# A Dance to the Music of Time

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.
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.
Time magazine included the novel in its list of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. The editors of Modern Library ranked the work as 43rd-greatest English-language novel of the 20th century. The BBC ranked the novel 36th on its list of the 100 greatest British novels. 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."

## Inspiration

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". The work was more heavily criticised towards the late 1960s, seen as being old-fashioned. 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".
While the work is often compared to Proust, others find the comparison "obvious, although superficial", with its narrator's voice more like the participant-observer of The Great Gatsby than that of Proust's narrator. Two essays by Perry Anderson demonstrate significant differences between the two writers. 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.
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 used in the synopses linked from the novels below.
Bernard Stacey compiled a catalog and analysis of the poetic allusions in the novel. 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, D. McLeod, and Robert L. Selig. 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.

## 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.
| Order | Title | Story timeline | Published |
| 1 | A Question of Upbringing | 1921–1924 | 1951 |
| 2 | A Buyer's Market | 1928 or 1929 | 1952 |
| 3 | The Acceptance World | 1931–1933 | 1955 |
| 4 | At Lady Molly's | 1934 | 1957 |
| 5 | Casanova's Chinese Restaurant | 1928 or 1929, 1933–1937 | 1960 |
| 6 | The Kindly Ones | 1914, 1938–1939 | 1962 |
| 7 | The Valley of Bones | 1940 | 1964 |
| 8 | The Soldier's Art | 1941 | 1966 |
| 9 | The Military Philosophers | 1942–1945 | 1968 |
| 10 | Books Do Furnish a Room | 1945–1947 | 1971 |
| 11 | Temporary Kings | 1958–1959 | 1973 |
| 12 | Hearing Secret Harmonies | 1968–1971 | 1975 |

## Principal characters

| Character | Details | Historical inspirations |
| Nick Jenkins | Narrator | A cypher, everyman; Powell himself |
| Isobel Tolland | One of the Tolland sisters, whom Jenkins later marries | Powell'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 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. | |
| Peter Templer | Raffish schoolfellow of Nick's | based on John Spencer, friend of the author's. |
| Jean Templer | Peter Templer's sister; Nick's lover | |
| Bob Duport | Jean Templer's first husband, businessman | |
| Sillery | Manipulative Oxford don | Professor Sir Ernest Barker, and "Sligger" Urquhart. Not Sir Maurice Bowra as often suggested. |
| Myra Erdleigh | Clairvoyante | |
| Pamela Flitton | Femme Fatale Married Kenneth Widmerpool | based on Barbara Skelton, tempestuous sometime wife of Cyril Connolly. |
| Mark Members | Promising poet | Peter Quennell, all-purpose literary personage, poet, and cultural historian. The name and the conference-going suggest Stephen Spender. |
| Maclintick | Music critic | Peter Warlock. |
| Audrey Maclintick | Married to and widow of Maclintik; later companion to Hugh Moreland | |
| Edgar Bosworth Deacon | Painter and antique dealer | Combination of Mr Bailey, an alcoholic antiques dealer, and eccentric bookseller Christopher Millard. |
| Ralph Barnby | painter | Adrian Daintrey, portrait and landscape painter. |
| Gypsy Jones | anti-war friend of Mr. Deacon, Communist Party member | |
| 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 |
| David Pennistone | Major assigned to liaison work with exiled Allied governments | Alexander Dru |
| X. Trapnel | Novelist and parodist | Julian Maclaren-Ross |
| Russell Gwinnett | Biographer of X.Trapnel and academic. | |
| Hugh Moreland | Composer | Constant Lambert |
| St John Clarke | Passé author | John Galsworthy |
| Max Pilgrim | Entertainer | in the manner of Noël Coward inspired by Douglas Byng |
| Gibson Delavacquerie | Poet, public relations at Donners-Brebner | Laurence Cotteril, Poet/businessman Roy Fuller and also V.S.Naipaul, novelist from Trinidad |
| Scorpio Murtlock | cult leader | |
| Sir Magnus Donners | Magnate and government minister | partly drawn from Lord Beaverbrook also from Desmond Morton |
| J. G. Quiggin | Marxist writer | |
| 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. |

## 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. 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.
| Character | 1997 TV series | 2008 radio drama | 1979 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 | |
| Orn | | Dag Soerlie | Christopher Bidmead |
| Lindquist | | Christian Rubeck | Eric Allan |
| Prof. Sillery | Alan Bennett | Paul Brooke | Preston Lockwood |
| J.G. Quiggin | Adrian Scarborough | Julian Kerridge | Gordon Dulleu |
| Gypsy Jones | Nicola Walker | Emma Powell | Susan Sloman |
| Suzette Barbara Goring | | Abigail Hollick | Josie Kidd |
| Erridge | Osmund Bullock | Jonathan 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 |

## Additional Reading

Birns,Nicholas. Understanding Anthony Powell, University of South Carolina Press, 2004. ISBN 1-57003-549-0