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brdgtc's review against another edition
3.0
I can't tell if it's Stockholm Syndrome from reading this entire series, but I found it growing on me and even appreciating it's length and complexity, even for all it's superficial content about dinner parties and affairs.
joe2d2's review against another edition
5.0
i feel like i've lived a life with these characters. this series is a staggering achievement. and god is it funny and insightful.
charlottesometimes's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
nocto's review
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I have finally got to the end of the series! And I'm still not sure if I've enjoyed these books or not. But I'm glad I've read them.
No, it's not really fair to ask if I've enjoyed them. If I wasn't getting anything out of them I would have stopped a long time ago. There have been points where the series has seemed to drag, especially in the wartime years, but there has always been something that has brought me back to them. I think I just like seeing the changes in the characters as time goes by. In a way it seems rather unrealistic that Nick keeps bumping into the same characters in each book, but then there are others who loom larger in the narrative but really they are just hanging about as memories. And new major characters continue to appear throughout the series. In this book though it did feel like a few characters were just being brought back for a quick turn to round the stories off, but then it's fiction, why not catch up with a few of the early players at the end. I did find Widmerpool a bit wearing. It took me a few books to realise he was going to be the major recurring character, and I can see why this kind of half friend half enemy type was needed in the series, and maybe that's realistic. The character you've never much liked who keeps turning up decade after decade.
I thought this book took a rather bizarre turn, and honestly I wasn't sure what was humour, what was farce and what was tragedy. But that's been the case all along. The humour is understated, and whilst that's how I would have said I liked my humour, I've had trouble distinguishing it from the normal life of the privileged classes that we mostly see here. Because these books are very much a slice of mid-twentieth-century life of the well off cis het white male. And one of my problems with them is definitely that I feel like I've read that viewpoint a thousand times before. But I read them anyway.
And I mostly liked our narrator Nick, though that might be because he never gave us a good view of himself. He reflected those around him. One thing that stood out was that I never noticed homosexuality being mentioned in a derogatory manner, it just seemed to be accepted as the way things were, which was good to see in books of this era. My issues with the early books were very much with the lack of female characters and the stereotyping of those there were. In retrospect I think that probably reflects the male single sex upbringing and there are plenty of female characters in the later books. When Pamela Flitton first came on the scene in the war years I though that the story from her point of view would be an interesting take on these books, and nothing since has diminished that view.
A lot of books are a snapshot of a certain time and place, and this series is definitely worthy of praise for extending that out to something with much more detail than a snapshot. I'm happy to have read them, and also happy to move onto something else now!
No, it's not really fair to ask if I've enjoyed them. If I wasn't getting anything out of them I would have stopped a long time ago. There have been points where the series has seemed to drag, especially in the wartime years, but there has always been something that has brought me back to them. I think I just like seeing the changes in the characters as time goes by. In a way it seems rather unrealistic that Nick keeps bumping into the same characters in each book, but then there are others who loom larger in the narrative but really they are just hanging about as memories. And new major characters continue to appear throughout the series. In this book though it did feel like a few characters were just being brought back for a quick turn to round the stories off, but then it's fiction, why not catch up with a few of the early players at the end. I did find Widmerpool a bit wearing. It took me a few books to realise he was going to be the major recurring character, and I can see why this kind of half friend half enemy type was needed in the series, and maybe that's realistic. The character you've never much liked who keeps turning up decade after decade.
I thought this book took a rather bizarre turn, and honestly I wasn't sure what was humour, what was farce and what was tragedy. But that's been the case all along. The humour is understated, and whilst that's how I would have said I liked my humour, I've had trouble distinguishing it from the normal life of the privileged classes that we mostly see here. Because these books are very much a slice of mid-twentieth-century life of the well off cis het white male. And one of my problems with them is definitely that I feel like I've read that viewpoint a thousand times before. But I read them anyway.
And I mostly liked our narrator Nick, though that might be because he never gave us a good view of himself. He reflected those around him. One thing that stood out was that I never noticed homosexuality being mentioned in a derogatory manner, it just seemed to be accepted as the way things were, which was good to see in books of this era. My issues with the early books were very much with the lack of female characters and the stereotyping of those there were. In retrospect I think that probably reflects the male single sex upbringing and there are plenty of female characters in the later books. When Pamela Flitton first came on the scene in the war years I though that the story from her point of view would be an interesting take on these books, and nothing since has diminished that view.
A lot of books are a snapshot of a certain time and place, and this series is definitely worthy of praise for extending that out to something with much more detail than a snapshot. I'm happy to have read them, and also happy to move onto something else now!
bookpossum's review against another edition
5.0
"In my beginning is my end."
A brilliant final act in Powell's Dance. This last volume charts the decline and fall of Kenneth Widmerpool and brings this great work to a very satisfactory end. Wonderful stuff.
A brilliant final act in Powell's Dance. This last volume charts the decline and fall of Kenneth Widmerpool and brings this great work to a very satisfactory end. Wonderful stuff.
eliser217's review against another edition
3.0
It was a lovely bookend to the whole series. Everything wrapped up nicely and confirmed my feeling that somehow the whole story was about Widmerpool. I really don't know how else Powell could have ended the series.
omnibozo22's review against another edition
5.0
Lots of storylines get tied up in this final volume of the series. As expected, long unheard from acquaintances emerge from the depths in their aged guises to flaunt or ignore the depredations of their youths. Surprising events result, both funny and tragic.
Oddly, Jenkins rarely mentions his wife in these final three or four books. She does appear some in the last two books, finally shedding a little light her own literary prowess. The three children, however, are so rarely mentioned that i can't even recite their names. Odd, as Nick certainly details the lurid bits of the many oddballs in his circle, regardless of their ages.
The most enjoyable aspect of the books was the character development, in the context of British folks developing from 19th into 20th century society. As mentioned in the formal reviews, many of the 300+ characters remain in the memory. One reviewer here mentions his correspondence with Powell and his eventual dismissal of the books. Hum. Seems that he turned into one of the many cranks stumbling around London.
Oddly, Jenkins rarely mentions his wife in these final three or four books. She does appear some in the last two books, finally shedding a little light her own literary prowess. The three children, however, are so rarely mentioned that i can't even recite their names. Odd, as Nick certainly details the lurid bits of the many oddballs in his circle, regardless of their ages.
The most enjoyable aspect of the books was the character development, in the context of British folks developing from 19th into 20th century society. As mentioned in the formal reviews, many of the 300+ characters remain in the memory. One reviewer here mentions his correspondence with Powell and his eventual dismissal of the books. Hum. Seems that he turned into one of the many cranks stumbling around London.
giddypony's review against another edition
4.0
Final analysis on A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell.
This is a 12 (!) book series taking place in England from post WWI to 1968 roughly. The narrator is Nick Jenkins, of whom we learn very very little about. He is upper class, probably wouldn't think he is rich but he is, and an artsy guy (novelist, well educated, etc) There are many many reoccurring characters, incidents, call backs to previous stories. One of the characters most focused on is a man named Widmerpool who is loathsome and annoying and really a Rev. Collins. Because of the time span of the books we see the rise, sometimes fall, deaths, character development and eternal cycle of life. Some deaths are flat out shocking and unexpected. In parts, because Nick Jenkins is the unknowable narrator (for example, his relationship with his wife is very mysterious while a love affair he had early is written about in detail) its a lot like a long chat with your most gossipy friend. One thing in particular that I liked is how through the course of the novels, at first when Nick is at boarding school and meeting his most important friends and enemies, there's an immediacy, and most everything is first hand. As he becomes more settled and old, more of the incidents take place off stage and not to people he knows terrifically intimately. The war books are particularly immediate and striking.
I started this series in 2014, and he really is a wonderful author (except for the stuff about that fucking quarry in the last book) You feel the characters live and breath. There is a temptation to think they are wholly based off of real people - like he's writing this pointing his finger at certain individuals, but I feel that takes away from his artistry.
Very well worth, for me, the time spent, and the last chapter of the last book wraps it up by showing the same themes playing out for all people despite the time one finds oneself in. The last quotation from Richard Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (a book that Nick writes his dissertation on) is very spot on. So if you like long cozy gossips, a good story but dealing ultimately in the huge themes of an individual's narrative of their life, the nature of life, love, and ther perplexity of choices made, I recommend it.
This is a 12 (!) book series taking place in England from post WWI to 1968 roughly. The narrator is Nick Jenkins, of whom we learn very very little about. He is upper class, probably wouldn't think he is rich but he is, and an artsy guy (novelist, well educated, etc) There are many many reoccurring characters, incidents, call backs to previous stories. One of the characters most focused on is a man named Widmerpool who is loathsome and annoying and really a Rev. Collins. Because of the time span of the books we see the rise, sometimes fall, deaths, character development and eternal cycle of life. Some deaths are flat out shocking and unexpected. In parts, because Nick Jenkins is the unknowable narrator (for example, his relationship with his wife is very mysterious while a love affair he had early is written about in detail) its a lot like a long chat with your most gossipy friend. One thing in particular that I liked is how through the course of the novels, at first when Nick is at boarding school and meeting his most important friends and enemies, there's an immediacy, and most everything is first hand. As he becomes more settled and old, more of the incidents take place off stage and not to people he knows terrifically intimately. The war books are particularly immediate and striking.
I started this series in 2014, and he really is a wonderful author (except for the stuff about that fucking quarry in the last book) You feel the characters live and breath. There is a temptation to think they are wholly based off of real people - like he's writing this pointing his finger at certain individuals, but I feel that takes away from his artistry.
Very well worth, for me, the time spent, and the last chapter of the last book wraps it up by showing the same themes playing out for all people despite the time one finds oneself in. The last quotation from Richard Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (a book that Nick writes his dissertation on) is very spot on. So if you like long cozy gossips, a good story but dealing ultimately in the huge themes of an individual's narrative of their life, the nature of life, love, and ther perplexity of choices made, I recommend it.