A Dance to the Music of Time: Third Movement

The so-called Third Movement of British author Anthony Powell's master twentieth-century opus, "A Dance to the Music of Time," comprises the three novels in which it was initially published:" The Valley of Bones," "The Soldier's Art," and "The Military Philosophers." It covers the military career of our narrator, Nick Jenkins, during the Second World War, opening during the period when hostilities had not yet completely begun, the period known as the "phony war," which Jenkins' friend and brother-in-law Chips Lovett, who will not survive, describes as a "tailors' war." Jenkins, whose father was a career military officer, has mused that his family has served in the military for centuries, always without distinction. He begins the war as a line officer, without distinction; he will finish it in a London staff position. The book is probably more easily read by those with a bit of military knowledge, particularly of pay grades and awards, but it will gift any reader with its undeniable lived experience of that great worldwide conflagration. "The Valley of Bones" opens with Jenkins, who has managed to get into the army, as a mediocre, older than usual, regimental line officer, during the phony war. It mentions the British evacuation at Dunkirk and the fall of Norway, and closes with the Germans about to take Paris. It introduces us to characters we'll see more of later, Odo Stevens, David Pennistone, and Bithel: Widmerpool's not around. Pennistone's a literary type - he and Jenkins discuss the views of war of French philosopher Descartes and poet-soldier Alfred de Vigny, and the doings of English poet Lord Byron, and his friend Caroline Lamb. It's pretty strictly about army life: it's quite funny in spots, but some readers may find it dry. "The Soldier's Art" opens as Jenkins has been called to a staff position, serving under his old nemesis from school days, Kenneth Widmerpool,while that former schoolmate continues his irresistible rise to money and power, fueled, Jenkins is now in a position to see, by his prodigious ability to work. The story also centers on the character arcs of two more former schoolmates, Charles Stringham and Peter Templer, Jenkins's closest friends from that time. We are kept in suspense as to their fates, but we come to see that Widmerpool does not mean them well. Stringham remarks early on that "it's awfully chic to be killed," and several relatives of Jenkins's wife will die: brothers at the front, others in the London bombing blitz. Jenkins will lose several more old friends and acquaintances. The book gives the impression of having been written in a white heat. "The Military Philosophers" opens with Jenkins at London's Whitehall, in his final posting of the war, a staff position providing liaison to England's allies. We see the fates Widmerpool has arranged for Stringham and Templer, as we meet Stringham's niece Pamela Flitton. She's introduced while working as a military driver; a beautiful girl, but con

One feels somehow quite melancholy in turning the last page to Powell's Third Movement. There are several reasons for this emotion, not the least of which is the gradual manifestation of a reflection Nick makes about halfway through The Soldier's Art, the second book in the movement: "That is one of the conceptions most difficult for stupid people to grasp. They always suppose some ponderable alteration will make the human condition more bearable. The only hope of survival is the realisation that no such thing could possibly happen." Then, too, there is Stringham's demise: From the first of these movements my favourite character, his witty, dashing, insightful bravura, even when reduced to the lowliest of ranks, always added poetic sparkle to the pages. When last seen taking his leave of Nick with a book of Browning's poems in his hand, I felt this tremendous deflation in that I'd seen the last of the most prodigally heroic of Powell's characters (a suspicion borne out later in the text, unless reports of his death turn out to be greatly exaggerated in the fourth movement.). Perhaps his niece, introduced in these pages, will turn out to be his avenging, well, not angel, but more than capable of doing damage to the loathsome Widmerpool all the same. If there were any doubters of Proust's influence on Powell, the third book here, The Military Philosophers, should put their doubts to rest. Proust is quoted at length, reflected upon, and, in his capacity as foreign Attaché, Nick manages to convince a high-ranking official that he should be included in the French curriculum. This is turning out to be a lovely work of literature indeed, though I find myself in sad agreement with another reviewer here that it's probably, like Proust, "not everyone's cup of tea." As Nick reflects in The Valley of Bones, the first book herein: "I was impressed for the ten thousandth time by the fact that literature illuminates life only for those to whom books are a necessity. Books are inconvertible assets, to be passed on only to those who possess them already."----Powell's opus is that sort of book. A curious Widmerpoolian point: What Jenkins calls General Liddament's whimsical recourse to "Old English" at times, such as in his dispatch to Widmerpool, "The General bade me discourse fair words to you, sir, anent traffic circles." is not Old English at all. It's Elizabethan or Shakespearean English. Old English, or Anglo-Saxon, is the language Beowulf was written in. It's so completely different from anything approaching modern English that it has to be translated by specialists to make any sense at all to the modern reader. It would have been just as alien to the Elizabethan ear, come to that. ----This sort of slip just won't do when there's a war on. ---I wonder Widmerpool didn't catch him out on it.

I chose to read the Dance series for a graduate school course over the summer of 2003. This third volume is delicious. It logically ends the most important story lines. The volume also contains perhaps the two best loved books in the series, "The Valley of Bones" and "The Military Philospohers". I have studied military history for over the past 25 years. In my opinion these three volumes provide one of the best insights to the bureaucratic dimension of war. They are an opposite yet complementary view of World War II as compared with a more corporeal work such as Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead". Powell the penultimate characterist becomes an expert narrator in this volume. As usual he continues to dazzle thorugh his use of the English language. Practical yet esoteric words that I added to my vocabulary from this volume include "palimpsest", "aperient" and "anent". Beware, exemplary writing ends with book nine. Volume IV, written in the novelist's dotage, is perhaps the very reason many view this series as dull and plodding. END YOUR PLEASURABLE EXPERIENCE of this series WITH VOLUME III.

_A Dance to the Music of Time_ is an extremely absorbing and well-crafted novel (composed of 12 smaller novels). Its subject is the decline of the English upper classes from the First World War to about 1970, a decline seen is inevitable and probably necessary, but somehow also regrettable.Such a description might make the novel seem stuffy, but it is not. _A Dance to the Music of Time_ is at times very funny indeed, and always interesting. always involving. It features an enormous cast of characters, and Powell has the remarkable ability to make his characters memorable with the briefest of descriptions. In addition, Powell's prose is addictive: very characteristic, idiosyncratic, and elegant.The long novel follows the life of the narrator, Nicholas Jenkins, from his time at Eton just after World War I to retirement in the English countryside in the late '60s. But Jenkins, though the narrator, is in many ways not the most important character. The comic villain Widmerpool, a creature of pure will, and awkward malevolence, is the other fulcrum around which the novel pivots.The third volume of the beautiful University of Chicago Press trade paper edition of _A Dance to the Music of Time_ consists of what is often called the "War Trilogy". These three novels ( _The Valley of Bones_, _The Soldier's Art_, and _The Military Philosophers_) cover Nick Jenkins' experiences in the war. As a consequence, many new characters are introduced, though old favorites still show up; and the tone is somewhat different. They are still remarkable, often very moving, and often very funny, novels.

This volume contains the third group of three novels of Anthony Powell's masterpiece, A Dance to the Music of Time. Readers coming to this series for the first time should start with the first volume. Powell's work is social comedy in the tradition of Jane Austen and George Meredith. Contemporary writers with whom he is often compared include Marcel Proust and Evelyn Waugh. The 12 short novels of A Dance to the Music of Time give a panoramic picture of English upper-class social life from 1921 to 1971 that is both intensely realistic and amazingly funny. Readers either love Powell's work or can't understand what others see in it. My own opinion is that Dance is the best novel written in the twentieth century. Others share this view: A Dance to the Music of Time is #43 on the recently constructed Random House/Modern Library 100 Best Poll (of twentieth century fiction) and was made into a 4-part miniseries on British television just about a year ago.