Replaying ‘Music of Time

Press, 2 June 1984, Page 20

Replaying ‘Music of Time

A Question of Upbringing. By Anthony Powell. The Acceptance World. By Anthony Powell. Both Fontana, 1983. 223 pp. $8.95 each (paperbacks).

(Reviewed by

Richard Corbaiiis)

Anthony Powell was at Eton with Eric Blair (George Orwell), but you would hardly guess as much from an analysis of their writings. Orwell writes about ordinary people in a plain style. Powell writes more as you would expect an old Etonian to write. He focuses on the middle and upper classes of England, and describes their (often ridiculous) goings-on in a rather copious and convoluted style, tinged with irony. “A Question of Upbringing” and “The Acceptance World” are the first and third volumes respectively of a 12volume panorama of English social life from the start of World War I until the aftermath of World War 11. Originally published in the early 50s, they are now reissued in what is presumably to be a new edition of the whole series, which is called “A Dance to the Music of Time.” In “A Question of Upbringing” we see Nick Jenkins (the narrator of the series) at Eton, Oxford, and abroad during the 19205. “The Acceptance World” shows him attempting to make it, sexually and professionally, in London in the 19305. In fact, sex and business are really the primary topics of both books, and the gradual puncturing of Jenkins’s naivete about both is

beautifully handled. (Powell loves to juxtapose innocents and materialistic con-men. Jenkins is one of the innocents. The most memorable con-man in the series is a wonderful character called Widmerpool.) “A Dance to the Music of Time” is one of the great achievements in modern fiction — the last (and one of the biggest) of the family sagas. It is not an easy read, but for those prepared to absorb it slowly and deeply it offers considerable rewards.