The main characters are all now well into young adulthood and most of this volume of Powell’s epic 12-volume A Dance to the Music of Time revolves around social occasions rather than, as in the previous volumes, educational establishments. Along with the beginnings of careers in various fields, there are also the first brushes with the opposite sex.
More characters are introduced but these seem quite two-dimensional as particularly Nick Jenkins and Widmerpool start to stand out from the crowd. That said, I do find Nick an emotionless narrator, almost as if he is suffering from some inability to come to terms with either his own feelings or those of anyone he observes. He does observe acutely, but it all seems rather detached and clinical. Intentional or not, I don’t know.
Having already completed the third volume as I write this, I can see that novel two is very much setting the scene for what happens to Nick and Widmerpool in the third novel. In fact, the volume wasn’t
that memorable to me and I had to go back to Wikipedia for a refresher. While it’s less memorable than the first volume, it is an essential part of the entire novel nevertheless. Just hurry through it for volume three.
| OPENING LINE |
The last time I saw any examples of Mr. Deacon’s work was at a sale, held obscurely in the neighbourhood of Euston Road, many years after his death.
|
| 99TH PAGE QUOTE |
This far into the book, some of the plot might be revealed. If you want to see the quote, click show
As it turned out, neither Widmerpool nor Gyspy Jones ever reached her at that—nor, as far as I know, any other—stage of the party, because, evidently deciding to spend no more time or her welcome of such miscellaneous guests, she took Stringham by the arm, and bore him away. Widmerpool, with a set expression on his face, passed obliquely through the crowd, still filled, as I supposed, with an unquenchable determination, even stronger, if possible, than Mr. Deacon’s, to make himself at all costs known to his hostess. Gypsy Jones also disappeared from sight at the same moment, though not, it might be presumed, with the same aim. Their effacement was effected rather to my relief, because I had feared from Widmerpool a stream of comment of a kind for which I felt not at all in the mood; while at the same time, rather snobbishly, I did not wish to appear too closely responsible for being the cause, however indirect, of having brought Mr. Deacon and Gypsy Jones to the house.
|
| CLOSING LINE |
This might reveal the ending. If you want to see the quote, click show
For reasons not always at the time explicable, there are specific occasions when events begin suddenly to take on a significance previously unsuspected, so that, before we really know where we are, life seems to have begun in earnest at last, and we ourselves, scarcely aware that any change has taken place, are careering uncontrollably down the slippery avenues of eternity.
|
| PROGRESS |
 |
| RATING |
I’ll not be rating each individual volume of the novel but will give the novel a rating after finishing volume 12. |
