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. 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.
Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.[1] The editors of Modern Library ranked the work as 43rd greatest English-language novel of the twentieth century.[2]
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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 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.
Poussin's painting is housed at the Wallace Collection in London.
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, John Standing, Robert Lang, Emma Fielding, Claire Skinner, Paul Rhys and Annabel Mullion.
Analysis
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.
The novels
(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)
Principal characters
| Character | Details |
|---|---|
| Nick Jenkins | Narrator |
| Kenneth Widmerpool | A mediocre student whose rise seems unstoppable. |
| Charles Stringham | Schoolfriend of Nick's. A romantic. |
| Uncle Giles ("Captain Jenkins") | Nick's uncle, unreliable and usually untraceable. |
| Peter Templer | Raffish schoolfellow of Nick's. |
| Jean Templer | Peter's sister; Nick's lover |
| Sillery | Manipulative Oxford don |
| Pamela Flitton | Femme Fatale |
| Mark Members | Promising poet |
| Edgar Deacon | Disreputable painter and antique dealer |
| Dr Trelawney | Occultist |
| The Field Marshal | Leader of desert warfare |
| X. Trapnel | Novelist and parodist |
| Hugh Moreland | Composer |
| St John Clarke | Passé author |
| Max Pilgrim | Entertainer |
| Sir Magnus Donners | Magnate and government minister |
| J G Quiggin | Marxist writer |
| Erridge (Earl of Warminster) | Socialist peer; Jenkins's brother-in-law |
Adaptations
The cycle was adapted by Frederick Bradnumas 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 [1].
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 cast was:
- Narrator - Corin Redgrave
- Widmerpool - Anthony Hoskyns / Mark Heap
- Nick Jenkins - Tom McHugh / Alex Jennings
- Charles Stringham - David Oakes / Timothy Watson
- Peter Templer - Jolyon Coy / Ronan Vibert
- Orn - Dag Soerlie
- Lindquist - Christian Rubeck
- Sillery - Paul Brooke
- Quiggin - Julian Kerridge
- Madame Leroy/Mrs Andriadis - Carolyn Pickles
- Jean/Gyspy Jones - Emma Powell
- Suzette /Barbara - Abigail Hollick
- Erridge - Jonathan Keeble
- Mona - Abigail Cruttenden
- Molly - Heather Tracy
- Isobel - Zoe Waites
The cycle was adapted as an eight-part tv-series by Anthony Powell and Hugh Whitemore for Channel 4 in 1997, directed by Christopher Morahan and Alvin Rakoff.[3]The cast was:
- Nicholas Jenkins - James Purefoy
- Widmerpool - Simon Russell Beale
- Charles Stringham - Paul Rhys
- JC Quiggin - Adrian Scarborough
- Peter Templer - Jonathan Cake
- Jean - Claire Skinner
- Mark Members - Grant Thatcher
- Pamela Flitton - Miranda Richardson
- Sir Magnus Donners - Richard Pasco
- Bob Duport - Nicholas Jones
- Uncle Giles - Edward Fox
- Mona - Annabel Mullion
- Uncle Alfred - Robin Bailey
- Mrs. Erdleigh - Gillian Barge
- Moreland - James Fleet
- Lady Molly - Sarah Badel
- Miss Weedon - Carmen du Sautoy
- Erridge - Osmund Bullock
- Susan - Geraldine Alexander
- Sillery - Alan Bennett
- Betty - Barbara Durkin
- Isobel - Emma Fielding
- Le Bas - Oliver Ford Davies
- Rosie Mansach - Carmen Gómez
- Priscilla - Caroline Harker
- Sunny Farebrother - Andrew Havill
- Fiona Cuts - Laura Heath
- Matilda - Anastasia Hille
- Odo Stevens - Nigel Lindsay
- Judy - Rachel Lumberg
- Chuck - Danny Midwinter
- Colonel Flores - Tony Osoba
- Smith - Bryan Pringle
- David Pennistone - Nicholas Rowe
- Audrey Maclintick - Zoë Wanamaker
- Ted Jeavons - Michael Williams
References
External links
- A synopsis of each novel from Anthony Powell Society
- "Models for Characters in Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time"
- Poussin's painting
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