powell is known as one of the most versatile and powerful female dancers of the Hollywood studio era.

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.

<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>The Geisha</i> Edwardian musical comedy

The Geisha, a story of a tea house is an Edwardian musical comedy in two acts. The score was composed by Sidney Jones to a libretto by Owen Hall, with lyrics by Harry Greenbank. Additional songs were written by Lionel Monckton and James Philp.

<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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lady Violet Powell</span> British writer and critic (1912–2002)

Lady Violet Georgiana Powell was a British writer and critic. Her husband was the author Anthony Powell.

<i>The Kindly Ones</i> (Powell novel) Novel by Anthony Powell

The Kindly Ones is a novel by Anthony Powell that forms the sixth in his twelve-volume sequence, A Dance to the Music of Time. The book's title relates to the placatory name given to the Furies of Greek mythology and chiefly addresses the period just before and after Britain enters World War II. The book is dedicated "For R.W.K.C.", the biographer and historian R. W. Ketton-Cremer.

<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>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.

Denis Cuthbert Capel-Dunn OBE was a British lawyer and military bureaucrat immortalised by Anthony Powell in many aspects of the character of Kenneth Widmerpool, the anti-hero of Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time sequence of novels. Capel-Dunn served as secretary to the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) between 1943 and 1945.

<i>Of Human Bondage</i> (1946 film) 1946 film by Edmund Goulding

Of Human Bondage is a 1946 American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding and starring Paul Henreid, Eleanor Parker and Alexis Smith. The second screen adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's 1915 novel, this Warner Bros. sanitized version was written by Catherine Turney. The central characters are Philip Carey, a clubfooted medical student, and Mildred Rogers, a low-class waitress with whom he becomes obsessed.

The Bohemian Girl is a short story by Willa Cather. It was written when Cather was living in Cherry Valley, New York, with Isabelle McClung whilst Alexander's Bridge was being serialised in McClure's. It was first published in McClure's in August 1912.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faerie (DC Comics)</span>

Faerie, The Fair Lands or The Twilight Realm is one of two fictional otherdimensional homelands for the Faerie, as published by DC Comics. The Vertigo Comics realm of Faerie is an amalgam of the mythological realms of Álfheimr, Otherworld, the Fortunate Isles, Tír na nÓg and Avalon. This mix is heavily influenced by Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. It is home to the faeries and other mythical races, ruled over by the Seelie Court and King Auberon and Queen Titania. Faerie debuted in The Books of Magic #3, and was created by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess.

<i>Aurora Floyd</i> 1863 book by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

Aurora Floyd (1863) is a sensation novel written by the prominent English author Mary Elizabeth Braddon. It is thematically similar to her highly popular novel Lady Audley's Secret (1862).

A Dance to the Music of Time is a British four-part television drama series based on the book series of the same name by Anthony Powell. The series was also written by Anthony Powell with Hugh Whitemore as co-writer. The series was produced by Table Top Productions and directed by Christopher Morahan and Alvin Rakoff. It was first broadcast on Channel 4 on 9 October 1997 over four consecutive weeks.

References