A Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels by
Anthony PowellAnthony Dymoke Powell, CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975...
, inspired by the painting of the same name by
Nicolas PoussinNicolas Poussin was a French painter in the classical style. His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color...
. 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
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
political, cultural and military life in the mid 20th century.
The sequence is narrated by Nick Jenkins in the form of his reminiscences.
A Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels by
Anthony PowellAnthony Dymoke Powell, CH, CBE was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975...
, inspired by the painting of the same name by
Nicolas PoussinNicolas Poussin was a French painter in the classical style. His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color...
. 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
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
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 UpbringingA Question of Upbringing is the opening novel in Anthony Powell's masterpiece, A Dance to the Music of Time, a twelve-volume cycle spanning much of the 20th century....
.
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.
TimeTime is an American newsmagazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong. As of 2009, Time no longer publishes a Canadian advertiser edition...
magazine included the novel in its
TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. The editors of
Modern LibraryThe Modern Library is a publishing company. It is currently a division of Random House publishers, and it was founded in 1917 by Albert Boni and Horace Liveright. It was bought in 1925 by Bennett Cerf...
ranked the work as 43rd greatest English-language novel of the twentieth century.
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 CollectionThe Wallace Collection is a museum in London, with a world-famous range of fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries with large holdings of French 18th-century paintings, furniture, arms & armour, porcelain and Old Master paintings arranged into 25 galleries.It was established in...
in
London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
.
The story was adapted by
Hugh WhitemoreHugh Whitemore is an English playwright and screenwriter.Whitemore studied for the stage at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he is now a Member of the Council. He began his writing career in British television with both original teleplays and adaptations of classic works by Charles...
for a
TVTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
mini-series in the autumn of 1997, shown on Channel 4 and starring
Simon Russell BealeSimon Russell Beale, CBE is an English actor. He has been described as "the greatest stage actor of his generation."-Early years:...
,
James Purefoy-Early life and work:Purefoy was born in Taunton, Somerset. He was a boarder at Sherborne School which he left with only one O-level. Later he went to night school and got 11 more, then took his A-levels...
,
Miranda RichardsonMiranda Jane Richardson is an English stage, film and television actress. She has been nominated for two Oscars, and has won two Golden Globes and a BAFTA during her career.-Early life:...
,
Zoe WanamakerZoë Wanamaker CBE is a British-American actress, best known for her role as Susan Harper in the sitcom My Family. Each of her appearances on Broadway has led to her nomination for a Tony award, including in 2008 her performance in Awake and Sing!.-Early life:Wanamaker was born in New York City,...
,
John StandingSir John Ronald Leon Standing, 4th Baronet is an English actor.-Early life:Standing was born John Ronald Leon in London, the son of Kay Hammond , an actress, and Sir Ronald George Leon, a stockbroker...
,
Robert LangRobert Lang was a versatile English actor who was spotted by Laurence Olivier and earned critical praise in an impressive variety of roles...
,
Emma Fielding-Biography:The lapsed Roman Catholic daughter of a British Army soldier, Fielding spent much of her childhood in Malaysia and Nigeria, and a period in Malvern above her grandparents' betting shop...
,
Claire SkinnerClaire Skinner is an English actress, who is well known in the United Kingdom for her television career.-Biography:Born and brought up in Hemel Hempstead, Skinner, the youngest daughter of a shopkeeper and an Irish-born secretary, was immensely shy as a child. Skinner's childhood dream was to...
,
Paul RhysPaul Rhys is a British television, film and theatre actor known for his intense and often volatile work .Rhys was born in Neath and studied at RADA. While there, he obtained his first major screen role, in Absolute Beginners . The following year he appeared in the BBC serialisation of My Family...
and
Annabel MullionAnnabel Mullion is an English actress.After studying drama at the University of East Anglia from 1988 to 1991, she began a career in acting. Her first screen part was in the film Carrington...
.
Analysis
Powell's official biographer,
Hilary Spurling Hilary Spurling, CBE is a British writer, known as a journalist and biographer. She won the Whitbread Prize for her two-volume biography of Matisse in January 2006. She is married to playwright John Spurling, and has three children and one grandchild.She is currently working on a biography of ...
, 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
A Question of Upbringing is the opening novel in Anthony Powell's masterpiece, A Dance to the Music of Time, a twelve-volume cycle spanning much of the 20th century....
- (1951The year 1951 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*E. E. Cummings and Rachel Carson are awarded Guggenheim Fellowships.*Flannery O'Connor is diagnosed with lupus....
)
- A Buyer's Market
A Buyer's Market is the second novel in Anthony Powell's twelve-novel series, A Dance to the Music of Time. Published in 1952, it continues the story of narrator Nick Jenkins with his introduction into society after boarding school and university....
- (1952The year 1952, in literature involved some significant events and new literary publications.-Events:*J. L. Carr takes over as headmaster of Highfields Primary School, Kettering, which will eventually furnish the subject matter for his novel, The Harpole Report.*November 25 - Agatha Christie's play...
)
- The Acceptance World
The Acceptance World is the third book of Anthony Powell's twelve novel sequence, A Dance to the Music of Time. Nick Jenkins continues the narration of his life and encounters with many friends and acquaintances in London between 1931 and 33....
- (1955The year 1955 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*First issue of the "Guinness Book of Records" published.*Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is published in Paris...
)
- At Lady Molly's
At Lady Molly's is the fourth volume in Anthony Powell's twelve novel sequence, A Dance to the Music of Time. A first person narrative, it is written in precise yet conversational prose...
- (1957The year 1957 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Lawrence Durrell publishes the first volume of The Alexandria Quartet. The final of the four volumes will be published in 1960....
)
- Casanova's Chinese Restaurant
Casanova's Chinese Restaurant is a novel by Anthony Powell . It forms the fifth volume of his masterpiece, the twelve-volume sequence A Dance to the Music of Time, and was originally published in 1960...
- (1960The year 1960 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Lawrence Durrell publishes Clea, the final volume of the four-book collection titled The Alexandria Quartet that began in 1957....
)
- The Kindly Ones - (1962
The year 1962 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Arthur Miller marries photographer Inge Morath.*Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell are prosecuted and jailed for defacing library books....
)
- The Valley of Bones
The Valley of Bones is the seventh novel in the sequence of twelve comprising Anthony Powell's masterpiece, A Dance to the Music of Time...
- (1964The year 1964 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Jean-Paul Sartre becomes head of the Organization to Defend Iranian Political Prisoners....
)
- The Soldier's Art
The Soldier's Art is the eighth novel in Anthony Powell's twelve-volume masterpiece A Dance to the Music of Time, and the second in the war trilogy. It was published in 1966, and touches on themes of separation and unanticipated loss....
- (1966The year 1966 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*February 14 - Dissident writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are sentenced to hard labour for "anti-Soviet activity"....
)
- The Military Philosophers
The Military Philosophers is the ninth of Anthony Powell's twelve-novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time. First published in 1968, it covers the latter part of Nicholas Jenkins' service in World War II...
- (1968The year 1968 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* Dean R. Koontz's first novel, Star Quest is published....
)
- Books Do Furnish a Room
Books Do Furnish a Room is a novel by Anthony Powell, the tenth in the sequence of twelve comprising his masterpiece, A Dance to the Music of Time. It was first published in 1971 and, like the other volumes, remains in print....
- (1971The year 1971 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*The Destiny Waltz by Gerda Charles wins the UK's first Whitbread Novel of the Year Award.-New books:*Hiroshi Aramata - Teito Monogatari...
)
- Temporary Kings
Temporary Kings is a novel by Anthony Powell, the penultimate in his twelve-volume masterpiece, A Dance to the Music of Time. It was published in 1973 and remains in print as does the rest of the sequence....
- (1973The year 1973 in literature involved several significant events and the writing of many notable books.-Events:*Frank Herbert becomes directo-photographer of the television show, The Tillers.*Robert B...
)
- Hearing Secret Harmonies
Hearing Secret Harmonies is the final novel in Anthony Powell's twelve-volume masterpiece, A Dance to the Music of Time. It was published in 1975 to the relief of an audience that had grown steadily over the twenty-four years since the first book, A Question of Upbringing appeared in...
- (1975The year 1975 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* August 12 — with the 20-year time limit stipulated by Thomas Mann at his death having expired, sealed packets containing 32 of the author's notebooks were opened in Zurich, Switzerland.* Writing under the...
)
Principal characters
| Character |
Details |
| Nick Jenkins |
Narrator |
| Kenneth Widmerpool Kenneth Widmerpool is a fictional character in Anthony Powell's sequence of novels, A Dance to the Music of Time.The author's most famous creation, Widmerpool appears in all twelve books comprising the cycle...
|
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 OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
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 SerialThe Classic Serial is a strand on BBC Radio 4 in which classics of English literature are adapted into series of one-hour dramas. It is broadcast twice weekly on BBC Radio 4, first from 3:00-4:00pm on Sunday, then repeated on 9:00-10:00pm the next Saturday....
on
BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967.-Outline:...
.
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
http://www.anthonypowell.org.uk/dance/dradio.htm.
The cycle was adapted again as a six-part
Classic SerialThe Classic Serial is a strand on BBC Radio 4 in which classics of English literature are adapted into series of one-hour dramas. It is broadcast twice weekly on BBC Radio 4, first from 3:00-4:00pm on Sunday, then repeated on 9:00-10:00pm the next Saturday....
on
BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967.-Outline:...
from 6 April to 11 May 2008, directed by John Taylor. The cast was:
- Narrator - Corin Redgrave
Corin William Redgrave is an English actor and political activist.-Family:Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, the son of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson...
- Widmerpool - Anthony Hoskyns / Mark Heap
Mark Heap is an English actor best known for a variety of television comedy roles including struggling artist Brian Topp in Spaced, the pompous Dr. Alan Statham in Green Wing, and various roles in the sketch shows Big Train and Jam...
- Nick Jenkins - Tom McHugh
Thomas McHugh is an American voice actor. He is probably best known for his role as Douglas Funnie during its years on ABC as Disney's Doug, and its full-length film, Doug's 1st Movie. He has also played various characters on animated series Gravedale High....
/ Alex JenningsAlex Jennings is an English actor perhaps best known for his supporting role as Charles, Prince of Wales in The Queen alongside Helen Mirren.-Early years:Jennings was born to Michael Thomas and Peggy Patricia Mahoney in Essex...
- Charles Stringham - David Oakes
David Oakes is a British actor. He attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School from 2005 to 2007...
/ Timothy Watson
- Peter Templer - Jolyon Coy / Ronan Vibert
Ronan Vibert is a Welsh actor, known for his appearances on British television.Vibert was born in Cardiff, the son of Dilys and David Vibert, both artists. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art from 1983 to 1986. He made his screen debut in 1986 in the TV series Traffik...
- Orn - Dag Soerlie
- Lindquist - Christian Rubeck
- Sillery - Paul Brooke
Paul Brooke is an English actor of film, television, and radio. He is the father of actor Tom Brooke.He and Ernie Fosselius played Malakili the Rancor Keeper in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. He played British Conservative politician Ian Gow in the 2004 BBC series The Alan Clark Diaries...
- Quiggin - Julian Kerridge
- Madame Leroy/Mrs Andriadis - Carolyn Pickles
Carolyn Pickles is an English actress who has appeared on the West End and on British TV, perhaps most notably in Emmerdale as Shelly Williams....
- Jean/Gyspy Jones - Emma Powell
- Suzette /Barbara - Abigail Hollick
- Erridge - Jonathan Keeble
- Mona - Abigail Cruttenden
Abigail Cruttenden is an English actress.Her grandmother Cynthia Coatts runs the Rosslyn School of Dance and Drama in London, while her mother Julia Cruttenden, runs the stage make-up school Greasepaint in London....
- 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.The cast was:
- Nicholas Jenkins - James Purefoy
-Early life and work:Purefoy was born in Taunton, Somerset. He was a boarder at Sherborne School which he left with only one O-level. Later he went to night school and got 11 more, then took his A-levels...
- Widmerpool - Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale, CBE is an English actor. He has been described as "the greatest stage actor of his generation."-Early years:...
- Charles Stringham - Paul Rhys
Paul Rhys is a British television, film and theatre actor known for his intense and often volatile work .Rhys was born in Neath and studied at RADA. While there, he obtained his first major screen role, in Absolute Beginners . The following year he appeared in the BBC serialisation of My Family...
- JC Quiggin - Adrian Scarborough
Adrian Scarborough is an English character actor.Scarborough was born in Melton Mowbray and trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, winning the Chesterton Award for Best Actor....
- Peter Templer - Jonathan Cake
British actor Jonathan Cake has worked on various TV programmes and series. His most notable roles include Oswald Mosley in Mosley, Jack Favell in Rebecca, Tyrannus in the TV epic Empire and Dr. Malcolm Bowers in the NBC series Inconceivable...
- Jean - Claire Skinner
Claire Skinner is an English actress, who is well known in the United Kingdom for her television career.-Biography:Born and brought up in Hemel Hempstead, Skinner, the youngest daughter of a shopkeeper and an Irish-born secretary, was immensely shy as a child. Skinner's childhood dream was to...
- Mark Members - Grant Thatcher
- Pamela Flitton - Miranda Richardson
Miranda Jane Richardson is an English stage, film and television actress. She has been nominated for two Oscars, and has won two Golden Globes and a BAFTA during her career.-Early life:...
- Sir Magnus Donners - Richard Pasco
Richard Edward Pasco CBE is a British stage, screen and TV actor.- Early life :He attended the King's College School, Wimbledon and became an apprentice stage manager at the Q theatre, before studying at the Central School of Speech and Drama, where he won the gold medal...
- Bob Duport - Nicholas Jones
Nicholas Jones may refer to:*Nicholas Jones , British actor*Nicky Jones, American voice actor*Nicky Wire, born Nicholas Jones, member of the Manic Street Preachers*Nic Jones, British folk singer and guitarist...
- Uncle Giles - Edward Fox
Edward Fox may refer to:*Edward Fox , American judge*Edward Fox , English actor*Edward Fox , American author*Edward Long Fox , British psychiatrist*Ed Fox, photographer and video director...
- Mona - Annabel Mullion
Annabel Mullion is an English actress.After studying drama at the University of East Anglia from 1988 to 1991, she began a career in acting. Her first screen part was in the film Carrington...
- Uncle Alfred - Robin Bailey
Robin Bailey was an English actor. He was born in Hucknall, Nottingham.Although often chosen for upper class and tradition-bound roles such as Judge Graves in Thames Television's Rumpole Of The Bailey, Bailey is perhaps most fondly remembered for his portrayal of Uncle Mort in I Didn't Know You...
- Mrs. Erdleigh - Gillian Barge
Gillian Barge was an English stage, television and film actress.She was born in Hastings, Sussex and she started acting at the age of 17, training at the Birmingham Theatre School....
- Moreland - James Fleet
James Edward Fleet is a British actor. He is most famous for his roles as the bumbling and well-meaning Tom in the 1994 British romantic comedy film Four Weddings and a Funeral, and the dim-witted Hugo Horton in the BBC situation comedy television series The Vicar of Dibley.-Personal life:Fleet...
- Lady Molly - Sarah Badel
- Miss Weedon - Carmen du Sautoy
Carmen du Sautoy is a leading actress who has worked extensively in theatre, television and film. She has played a wide variety of roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre, in London's West End, and in New York, Tokyo, Sydney, Madrid, Berlin and in many other major...
- Erridge - Osmund Bullock
- Susan - Geraldine Alexander
- Sillery - Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is an English author, actor, humorist and playwright.-Early years:Bennett was born in Armley in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The son of a co-op butcher, Bennett attended Leeds Modern School , learned Russian at the Joint Services School for Linguists during his National Service, and gained...
- Betty - Barbara Durkin
Barbara Durkin is a British actress best known for her work on television.Though she made her debut in the 1987 British movie Wish You Were Here, she is better known for her televion appearances...
- Isobel - Emma Fielding
-Biography:The lapsed Roman Catholic daughter of a British Army soldier, Fielding spent much of her childhood in Malaysia and Nigeria, and a period in Malvern above her grandparents' betting shop...
- Le Bas - Oliver Ford Davies
Oliver Robert Ford Davies is a British actor and writer.From the King's School, Canterbury, he won a scholarship to Merton College, Oxford, where he read History and became President of the Oxford University Dramatic Society . He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award in 1990 for Best Actor in a...
- Rosie Mansach - Carmen Gómez
- Priscilla - Caroline Harker
Caroline Harker is an English stage and television actress, the sister of actress Susannah Harker, and the daughter of actors Polly Adams and Richard Owens...
- Sunny Farebrother - Andrew Havill
Andrew Havill is a British actor.-Biography:Andrew Havill has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the National Theatre, and was in The Woman in Black in London's West End...
- Fiona Cuts - Laura Heath
- Matilda - Anastasia Hille
- Odo Stevens - Nigel Lindsay
Nigel Lindsay trained as an actor at the Webber Douglas Academy.In theatre, he has appeared opposite Sarah Lancashire as Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls at the Piccadilly; at the National in two award-winning productions, Dealers' Choice by Patrick Marber and The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh; and...
- Judy - Rachel Lumberg
- Chuck - Danny Midwinter
- Colonel Flores - Tony Osoba
Tony Osoba is a Scottish actor best known for his role as Jim 'Jock' McClaren in the popular 70s British sitcom Porridge, and appeared in its sequel Going Straight.. His close family all live in Scotland including his mother who is also quite well known...
- Smith - Bryan Pringle
Bryan Pringle was a long serving British actor who appeared in television, film and theatre productions throughout a career which spanned almost four decades...
- David Pennistone - Nicholas Rowe
Nicholas Rowe may refer to:*Nicholas Rowe , English dramatist and Poet Laureate*James Nicholas "Nick" Rowe , an American military officer and prisoner of war during the Vietnam War*Nicholas Rowe , English actor...
- Audrey Maclintick - Zoë Wanamaker
Zoë Wanamaker CBE is a British-American actress, best known for her role as Susan Harper in the sitcom My Family. Each of her appearances on Broadway has led to her nomination for a Tony award, including in 2008 her performance in Awake and Sing!.-Early life:Wanamaker was born in New York City,...
- Ted Jeavons - Michael Williams
Michael Leonard Williams was a British actor.Although best known as the husband of Dame Judi Dench, Williams had a distinguished career of his own, as both a classical and a comedy actor.- Early life and career :...
External links