A question of upbringing: A novel (A Dance to the music of time)

In 1921 Widmerpool formed a concrete picture in Nick Jenkins's mind. He always seems alone. He never places in the events for which he trains vigorously. His footwear squeaks. Nick's Uncle Giles visits when Nick is with Charles Stringham. Uncle Giles believes that all material advancement in life is a result of influence. Jenkins's other particular friend at school during the instant time period is Peter Templer. Stringham, having completed his studies, is to join his father in Kenya for the next nine or ten months. Nick finds himself left alone at the school after Peter Templer leaves a term early at the urging of a master. Stringham sends Nick pictures of people he has encountered in Kenya. Jenkins decides that he is in love with Templer's sister Jean. When Nick goes to France to board with a family with whom his family has connections, he runs into Widmerpool. Widmerpool has dedicated himself to learning French, it seems. He is not the oddity at the French establishment that he had been at school. Widmerpool is to be articled to a firm of solicitors. The former classmates reunite at a party given by Sir Magnus Donners, someone in the government during the war. Both Stringham and Templer decide not to go to university and, so, in the end it is Nick who remains in pursuit of a degree. He thinks that perhaps he wants to write and has, in fact, nearly finished a novel. This is the first of a multi-volume series. It gets things off to a very good start.

A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell Anthony Powell's "A Question of Upbringing" is the first part of his mammoth twelve novel epic "A Dance to the Music of Time". He writes with wit, humour and not a little sarcasm, describing a quintessential Englishness that perhaps was never representative of the society and has, arguably, disappeared. He wrote this first volume in 1951 and, though the book starts with a London scene from that era, the majority of the book deals with the characters' school and university experiences and recalls a time passed. The main character is Jenkins. I will follow the author's lead and use surnames only for males, surnames plus titles for married, older or otherwise unavailable women, and Christian names for eligible women, whether they be of a certain class or prone to wear flowery dresses while standing next to post boxes in the street. As his friend, Stringham, discovered, even some of the surname plus title women at times can prove highly eligible. The book's form is both simple and intriguing. It is so effective we almost miss the ingenuity of its construction. There are just four chapters, each in excess of fifty pages and each focused on one particular episode. We have school, a social gathering, a holiday in France and college undergraduate life. Powell's writing has such a lightness of touch that we forget how intensely we are invited to analyse the circumstances of each chapter and how penetratingly we discover the characters' lives. There is considerable innuendo, much gossip and usually piles of money, along with social status and influence wrapped up in every household. The quintessence of their Englishness, like characters in the novels of Evelyn Waugh, arises out of their apparent inability to question - or perhaps even notice - their privilege. It's a state they inhabit without either reflection or gratitude, so much taken for granted that it lies beyond doubt, its achievement apparently assumed, not expected. School means one of the better "public" schools. Going "up to university" assumes Oxbridge as a right, though Powell tinges this with the perennial blight of the English upper classes, intellectual paucity, by having several of his keen entrants "decide" not to complete a degree. One assumes that many of the others will take thirds before assuming their company chairs or ministerial portfolios. The army figures large in family histories, always at officer class, of course, and so does the City, where one can always become "something". Even Americans, however, can be described as having "millionaire pedigree" on both sides, an economic status that presumably compensates for what is otherwise a palpable lack of breeding. When family members do not assume expected and assumed heights, they are referred to in hushed tones, the words "black sheep" perhaps not politically or at least socially correct even then. But if this really was a quintessence of Englishness, it was a pretty rare ingredie

I have read many of the twelve volumes a couple of times, and each reading leads to new treasures. Powell is a superb writer with a compassionate but realistic view of upper class England in the years from 1930 to 1960. You can start with any of the 12 but it is better to start with the first book. Prepare yourself for a literary feast!

This is not a stand-alone novel. It is more like a long first chapter and leaves one hanging at the end. The characters are entertaining and the narrative is slightly humorous. Very intricate prose style, you need to take a little time with it. Set in England in the 1920's among the fairly well-to-do. That kind of setting always plays well in Citrus Heights.