From the Lists: #43 A Dance to the Music of Time - First Movement

Anthony Powell

There have been several occasions as I work my way through the list of the 100 best English novels of the 20th century in which I have loudly complained of multiple works being listed as a single installment. The Alexandria Quartet and Parade's End, each consisting of four separate novels readily come to mind. However, with that said, #43 A Dance to the Music of Time wins the "Are you serious?" award since a single entry on the list consists of 12 relatively short novels that dip into the life of Nicholas Jenkins during various points between 1914 and 1971.

The books are presented as movements. Therefore, rather than trying to write an all encompassing review of the entire epic, which would probably consist of "12 books! It was just a blur," I think that I will briefly touch upon each novel within a movement, the time in which it occurs, and any other random connections I make while reading them.

The First Movement:
A Question of Upbringing (1951)

We are introduced to middle class Nick and his friends during various stages of their college educations post WWI, as well as Nick's ne'er do well Uncle Giles. His college acquaintances are from all social classes: the rich Stringham, the handsome Templer, and the rather socially awkward (aspergers-y perhaps?) Widmerpool play the central roles. Oddly, other than Uncle Giles, there is very little exposition about Nick's family, while there is quite a bit concerning the families of his friends. As the first novel draws to an end, the group grows apart and comes back together in an unexpected way. The writing is crisp and the characters are interesting. It is a "college days" novel about how friendships evolve over time and in retrospect take on a different meaning.

A Buyer's Market (1952)
We rejoin Nick and his circle of friends in London a few years out of university in the 1920's as they are pursuing both business and romantic interests. This installment begins with Nick perusing an auction of Mr. Deacon's belongings who was a distant and rather eccentric family friend, following his death by somewhat "less than respectable" circumstances. From there, we move with Nick through London's Spring social circuit of balls and lawn parties into the seedier side of London's artistic and politically active communities.

Like Nick's, accidental return to Stingham's orbit and finding himself socializing in the same circles as the awkward Widmerpool, I had an odd little coincidence of my own while reading this installment. During a meditation class in which connections with people in our lives is examined, this passage coincidentally repeated something our teacher wanted us to learn, but without all the commas:

I used to imagine life divided into separate compartments, consisting, for example, of such dual abstractions as pleasure and pain, love and hate, friendship and enmity, and more material classifications like work and play....That illusion - as such a point of view was closely related to another belief: that existence fans out indefinitely into new areas of experience, and that almost every additional acquaintance offers some supplementary world with its own hazards and enchantments. As time goes on, of course, these supposedly different worlds, in fact, draw closer, if not to each other, then to some pattern common to all: so that, at last, diversity between them, if in truth existent, seems to be almost imperceptible except in a few crude and exterior ways.... In other words, nearly all the inhabitants of these outwardly disconnected empires turn out at last to be tenaciously interrelated; love and hate, friendship and enmity too, becoming themselves much less clearly defined, more often than not, showing signs of possessing characteristics that could claim, to say the least, not a little in common.

Here Nick is still a naive observer of his world rather than an active participant. However, he has begun to draw parallels between the friends he admires and some of the less pallatable characteristics of his Uncle Giles.

The Acceptance World (1955)

A pattern is emerging in the series. Each book begins with a meeting between Nick and his Uncle Giles. These meetings have a way of setting the theme for each installment. In The Acceptance World, the time frame has jumped into the early 1930s. Nick has published his first book, has a stable job at a publishing house, has loved and lost and loved again, but is still an observer of his world - only a more mature and slightly more cynical observer. Some plot points from the previous novel, such as the details surrounding that "old queen," Mr. Deacon's death are expanded upon. Also several of the artistic set from the previous novel have moved on to become established in the respectable world, while some of the old Edwardian artistic set cling to former glories and try to remain relevant as the modernist movement takes root.

Characters introduced in the first novel who appeared destined for greatness are now struggling with alcoholism, divorce, and a general discontent, while those seemingly destined for the dust bin have found their way into middle class success. The characters have all grown in unexpected ways. The college loser is moving up, while the privileged are in slow decline. Of the three novels in the first movement, I thought this was the weakest; however, I think it sets the characters up nicely to transition into the coming war years.

I need a break from Nick and his gang. I am jumping ahead to the next book on the list, which is an adventure set in the back woods of Georgia. Is that a banjo I hear in the distance?????

A little snark is required to end this post: Should the list be renamed as the 120 Best English Novels of the 20th Century? I am still feeling as if I have been just a bit bamboozled. And there is another multi-novel entry coming up which will push it to 123 Best novels - hmph! I better get back to it - time is wasting and I am not getting any younger.