A Dance to the Music of Time
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A Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels by Anthony Powell, inspired by the painting of the same name by Nicolas Poussin. It has sometimes, erroneously, been referred to as a roman à clef. One of the longest works of fiction in literature, it was 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 sequence is narrated by Nick Jenkins in the form of his reminiscences. At the beginning of the first volume, Nick 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. Little is told of Jenkins's personal life beyond his encounters with the great and the bad, with events, such as his wife's miscarriage, only being related in conversation with the principal characters.
Contents |
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 recognizable 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.
The story was adapted by Hugh Whitemore for a TV mini-series in the autumn of 1997, shown on Channel 4 and starring Simon Russell Beale, James Purefoy, Miranda Richardson, Zoe Wanamaker, Sir John Gielgud, John Standing, Robert Lang, Emma Fielding, Claire Skinner, Paul Rhys, and Annabel Mullion
Powell's official biographer, Hilary Spurling, has published Invitation to the Dance - a Handbook to Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time. 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 utilized in the synopses linked from the novels below.
(dates are first UK publication dates)
- A Question of Upbringing - (1951)
- A Buyer's Market - (1952),
- The Acceptance World - (1955)
- At Lady Molly's - (1957)
- Casanova's Chinese Restaurant - (1960)
- The Kindly Ones - (1962)
- The Valley of Bones - (1964)
- The Soldier's Art - (1966)
- The Military Philosophers - (1968)
- Books Do Furnish a Room - (1971)
- Temporary Kings - (1973)
- Hearing Secret Harmonies - (1975)
| Character | Details | Key & Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Nick Jenkins | Narrator | A cypher, everyman; Powell himself |
| Kenneth Widmerpool | A mediocre student whose rise seems unstoppable. | Elements of several Labour MPs investigated as Soviet agents. AP confirmed character inspired by Col. Denis Capel-Dunn under whom he served in the Cabinet Office. Plus element from Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller's schooldays. |
| Charles Stringham | Schoolfriend 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. | Ne'er-do-well type adopting military persona familiar between the wars. |
| Peter Templer | Raffish schoolfellow of Nick's. | based on John Spencer, friend of the author's. |
| Jean Templer | Peter's sister; Nick's lover | Unpredictable and self-absorbed, unexpected tastes in men. |
| Professor Sillery | Manipulative Oxford don | Professor Sir Ernest Barker, and F.F. Urquhart. Not Sir Maurice Bowra as often suggested. |
| Pamela Flitton | Femme Fatale | based on Barbara Skelton, tempestuous sometime wife of Cyril Connolly. Nymphomaniac. |
| Mark Members | Promising poet | Peter Quennell, all-purpose literary personage, poet, and cultural historian. The name and the conference-going suggest Stephen Spender. |
| Edgar Deacon | Disreputable painter and antique dealer | Combination of Mr Bailey, an alcoholic antiques dealer, and eccentric bookseller Christopher Millard. |
| Dr Trelawney | Occultist | Aleister Crowley, self-styled Great Beast 666 |
| The Field Marshal | Leader of desert warfare | Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein |
| X. Trapnel | Novelist and parodist | Julian Maclaren-Ross |
| Hugh Moreland | Composer | Constant Lambert |
| St John Clarke | Passé author | John Galsworthy |
| Max Pilgrim | Entertainer | in the manner of Noel Coward inspired by Douglas Byng |
| Sir Magnus Donners | Magnate and government minister | partly drawn from Lord Beaverbrook |
| J G Quiggin | Marxist writer | Conflation of Powell's enemies, novelist CP Snow and critic F R Leavis; resembles playwright Harold Pinter. |
| Erridge (Earl of Warminster) | Socialist peer; Jenkins's brother-in-law | The 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. |
- A synopsis of each novel from Anthony Powell Society
- "Models for Characters in Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time"
- Phillips Academy: A Dance to the Music of Time
- Poussin's painting
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Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time |
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A Question of Upbringing | A Buyer's Market | The Acceptance World | At Lady Molly's | Casanova's Chinese Restaurant | The Kindly Ones | The Valley of Bones | The Soldier's Art | The Military Philosophers | Books do Furnish a Room | Temporary Kings | Hearing Secret Harmonies |