Anthony Powell

Anthony Powell’s universally acclaimed epic *A Dance to the Music of Time* offers a matchless panorama of twentieth-century London. Now, for the first time in decades, readers in the United States can read the books of *Dance* as they were originally published—as twelve individual novels—but with a twenty-first-century twist: they’re available only as e-books. The second volume, *A Buyer’s Market* (1952),finds young Nick Jenkins struggling to establish himself in London. Amid the fever of the 1920s, he attends formal dinners and wild parties; makes his first tentative forays into the worlds of art, culture, and bohemian life; and suffers his first disappointments in love. Old friends come and go, but the paths they once shared are rapidly diverging: Stringham is settling into a life of debauchery and drink, Templer is plunging into the world of business, and Widmerpool, though still a figure of out-of-place grotesquerie, remains unbowed, confident in his own importance and eventual success. *A Buyer’s Market* is a striking portrait of the pleasures and anxieties of early adulthood, set against a backdrop of London life and culture at one of its most effervescent moments. "Anthony Powell is the best living English novelist by far. His admirers are addicts, let us face it, held in thrall by a magician."-- *Chicago* *Tribune* "A book which creates a world and explores it in depth, which ponders changing relationships and values, which creates brilliantly living and diverse characters and then watches them grow and change in their milieu. . . . Powell's world is as large and as complex as Proust's."--Elizabeth Janeway, *New York* *Times* "One of the most important works of fiction since the Second World War. . . . The novel looked, as it began, something like a comedy of manners; then, for a while, like a tragedy of manners; now like a vastly entertaining, deeply melancholy, yet somehow courageous statement about human experience."--Naomi Bliven, *New Yorker* ** “The most brilliant and penetrating novelist we have.”--Kingsley Amis **

Anthony Powell’s universally acclaimed epic *A Dance to the Music of Time* offers a matchless panorama of twentieth-century London. Now, for the first time in decades, readers in the United States can read the books of *Dance* as they were originally published—as twelve individual novels—but with a twenty-first-century twist: they’re available only as e-books. * * *A Question of Upbringing* (1951) introduces us to the young Nick Jenkins and his housemates at boarding school in the years just after World War I. Boyhood pranks and visits from relatives bring to life the amusements and longueurs of schooldays even as they reveal characters and traits that will follow Jenkins and his friends through adolescence and beyond: Peter Templer, a rich, passionate womanizer; Charles Stringham, aristocratic and louche; and Kenneth Widmerpool, awkward and unhappy, yet strikingly ambitious. By the end of the novel, Jenkins has finished university and is setting out on a life in London; old ties are fraying, new ones are forming, and the first steps of the dance are well underway. "Anthony Powell is the best living English novelist by far. His admirers are addicts, let us face it, held in thrall by a magician."— *Chicago* *Tribune* "A book which creates a world and explores it in depth, which ponders changing relationships and values, which creates brilliantly living and diverse characters and then watches them grow and change in their milieu. . . . Powell's world is as large and as complex as Proust's."—Elizabeth Janeway, *New York* *Times * "One of the most important works of fiction since the Second World War. . . . The novel looked, as it began, something like a comedy of manners; then, for a while, like a tragedy of manners; now like a vastly entertaining, deeply melancholy, yet somehow courageous statement about human experience."—Naomi Bliven, *New Yorker* ** “The most brilliant and penetrating novelist we have.”—Kingsley Amis “There is no other work in the annals of European fiction that attempts meticulously to recreate half a century of history, decade by decade, with anything like the emotional precision or details of Powell’s twelve volumes. Neither Balzac’s panorama of the Restoration, nor Zola’s chronicles of the Second Empire, nor Proust’s reveries in the *Belle Epoque* can match a comparable span of time, an attention to variations within it, or a compositional intricacy capable of uniting them into a single narrative. . . . The elegance of this artifice was only compatible with comedy.”—Perry Anderson

Anthony Powell’s universally acclaimed epic *A Dance to the Music of Time* offers a matchless panorama of twentieth-century London. Now, for the first time in decades, readers in the United States can read the books of *Dance* as they were originally published—as twelve individual novels—but with a twenty-first-century twist: they’re available only as e-books. As the fourth book, *At Lady Molly’s* (1957), opens, the heady pleasures of the 1920s have begun to give way to the austerity and worries of the 1930s. Even so, the whirl of London life continues: friends commit to causes and to spouses, confess adulteries, and fall victim to dissipation and disillusion. As Nick moves ever more comfortably in the worlds of art, culture, and society, Powell’s palette broadens: old friends make appearances, but new ones take places on the stage as well—including Isobel Tolland, whom Nick knows at first sight he’s destined to marry. "Anthony Powell is the best living English novelist by far. His admirers are addicts, let us face it, held in thrall by a magician."-- *Chicago* *Tribune " *A book which creates a world and explores it in depth, which ponders changing relationships and values, which creates brilliantly living and diverse characters and then watches them grow and change in their milieu. . . . Powell's world is as large and as complex as Proust's."--Elizabeth Janeway,* New York ** Times * "One of the most important works of fiction since the Second World War. . . . The novel looked, as it began, something like a comedy of manners; then, for a while, like a tragedy of manners; now like a vastly entertaining, deeply melancholy, yet somehow courageous statement about human experience."--Naomi Bliven,* New Yorker * “The most brilliant and penetrating novelist we have.”--Kingsley Amis

EDITORIAL REVIEW: Anthony Powell's universally acclaimed epic encompasses a four-volume panorama of twentieth century London. Hailed by Time as "brilliant literary comedy as well as a brilliant sketch of the times," A Dance to the Music of Time opens just after World War I. Amid the fever of the 1920s and the first chill of the 1930s, Nick Jenkins and his friends confront sex, society, business, and art. In the second volume they move to London in a whirl of marriage and adulteries, fashions and frivolities, personal triumphs and failures. These books "provide an unsurpassed picture, at once gay and melancholy, of social and artistic life in Britain between the wars" (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.). The third volume follows Nick into army life and evokes London during the blitz. In the climactic final volume, England has won the war and must now count the losses. In this climactic volume of *A Dance to the Music of Time*, Nick Jenkins describes a world of ambition, intrigue, and dissolution. England has won the war, but now the losses, physical and moral, must be counted. Pamela Widmerpool sets a snare for the young writer Trapnel, while her husband suffers private agony and public humiliation. Set against a background of politics, business, high society, and the counterculture in England and Europe, this magnificent work of art sounds an unforgettable requiem for an age. Includes these novels: *Books Do Furnish a Room * *Temporary Kings * *Hearing Secret Harmonies * "Anthony Powell is the best living English novelist by far. His admirers are addicts, let us face it, held in thrall by a magician."—*Chicago Tribune* "A book which creates a world and explores it in depth, which ponders changing relationships and values, which creates brilliantly living and diverse characters and then watches them grow and change in their milieu. . . . Powell's world is as large and as complex as Proust's."—Elizabeth Janeway, *New York Times* "One of the most important works of fiction since the Second World War. . . . The novel looked, as it began, something like a comedy of manners; then, for a while, like a tragedy of manners; now like a vastly entertaining, deeply melancholy, yet somehow courageous statement about human experience."—Naomi Bliven, *New Yorker *

EDITORIAL REVIEW: Anthony Powell's universally acclaimed epic encompasses a four-volume panorama of twentieth century London. Hailed by Time as "brilliant literary comedy as well as a brilliant sketch of the times," A Dance to the Music of Time opens just after World War I. Amid the fever of the 1920s and the first chill of the 1930s, Nick Jenkins and his friends confront sex, society, business, and art. In the second volume they move to London in a whirl of marriage and adulteries, fashions and frivolities, personal triumphs and failures. These books "provide an unsurpassed picture, at once gay and melancholy, of social and artistic life in Britain between the wars" (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.). The third volume follows Nick into army life and evokes London during the blitz. In the climactic final volume, England has won the war and must now count the losses. In this climactic volume of *A Dance to the Music of Time*, Nick Jenkins describes a world of ambition, intrigue, and dissolution. England has won the war, but now the losses, physical and moral, must be counted. Pamela Widmerpool sets a snare for the young writer Trapnel, while her husband suffers private agony and public humiliation. Set against a background of politics, business, high society, and the counterculture in England and Europe, this magnificent work of art sounds an unforgettable requiem for an age. Includes these novels: *Books Do Furnish a Room * *Temporary Kings * *Hearing Secret Harmonies * "Anthony Powell is the best living English novelist by far. His admirers are addicts, let us face it, held in thrall by a magician."—*Chicago Tribune* "A book which creates a world and explores it in depth, which ponders changing relationships and values, which creates brilliantly living and diverse characters and then watches them grow and change in their milieu. . . . Powell's world is as large and as complex as Proust's."—Elizabeth Janeway, *New York Times* "One of the most important works of fiction since the Second World War. . . . The novel looked, as it began, something like a comedy of manners; then, for a while, like a tragedy of manners; now like a vastly entertaining, deeply melancholy, yet somehow courageous statement about human experience."—Naomi Bliven, *New Yorker *

Anthony Powell’s universally acclaimed epic *A Dance to the Music of Time* offers a matchless panorama of twentieth-century London. Now, for the first time in decades, readers in the United States can read the books of *Dance* as they were originally published—as twelve individual novels—but with a twenty-first-century twist: they’re available only as e-books. * *In the final volume,* Hearing Secret Harmonies*, Nick and his contemporaries have begun to settle into the quieter stages of later life—even as the rise of the counterculture signals that a new generation is pushing its way to the front. The darkly fascinating young Scorpio Murtlock unexpectedly draws Widmerpool into his orbit, calling to mind occult and cultish doings from earlier decades; close friends leave the stage, never to be replaced in this life; and, drawing all the long, tangled strands together, Anthony Powell sounds an unforgettable requiem for an age. "Anthony Powell is the best living English novelist by far. His admirers are addicts, let us face it, held in thrall by a magician."-- *Chicago* *Tribune* "A book which creates a world and explores it in depth, which ponders changing relationships and values, which creates brilliantly living and diverse characters and then watches them grow and change in their milieu. . . . Powell's world is as large and as complex as Proust's."--Elizabeth Janeway, *New York* *Times* "One of the most important works of fiction since the Second World War. . . . The novel looked, as it began, something like a comedy of manners; then, for a while, like a tragedy of manners; now like a vastly entertaining, deeply melancholy, yet somehow courageous statement about human experience."--Naomi Bliven, *New Yorker* “The most brilliant and penetrating novelist we have.”--Kingsley Amis ### Review "'I would rather read Mr Powell than any English novelist now writing'" -- Kingsley Amis "'A unique joy'" Sunday Times "'Mr Powell's imagination is inexhaustible'" Spectator "'I think it is now becoming clear that A Dance to the Music of Time is going to become the greatest modern novel since Ulysses'" -- Clive James "'I find Powell the sort of writer who exerts such a strong pull that turning anyone else's books, after his, calls for an effort of will - One of the most individual tones of voice in contemporary novel-writing and one of the most artful'" -- Norman Shrapnel Guardian ### About the Author Anthony Powell was born in 1905. After working in publishing and as a scriptwriter, he began to write for the Daily Telegraph in the mid-1930s. He served in the army during World War II and subsequently became the fiction reviewer on the TLS. Next came five years as literary editor of Punch. He was appointed a Companion of Honour in 1988. In addition to the twelve-novel sequence, A Dance to the Music of Time, Anthony Powell is the author of seven other novels, and four volumes of memoirs, To Keep the Ball Rolling.

Anthony Powell’s universally acclaimed epic *A Dance to the Music of Time* offers a matchless panorama of twentieth-century London. Now, for the first time in decades, readers in the United States can read the books of *Dance* as they were originally published—as twelve individual novels—but with a twenty-first-century twist: they’re available only as e-books. * * In this penultimate volume, *Temporary Kings* (1973), Nick and his contemporaries are at the height of their various careers in the arts, business, and politics. X. Trapnel is dead, but his mystery continues to draw ghoulish interest from readers and academics alike—as well as from his lover, Pamela Widmerpool. Kenneth Widmerpool, meanwhile, is an MP with mysterious connections beyond the newly dropped Iron Curtain, but he continues to be tormented by Pamela; a spectacular explosion, Nick can’t help but realize, is imminent. "Anthony Powell is the best living English novelist by far. His admirers are addicts, let us face it, held in thrall by a magician."-- *Chicago* *Tribune* "A book which creates a world and explores it in depth, which ponders changing relationships and values, which creates brilliantly living and diverse characters and then watches them grow and change in their milieu. . . . Powell's world is as large and as complex as Proust's."--Elizabeth Janeway, *New York* *Times* "One of the most important works of fiction since the Second World War. . . . The novel looked, as it began, something like a comedy of manners; then, for a while, like a tragedy of manners; now like a vastly entertaining, deeply melancholy, yet somehow courageous statement about human experience."--Naomi Bliven, *New Yorker* ** “The most brilliant and penetrating novelist we have.”--Kingsley Amis

Anthony Powell’s universally acclaimed epic *A Dance to the Music of Time* offers a matchless panorama of twentieth-century London. Now, for the first time in decades, readers in the United States can read the books of *Dance* as they were originally published—as twelve individual novels—but with a twenty-first-century twist: they’re available only as e-books. The ninth volume, *The Military Philosophers* (1968), takes the series through the end of the war. Nick has found a place, reasonably tolerable by army standards, as an assistant liaison with foreign governments in exile. But like the rest of his countrymen, he is weary of life in uniform and looking ahead to peacetime. Until then, however, the fortunes of war continue to be unpredictable: more names are cruelly added to the bill of mortality, while other old friends and foes prosper. Widmerpool becomes dangerously entranced by the beautiful, fascinating, and vicious Pamela Flitton; and Nick’s old flame Jean Duport makes a surprising reappearance. Elegiac and moving, but never without wit and perception, this volume wraps up Powell’s unsurpassed treatment of England’s finest yet most costly hour. "Anthony Powell is the best living English novelist by far. His admirers are addicts, let us face it, held in thrall by a magician."-- *Chicago* *Tribune* "A book which creates a world and explores it in depth, which ponders changing relationships and values, which creates brilliantly living and diverse characters and then watches them grow and change in their milieu. . . . Powell's world is as large and as complex as Proust's."--Elizabeth Janeway, *New York* *Times* "One of the most important works of fiction since the Second World War. . . . The novel looked, as it began, something like a comedy of manners; then, for a while, like a tragedy of manners; now like a vastly entertaining, deeply melancholy, yet somehow courageous statement about human experience."--Naomi Bliven, *New Yorker* ** “The most brilliant and penetrating novelist we have.”--Kingsley Amis **

The hugely successful early novel which established Anthony Powell as a leading voice in English comic fiction, What's Become of Waring is the teasing and wittily contrived story about a famous but elsuive travel author who seems to have some very good reasons for concealing his life behind a screen of mystery.