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Product Description
Book Description
'One of English fiction's few twentieth-century masterpieces' John Lanchester, LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS
Product Description
A QUESTION OF UPBRINGING
A BUYER'S MARKET
THE ACCEPTANCE WORLD
Anthony Powell's brilliant twelve-novel sequence chronicles the lives of over three hundred characters, and is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England. It is unrivalled for its scope, its humour and the enormous pleasure it has given to generations.
These first three novels in the sequence follow Nicholas Jenkins, Kenneth Widmerpool and others, as they negotiate the intellectual, cultural and social hurdles which stand between them and the 'Acceptance World'.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
58 of 63 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I was inspired by the accompanying bad review to write in defence of Powell's first three novels of the 'Dance...' sequence. Even if we accept that the truly outstanding novels of the sequence are from 4-9, the early years of Jenkins, Stringham, Widmerpool etc. are still essential reading. I suppose the superlatives of Powell devotees like myself will always sound a bit obsessive to unbelievers, but the scope and majesty of his 'Dance to the Music of Time' is rivalled only by Waugh's Brideshead in documenting high society and intellectual life between 1914 and 45. Once immersed in Powell's world there is no going back, and no substitute.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The comparison with Waugh in the 'one-star' review on this page is misleading. Although contemporaries (Oxford in the early 1920s), Powell and Waugh were totally different writers. Ignore the superficial similarities (country houses, people with titles etc.), because they were aiming for wholly contrasting effects, and in my view both achived them brilliantly.
Dance is bound to disappoint anyone coming from Waugh expecting more of the same. The comedy is never as broad - although always present - and the 'serious' themes never as explicit. Powell was a more patient writer than Waugh (who always strove for an immediate impact both in his writing and, by all acounts, in life), and the rewards for the patient reader are immense. To get the most out of Dance, you need the kind of patience required to read and enjoy Proust (probably the main inspiration for the 12 volumes - at one point he pays tribute to Proust by having Jenkins briefly visit the Grand Hotel at Cabourg, the model for the hotel in 'Balbec').
It is entirely possible to enjoy Dance purely as an elegant meander through upper class life from 1914 to about 1970. There are plenty of memorable characters, some tremendous descriptive passages ('...Mr Lloyd Geroge, fancifully conceived as extending from his mouth an enormous scarlet tongue, on the liquescent surface of which a female domestic servant...was portrayed vigorously moistening the gum of a Health Insurance stamp...') and ample incident. However, none of this accounts for the intense devotion of his many fans. This, I believe, arises from the brilliant way in which Dance, through the narrator, Jenkins (Powell in all but name), demonstrates how it is possible to weave erudition and love of the arts into a life lived almost entirely outside the academic sphere. Jenkins does this, and Powell appears to have done it in his own life (see particularly his journals). Again, the inspiration appears to come from Proust, although I'd say Powell exceeds Proust in this respect because Jenkins comes over as a more substantial and likeable figure than the narrator of In Search of Lost Time.
If you love art and learning for their own sake there is a good chance you will love Dance - and by extension Powell himself. If the foregoing reads to you like pretentious tosh, then it is probably best to stick to Waugh.
Dance is bound to disappoint anyone coming from Waugh expecting more of the same. The comedy is never as broad - although always present - and the 'serious' themes never as explicit. Powell was a more patient writer than Waugh (who always strove for an immediate impact both in his writing and, by all acounts, in life), and the rewards for the patient reader are immense. To get the most out of Dance, you need the kind of patience required to read and enjoy Proust (probably the main inspiration for the 12 volumes - at one point he pays tribute to Proust by having Jenkins briefly visit the Grand Hotel at Cabourg, the model for the hotel in 'Balbec').
It is entirely possible to enjoy Dance purely as an elegant meander through upper class life from 1914 to about 1970. There are plenty of memorable characters, some tremendous descriptive passages ('...Mr Lloyd Geroge, fancifully conceived as extending from his mouth an enormous scarlet tongue, on the liquescent surface of which a female domestic servant...was portrayed vigorously moistening the gum of a Health Insurance stamp...') and ample incident. However, none of this accounts for the intense devotion of his many fans. This, I believe, arises from the brilliant way in which Dance, through the narrator, Jenkins (Powell in all but name), demonstrates how it is possible to weave erudition and love of the arts into a life lived almost entirely outside the academic sphere. Jenkins does this, and Powell appears to have done it in his own life (see particularly his journals). Again, the inspiration appears to come from Proust, although I'd say Powell exceeds Proust in this respect because Jenkins comes over as a more substantial and likeable figure than the narrator of In Search of Lost Time.
If you love art and learning for their own sake there is a good chance you will love Dance - and by extension Powell himself. If the foregoing reads to you like pretentious tosh, then it is probably best to stick to Waugh.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
'Dance' will never be for everyone. Waugh's knockabout side is not to be found here, and the analogies are actually pretty unhelpful. Powell handles much better than Waugh, because he never forces the issue, the grotesque side of human behaviour, something he said was an essential aspect of accurate writing. Captain Grimes, and, to a lesser extent, Ritchie-Hook are memorable comic creations, but I never expect to meet them. But I, like everyone else, know one or more Widmerpools. The aspect of Dance that people seldom seem to stress in reviews is its quality as writing. It is, before anything else, a text, and it is in the extraordinary beauty of the text that its distinction lies. I have never seen the TV adaptation, which Powell is said to have liked, but it must be, of course, something quite different. The reason so many people keep reading Dance is surely because of that beauty. From the brazier of the opening to the wintry silence of the close, it is as much the perfection and vitality of the wording as the range of events and people described that makes it live. And of course, any great book allows for no separation of those aspects - what is depicted and how it is depicted. It is a book for adults and it is a book for those who enjoy language as something more than a utilitarian means of conveying information. And it meets the old criterion for excellence in the arts, that it gets better every time. And it has the disturbing effect that after it, other writers, even good ones, come across as a bit approximate.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
marlene444
Have watched this video 5 times and totally engrossed with each viewing but there again I am an intelligent woman.
Published 3 months ago by marlene444
Ponderous
I've read a few hundred pages. Sorry, I don't get it. I find the style ponderous and I don't find the main characters or the hero's story engaging. Possibly an acquired taste? Read more
Published 4 months ago by Rick
An amusing, entertaining and extraordinarily well written series with...
I had owned the series for months before finally settling down to read it, and when I started found that I could not put it down. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Sarah Hunter
Dance to the music of time
A brilliant evocation of life through the 20th century. Not particularly deep or critical but funny and enlightening. Read more
Published 15 months ago by panhandle
like a dinner companion
who insists on regaling you with every detail of his/her pedestrian life in super-articulate polysyllabic detail. The man could write: but my question is, why, oh why? Read more
Published 18 months ago by Carole
An Intriguing Introduction
Spring is the first three volumes of Anthony Powell's epic twelve volume cycle; 'A Dance to the Music of Time'. Read more
Published on 17 Jan 2010 by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley
Elegant, humourous observation.
These 12 novels recount episodes in the life of Nicholas Jenkins, generally reckonened to be mostly autobiographical, written from the viewpoint of Jenkins. Read more
Published on 10 Jun 2008 by C. Harman
These books are the business!
Picked up the video almost at random and thoroughly enjoyed it. Soon after, I bought the books and was utterly entranced. Couldn't put 'em down. Read more
Published on 11 April 2007 by Kevin Pork
Interminable but not without merit
I have to admit that this book has sat by my bedside for about 2 years. I have taken several runs at it not without enjoying many parts of it but it is very off-putting. Read more
Published on 10 Jan 2006 by bookpike
Interminable
As limp, turgid and self-important as it sounds. Read his brief, profoundly nihilistic pre-war comic novels instead, souffles compared to this sludge - they're better than Waugh.
Published on 11 Jun 2003 by simon barrett
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