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The Valley of Bones

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THE VALLEY OF BONES, the seventh volume of Anthony Powell's sequence "A Dance to the Music of Time" sees World War II well under way. In early 1940 Nicholas Jenkins is assigned as a subaltern in a Welsh infantry unit, which is soon posted to Northern Ireland. The Dance perenially exhibits to the reader comical and grotesque personalities, and anyone who has ever done military service knows that nowhere else do you meet such a variety of odd people in such a short time.

Thus we meet Gwatkin, a banker who sees being called up as a path to glory; Bithel the officer and Sayce the private who someone persist in the army in spite of poor turnout and criminal incompetency; Gittins who mans the company store as if it were the world's most valuable treasure, and many more. Indeed, so absorbing are these new figures that the usual cast of characters sit out most of the novel, visited only in one portion where Jenkins is on leave. Widmerpool appears at the close of the novel, again performing his role as the antagonist of the series.

In spite of some tragedies -- many characters we have followed to date are to perish in the War -- this is one of the most uproariously funny volumes so far. The mysterious commander of their division is ultimately revealed to be a eccentric old man obsessed with eating a proper breakfast. Incidental matters of military routine descend into farce. And then there is an apocryphal quotation from Lord Byron that, like the earlier parody of Pepys, shows Powell's keen familiarity with the English canon.

THE VALLEY OF BONES maintains the high standard of Powell's 12-volume work and I look forward to moving onto the next.

THE VALLEY OF BONES, the seventh volume of Anthony Powell's sequence "A Dance to the Music of Time" sees World War II well underway. In early 1940 Nicholas Jenkins is assigned as a subaltern in a Welsh infantry unit, which is soon posted to Northern Ireland. The Dance perenially exhibits to the reader comical and grotesque personalities, and anyone who has ever done military service knows that nowhere else do you meet such a variety of odd people in such a short time.

Thus we meet Gwatkin, a banker who sees being called up as a path to glory; Bithel the officer and Sayce the private who someone persist in the army in spite of poor turnout and criminal incompetency; Gittins who mans the company store as if it were the world's most valuable treasure, and many more. Indeed, so absorbing are these new figures that the usual cast of characters sit out most of the novel, visited only in one portion where Jenkins is on leave. Widmerpool appears at the close of the novel, again performing his role as the antagonist of the series.

In spite of some tragedies -- many characters we have followed to date are to perish in the War -- this is one of the most uproariously funny volumes so far. The mysterious commander of their division is ultimately revealed to be a eccentric old man obsessed with eating a proper breakfast. Incidental matters of military routine descend into farce. And then there is an apocryphal quotation from Lord Byron that, like the earlier parody of Pepys, shows Powell's keen familiarity with the English canon.

THE VALLEY OF BONES maintains the high standard of Powell's 12-volume work and I look forward to moving onto the next.

THE VALLEY OF BONES, the seventh volume of Anthony Powell's sequence "A Dance to the Music of Time" sees World War II well underway. In early 1940 Nicholas Jenkins is assigned as a subaltern in a Welsh infantry unit, which is soon posted to Northern Ireland. The Dance perenially exhibits to the reader comical and grotesque personalities, and anyone who has ever done military service knows that nowhere else do you meet such a variety of odd people in such a short time.

Thus we meet Gwatkin, a banker who sees being called up as a path to glory; Bithel the officer and Sayce the private who someone persist in the army in spite of poor turnout and criminal incompetency; Gittins who mans the company store as if it were the world's most valuable treasure, and many more. Indeed, so absorbing are these new figures that the usual cast of characters sit out most of the novel, visited only in one portion where Jenkins is on leave. Widmerpool appears at the close of the novel, again performing his role as the antagonist of the series.

In spite of some tragedies -- many characters we have followed to date are to perish in the War -- this is one of the most uproariously funny volumes so far. The mysterious commander of their division is ultimately revealed to be a eccentric old man obsessed with eating a proper breakfast. Incidental matters of military routine descend into farce. And then there is an apocryphal quotation from Lord Byron that, like the earlier parody of Pepys, shows Powell's keen familiarity with the English canon.

THE VALLEY OF BONES maintains the high standard of Powell's 12-volume work and I look forward to moving onto the next.

Nicholas Jenkins is a second lieutenant. He explains to Gwatkin, a fellow officer, that reading even Rudyard Kipling goes with his profession. Gwatkin needs drama in his life.

The men move to their new posting secretly. Nick is lucky enough to get a portion of tea given to the group by a farmer, what his Uncle Giles would have termed a sergeat-major's tea. A favorite phrase of Gwatkin is that the fog of war has descended.

Returning from a field exercise, Nick and the others discover that Germany has invaded Norway and Denmark. Someone is reading SERVITUDE ET GRANDEUR MILITAIRE by Alfred de Vigny. It seems the poet served for fourteen years as a regular soldier.

Moreland, a composer, used to quote Nietzsche saying there was no action without illusion. From the time of his childhood in 1914 Nick remembered his father's batallion marching to Aldershot. Those men wore scarlet and had spiked helmets.

Nick is given a lift from Aldershot by Odo Stevens to spend to spend the weekend at the place of his sister-in-law, a former vicarage. He learns that his sister-in-law, Frederica, is to marry Dicky Umfraville. The way Umfraville speaks produces a disquieting impression. Charles Stringham's sister, Flavia, is visiting Frederica. Nick learns that Charles is a private in the Royal Army Ordinance Corps.

Robert Tolland, who has maneuvered his way into the officer corps, is to travel to the area of his group with Nick and Odo Stevens in the borrowed motor car. It seems that he does not want to go missing when orders are given because he doesn't want a substitute to take his place.

Nick's unit is billeted at Castlemallock. Isobel writes that its history includes Byron and Lady Caroline. Nick learns that most of the battalion's officers work at banks in peacetime and fear a return to boredom after military service ceases.

By now it is summer, hot, Churchill is in charge, the Netherlands has been subject to invasion and Dunkirk looms. Some people are stimulated by disaster.

In this installment of the series the author moves his groups of people in a satisfying and confusing way copying real life rather in the manner employed by Robert Altman in the making of his films. There is a brilliant portrait of a Stendhalian hero, Rowland Gwatkin.