I have come rather late to the discussion, though I finished the book four weeks ago. Thank you for the commentary, Alex, and the other people’s comments. I hadn’t really thought about matching them to real life, taking the characters as fiction, based on categories of people rather than particular people or families. I’ll take greater heed of the Tollands in future books and think about identifying them with the Packenham.
I wished I had kept a list of characters and relationships from the start, and definitely when I read At Lady Molly’s, but as I didn’t I’ll have to go with the flow and reconnect as best I can as I go along.
Just going to start Cassanova’s Chinese Restaurant- one of the few volumes of the series we have in the very attractive Penguin editions.
There aren't many characters who are just one person, though Erridge is Orwell pretty much, and later on X Trapnel is Julian Maclaren Ross, Moreland is Constant Lambert, and Trelawney is Aleister Crowley. Pamela Flitton is Barbara Skelton too. I love the Osbert Lancaster covers - it's a real shame he didn't do all of them, but there was some kind of barney after Kindly Ones, and while he did do The Valley of Bones it just all petered out. Cassanova is one of my favourites. I'm really looking forward to it.
More and more, I am beginning to look forward to your analysis of Dance to the Music of Time book by book. It’s put a welcome gloss on the dying days of each month that, for me, are sometimes met with a little remorse. As the 25th inevitable flips over to become the 26th, the 28th and then the 30th, it is all too easy to find oneself regretting a little langour earlier in the month. What have I actually done this April apart from over-indulging in chocolate? But now I can console myself with at least one achievement. I have finished the next Anthony Powell.
In a way the books are so complex, the themes so various, that the events which stand out seem inextricably linked to our own preoccupations. Ten readers could take ten different things from each of the books.
This one is packed full of social occasions, Lady Molly’s soirées, visiting friends in the country or lunch at the club. For me, we are still experiencing a pre-war world where few people, including Nick, can grasp the changes that are in fact to come. People of Nick’s generation are marrying, settling down, climbing up the greasy pole, oblivious of the fragility of their futures.
What strikes me , when the prospect of Fascism rears its head, is that both the appeasers and the re-armers think that war is not inevitable. In fact World War was probably inevitable even then. Yet at that stage very few of the characters at Lady Molly’s parties perceive the root causes of the German situation, or anticipate the ‘workers’ unrest just below the surface in many countries.
In fact, the seemingly eccentric Erridge, shutting up his ‘entailed’ mansion, reducing himself to just one flat within the whole edifice and to just one of the indoor staff (who clearly is unemployable and thus can’t be cast out) seems the only one to completely comprehend the social implications of the thirties and the ramifications to come in the forties. He abandons the glamour of his social position to try and understand the problems, to live as a tramp, much to the embarrassed amusement of his family and friends.
The title, ‘Warminster’ given to the thinly veiled George Orwell, is surely a dig at the entitlement felt by Nick’s ex-Etonian literary peers. Drinking the final bottle of vintage Champaign is surely another powerful metaphor.
The discussion of Freud and Woolf by General Conyers is perhaps another allusion to the birth of the modern and a future postwar publishing scene that would oust the gentle humour and erudition of Powell’s generation for a far more stripped back, angrier literature, and make even Orwell and Woolf seem passé.
It’s all about to go to pot and still the band keeps playing.
Thanks for reading and viewing films around the era. It sets the book far more firmly in a context.
It is sad to think of all those young lives that will soon be upended by war. It’s a good thing those complex family trees hold enough siblings to withstand what the rest of the decades will throw at them. But there will be winners and survivors and that, I guess, is why we read on.
There are supposed to be more than 300 characters - someone did the PhD I guess! And I’m aware that several people have tried to link the fictional characters to the historical reality. Though am I right in thinking that Powell himself never said who they were? A family tree would tempt one to fuse reality with fiction - which would be even more interesting and tricky!
Yes, very true, only Jeavons seems to be really on the ball as the country drifts towards war - Powell does not take any advantage of hindsight to make things look written in stone. And yes, that final bottle is markedly important. I've never seen a family tree of the Dance series - maybe we should put one together!
Thanks for another great overview, Alex - lots of great insights. I also thoroughly enjoyed this volume, a total joy from start to finish. On to the next we go!
I have come rather late to the discussion, though I finished the book four weeks ago. Thank you for the commentary, Alex, and the other people’s comments. I hadn’t really thought about matching them to real life, taking the characters as fiction, based on categories of people rather than particular people or families. I’ll take greater heed of the Tollands in future books and think about identifying them with the Packenham.
I wished I had kept a list of characters and relationships from the start, and definitely when I read At Lady Molly’s, but as I didn’t I’ll have to go with the flow and reconnect as best I can as I go along.
Just going to start Cassanova’s Chinese Restaurant- one of the few volumes of the series we have in the very attractive Penguin editions.
There aren't many characters who are just one person, though Erridge is Orwell pretty much, and later on X Trapnel is Julian Maclaren Ross, Moreland is Constant Lambert, and Trelawney is Aleister Crowley. Pamela Flitton is Barbara Skelton too. I love the Osbert Lancaster covers - it's a real shame he didn't do all of them, but there was some kind of barney after Kindly Ones, and while he did do The Valley of Bones it just all petered out. Cassanova is one of my favourites. I'm really looking forward to it.
Thank you!
More and more, I am beginning to look forward to your analysis of Dance to the Music of Time book by book. It’s put a welcome gloss on the dying days of each month that, for me, are sometimes met with a little remorse. As the 25th inevitable flips over to become the 26th, the 28th and then the 30th, it is all too easy to find oneself regretting a little langour earlier in the month. What have I actually done this April apart from over-indulging in chocolate? But now I can console myself with at least one achievement. I have finished the next Anthony Powell.
In a way the books are so complex, the themes so various, that the events which stand out seem inextricably linked to our own preoccupations. Ten readers could take ten different things from each of the books.
This one is packed full of social occasions, Lady Molly’s soirées, visiting friends in the country or lunch at the club. For me, we are still experiencing a pre-war world where few people, including Nick, can grasp the changes that are in fact to come. People of Nick’s generation are marrying, settling down, climbing up the greasy pole, oblivious of the fragility of their futures.
What strikes me , when the prospect of Fascism rears its head, is that both the appeasers and the re-armers think that war is not inevitable. In fact World War was probably inevitable even then. Yet at that stage very few of the characters at Lady Molly’s parties perceive the root causes of the German situation, or anticipate the ‘workers’ unrest just below the surface in many countries.
In fact, the seemingly eccentric Erridge, shutting up his ‘entailed’ mansion, reducing himself to just one flat within the whole edifice and to just one of the indoor staff (who clearly is unemployable and thus can’t be cast out) seems the only one to completely comprehend the social implications of the thirties and the ramifications to come in the forties. He abandons the glamour of his social position to try and understand the problems, to live as a tramp, much to the embarrassed amusement of his family and friends.
The title, ‘Warminster’ given to the thinly veiled George Orwell, is surely a dig at the entitlement felt by Nick’s ex-Etonian literary peers. Drinking the final bottle of vintage Champaign is surely another powerful metaphor.
The discussion of Freud and Woolf by General Conyers is perhaps another allusion to the birth of the modern and a future postwar publishing scene that would oust the gentle humour and erudition of Powell’s generation for a far more stripped back, angrier literature, and make even Orwell and Woolf seem passé.
It’s all about to go to pot and still the band keeps playing.
Thanks for reading and viewing films around the era. It sets the book far more firmly in a context.
It is sad to think of all those young lives that will soon be upended by war. It’s a good thing those complex family trees hold enough siblings to withstand what the rest of the decades will throw at them. But there will be winners and survivors and that, I guess, is why we read on.
There are supposed to be more than 300 characters - someone did the PhD I guess! And I’m aware that several people have tried to link the fictional characters to the historical reality. Though am I right in thinking that Powell himself never said who they were? A family tree would tempt one to fuse reality with fiction - which would be even more interesting and tricky!
He dropped lots of hints, and a couple outright confirmations e.g. Stringham. That would be a great graphic! Thinking cap on...
Yes, very true, only Jeavons seems to be really on the ball as the country drifts towards war - Powell does not take any advantage of hindsight to make things look written in stone. And yes, that final bottle is markedly important. I've never seen a family tree of the Dance series - maybe we should put one together!
Thanks for another great overview, Alex - lots of great insights. I also thoroughly enjoyed this volume, a total joy from start to finish. On to the next we go!
Thank you. There's so much in it that it's hard to pick out favourite elements. I'm certainly with you on the ongoing pleasure of the reread.