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5.0 out of 5 stars
The Dance widens into vaster societal themes, September 17, 2010
A BUYER'S MARKET, the second volume of Anthony Powell's 12-volume sequence "A Dance to the Music of Times" is a considerably more ambitious work than the first. While A QUESTION OF UPBRINGING was an enjoyable if something lightweight look back at narrator Nicholas Jenkins' days at school and university, now we see him entering the ballrooms of high society while also discovering the London demimonde of the late 1920s.
The novel is impressive in form also. Nearly the entire first half of the novel is dedicated to a single evening, where Jenkins describes the participants of a dinner, a dance and a seedy part in exhaustive detail. Here we see more clearly than the first novel Powell's conception of his social circle over the decades as a dance. Stringham and Widmerpool, among other characters from the first novel, enter Jenkins' life again after a gap of several years, but no sooner do they show up than they are cast away by new fates. With Jenkins' greater maturity comes a recognition of more important societal concerns in 1920s England. One character's awkwardly closeted homosexuality creates complications for Jenkins' circle, as does the need for a young female character to procure an abortion when it was seriously illegal. By the end of the novel, Jenkins has even entered among political radicals, who go on to play a large role in the third volume of the series.
Perhaps Powell isn't for everyone. I've sometimes heard people call it downright unjust that this author sees so much universal importance in what is essentially gossip about a handful of upper-class people, when the masses of early 20th century Britain were still fighting for their rights. Also, the delicacy with which sexual matters are treated in this novel -- a major part of the plot but never overtly presented -- may annoy contemporary readers. Nonetheless, I have to say that I enjoy Powell's world. Its characters are three-dimensional, memorable and always reminscent of people we know in our own lives. As I write this, I look forward to going on and re-reading THE ACCEPTANCE WORLD.
All twelve volumes of "A Dance to the Music of Time" have been reissued by University of Chicago Press in four handsome trade paperbacks. If you think you're going to go the distance, that's a better investment than older editions of the individual volumes.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
The Dance widens into vaster societal themes, September 17, 2010
A BUYER'S MARKET, the second volume of Anthony Powell's 12-volume sequence "A Dance to the Music of Times" is a considerably more ambitious work than the first. While A QUESTION OF UPBRINGING was an enjoyable if something lightweight look back at narrator Nicholas Jenkins' days at school and university, now we see him entering the ballrooms of high society while also discovering the London demimonde of the late 1920s.
The novel is impressive in form also. Nearly the entire first half of the novel is dedicated to a single evening, where Jenkins describes the participants of a dinner, a dance and a seedy part in exhaustive detail. Here we see more clearly than the first novel Powell's conception of his social circle over the decades as a dance. Stringham and Widmerpool, among other characters from the first novel, enter Jenkins' life again after a gap of several years, but no sooner do they show up than they are cast away by new fates. With Jenkins' greater maturity comes a recognition of more important societal concerns in 1920s England. One character's awkwardly closeted homosexuality creates complications for Jenkins' circle, as does the need for a young female character to procure an abortion when it was seriously illegal. By the end of the novel, Jenkins has even entered among political radicals, who go on to play a large role in the third volume of the series.
Perhaps Powell isn't for everyone. I've sometimes heard people call it downright unjust that this author sees so much universal importance in what is essentially gossip about a handful of upper-class people, when the masses of early 20th century Britain were still fighting for their rights. Also, the delicacy with which sexual matters are treated in this novel -- a major part of the plot but never overtly presented -- may annoy contemporary readers. Nonetheless, I have to say that I enjoy Powell's world. Its characters are three-dimensional, memorable and always reminscent of people we know in our own lives. As I write this, I look forward to going on and re-reading THE ACCEPTANCE WORLD.
All twelve volumes of "A Dance to the Music of Time" have been reissued by University of Chicago Press in four handsome trade paperbacks. If you think you're going to go the distance, that's a better investment than older editions of the individual volumes.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
I'm warming up to this series, February 18, 2003
The second novel in the 12-part Dance to the Music of Time series. I enjoyed this one a little more than the first volume. I believe this due to the first volume's need to introduce and elaborate on the four main characters. Nicholas Jenkins, our narrator, who I complained about being almost invisible in the first book, starts taking on shape here, dissembling on love and ambition. Stringham and Templar are still here, and by the end of the book, both married, but the real main character here is Widmerpool, the young man with the least social status, but with the most ambition of the four. The first book was about the four in grade school to university; this one is about their initial entry into society, including romance and marriage. It is within the context of his feelings for the opposite sex that we finally start to understand Jenkins, but even he is overshadowed here by the fumblings and failings of Widmerpool, who first pines for the heart of Barbara, then falls in with a "bad" girl. I'm still unsure whether Powell is a writer for me. Although I do enjoy mysteries and puzzles and admire books that are clever, I still like to get a feeling that I have solved the mystery by the end of the book. I believe that a character here gets an abortion, but as it is never spelled out (Jenkins is too much a gentlemen to actually put it into raw language), I wonder if I am reading between the lines correctly. After the first book, I was not sure that I would continue the series, but since I have the first three in an omnibus volume, I decided to continue on. If the following books make the same jump in readability and interest as between the first two, the twelfth book will likely be my all-time-favorite novel.
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