A Dance to the Music of Time

Poussin's painting, c. 1636, which gives its name to Powell's sequence of novels, Wallace Collection, London.

For the painting itself, see A Dance to the Music of Time (painting).

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. The editors of Modern Library 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 recognisable 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.

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 utilised in the synopses linked from the novels below.
• The various aspects of the novel-sequence are also analysed in "An Index to 'A Dance to the Music of Time'" by B.J.Moule. See External Links 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	Historical inspirations
Nick Jenkins	Narrator	A cypher, everyman; Powell himself
Isobel Tolland	One of the Tolland sisters, whom Jenkins later marries	Lady Violet Pakenham, third daughter of the 5th Earl of Longford.
Kenneth Widmerpool	A mediocre student whose rise seems unstoppable.	AP confirmed character inspired by Col. Denis Capel-Dunn, under whom he served in the Cabinet Office. Plus an element from Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller's schooldays. Soviet bloc connection may be intended to suggest Labour MP Denis Nowell Pritt.
Charles Stringham	Schoolfriend of Nick's. A romantic.	Drawn from Hubert Duggan, whose glamorous mother married Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India. Not, as is often supposed, based on Powell's friend and fellow author Henry Green.
Uncle Giles ("Captain Jenkins")	Nick's uncle, unreliable and usually untraceable.	Ne'er-do-well type adopting military persona familiar between the wars.
Peter Templer	Raffish schoolfellow of Nick's.	based on John Spencer, friend of the author's.
Jean Templer	Peter's sister; Nick's lover	Unpredictable and self-absorbed, unexpected tastes in men.
Sillery	Manipulative Oxford don	Professor Sir Ernest Barker, and "Sligger" Urquhart. Not Sir Maurice Bowra as often suggested.
Pamela Flitton	Femme Fatale	based on Barbara Skelton, tempestuous sometime wife of Cyril Connolly. Nymphomaniac.
Mark Members	Promising poet	Peter Quennell, all-purpose literary personage, poet, and cultural historian. The name and the conference-going suggest Stephen Spender.
Edgar Deacon	Disreputable painter and antique dealer	Combination of Mr Bailey, an alcoholic antiques dealer, and eccentric bookseller Christopher Millard.
Dr Trelawney	Occultist	Aleister Crowley, self-styled Great Beast 666
The Field Marshal	Leader of desert warfare	Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
X. Trapnel	Novelist and parodist	Julian Maclaren-Ross
Hugh Moreland	Composer	Constant Lambert
St John Clarke	Passé author	John Galsworthy
Max Pilgrim	Entertainer	in the manner of Noel Coward inspired by Douglas Byng
Sir Magnus Donners	Magnate and government minister	partly drawn from Lord Beaverbrook
J G Quiggin	Marxist writer	Conflation of Powell's enemies, novelist CP Snow and critic F R Leavis.
Erridge (Earl of Warminster)	Socialist peer; Jenkins's brother-in-law	The Earl of Longford, Powell's brother-in-law. Also Powell's friend George Orwell – lives as a tramp for a time, fights in Spanish Civil War, dies in his forties.

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.

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
• Kenneth 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
• JG Quiggin – Julian Kerridge
• Madame Leroy/Mrs Andriadis – Carolyn Pickles
• Jean Templer/Gypsy 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 four-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
• Kenneth Widmerpool – Simon Russell Beale
• Charles Stringham – Paul Rhys
• JG Quiggin – Adrian Scarborough
• Peter Templer – Jonathan Cake
• Jean Templer – Claire Skinner
• Mark Members – Grant Thatcher
• Pamela Flitton – Miranda Richardson
• Sir Magnus Donners – Richard Pasco
• Bob Duport – Nicholas Jones
• Uncle Giles (Capt. Giles Jenkins) – Edward Fox
• Mona – Annabel Mullion
• Uncle Alfred (the Hon. Alfred Tolland) – Robin Bailey
• Mrs. Myra Erdleigh – Gillian Barge
• Hugh Moreland – James Fleet
• Lady Molly Jeavons – Sarah Badel
• Miss Tuffy Weedon – Carmen du Sautoy
• Erridge (Lord Warminster) – Osmund Bullock
• Lady Susan Tolland – Geraldine Alexander
• Prof. Sillery – Alan Bennett
• Betty – Barbara Durkin
• Lady Isobel Tolland – Emma Fielding
• Le Bas – Oliver Ford Davies
• Rosie Manasch – Carmen Gómez
• Lady Priscilla Tolland – Caroline Harker
• Sunny Farebrother – Andrew Havill
• Fiona Cutts – 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
• Maclintick – Paul Brooke
• St. John Clarke – Sir John Gielgud
• Russell Gwinnett – James Callis
• Canon Fenneau – Colin Baker

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"
• The time-line of the novels, how the various episodes recur in the movement of the Dance and the career, character and relationships of Kenneth Widmerpool are analysed in extracts taken from "An Index to 'A Dance to the Music of Time'" by B.J.Moule (published by consent). The latter extract is accessible in standard format at Kenneth Widmerpool
• Poussin's painting