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Anthony Powell
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Anthony Dymoke Powell CH CBE (/ˈpoʊəl/ POH-əl;[1] 21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his 12-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time, published between 1951 and 1975.[2] It is on the list of longest novels in English.

Key Information

Powell's major work has remained in print continuously and has been the subject of television and radio dramatisations. In 2008, The Times newspaper named Powell among their list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".[3]

Life

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Powell was born in Westminster, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Lionel William Powell (1882–1959), of the Welch Regiment, and Maud Mary (died 1954), daughter of Edmund Lionel Wells-Dymoke, of The Grange, East Molesey, Surrey. Wells-Dymoke was a descendant of a land-owning family in Lincolnshire, hereditary Champions to monarchs since the reign of Richard II of England. They had married into the family of the Barons Marmion, who first held the position.[4] The Powell family descended from ancient Welsh kings and chieftains.[5] Anthony Powell had a strong interest in genealogy;[6] he conducted extensive research into the Powell family over many years, establishing a paternal descent from Gwriad ap Elidyr — himself a descendant of Coel Hen according to the Genealogies from Jesus College MS 20 and other sources — via Rhys ap Gruffydd to the satisfaction of the heralds of the College of Arms, who in 1964 granted him use of the ancient Powell arms. This pedigree was included in Burke's Landed Gentry.[7][8][9]

Because of his father's career and the First World War, the family moved several times, and mother and son sometimes lived apart from Powell's father. Powell attended Gibbs's pre-preparatory day-school for a brief time. He was then sent to New Beacon School near Sevenoaks, which was popular with military families. Early in 1919, Powell passed the Common Entrance Examination for Eton, where he started that autumn. There, he befriended fellow pupil Henry Yorke, later to become known as novelist Henry Green. At Eton, Powell spent much of his spare time at the Studio, where a sympathetic art master encouraged him to develop his talent as a draughtsman and his interest in the visual arts. In 1922, he became a founding member of the Eton Society of Arts. The society's members produced an occasional magazine called The Eton Candle.

In the autumn of 1923, Powell went up to Balliol College, Oxford. Soon after his arrival, he was introduced to the Hypocrites' Club. Outside that club, he came to know Maurice Bowra, then a young don at Wadham College. During his third year, Powell lived out of college, sharing rooms with Henry Yorke. Powell travelled on the Continent during his holidays. He was awarded a third-class degree at the end of his academic years.

Upon his arrival in London after Oxford, part of Powell's social life centred around attendance at formal debutante dances at houses in Mayfair and Belgravia. He renewed acquaintance with Evelyn Waugh, whom he had known at Oxford, and was a frequent guest for Sunday supper at Waugh's parents' house. Waugh introduced him to the Gargoyle Club, which gave him experience in London's Bohemia. He got to know painters Nina Hamnett and Adrian Daintrey, who were neighbours in Fitzrovia, and composer Constant Lambert, who remained a good friend until Lambert's death in 1951.[10]

In 1934, he married Lady Violet Pakenham. In 1952, they moved to The Chantry, a country home in Whatley, west of Frome, Somerset.[11][12]

Powell was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1956 Birthday Honours,[13] and in 1973, he declined an offer of knighthood. He was appointed Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the 1988 New Year Honours.[14] He served as a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery from 1962 to 1976.[15] With Lady Violet, he travelled to the United States, India, Guatemala, Italy, and Greece.

The individuals to whom Powell dedicated his books and memoirs provide the context of his range of friends and literary connections, including John Bayley (writer), Robert Conquest, Henry d'Avigdor-Goldsmid, Antonia Fraser, Roy Jenkins, Hugh Massingberd, Arthur Mizener, and Edith Sitwell.[16][17]

Powell's health declined in his later years after multiple strokes. On 28 March 2000, he died at The Chantry at the age of 94.[11][18]

Work

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Powell came to work in London during the autumn of 1926 and lived at various London addresses for the next 25 years. He worked in a form of apprenticeship at the publishers Gerald Duckworth and Company in Covent Garden, where he brought out A Tower of Skulls: a Journey through Persia and Turkish Armenia by Gerald Reitlinger. Powell left Duckworth employ in 1936 after protracted negotiations about title, salary, and working hours.[19] He next took a job as a screenwriter at the Warner Bros. studio in Teddington, where he remained for six months.[20] He made an abortive attempt to find employment in Hollywood as a screenwriter in 1937. He next found work reviewing novels for The Daily Telegraph and memoirs and autobiographies for The Spectator.

Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, Powell, at age 34, joined the British Army as a second lieutenant, making him more than 10 years older than most of his fellow subalterns, not at all well prepared for military life, and lacking in experience. Powell joined the Welch Regiment and was stationed in Northern Ireland at the time of air raids in Belfast. His superiors found uses for his talents, resulting in a series of transfers that brought him to special training courses designed to produce a nucleus of officers to deal with the problems of military government after the Allies had defeated the Axis powers. He eventually secured an assignment with the Intelligence Corps and additional training. His military career continued with a posting to the War Office in Whitehall, where he was attached to the section known as Military Intelligence (Liaison), overseeing relations with, and the basic material needs of, foreign troops in exile, specifically the Czechs, later the Belgians and Luxembourgers, and later still the French. Later for a short time he was posted to the Cabinet Office, to serve on the Secretariat of the Joint Intelligence Committee, securing promotions along the way.

For his service in the Army, he received two General Service medals as well as the 1944 France and Germany Star for escorting a group of Allied military attaches from Normandy to Montgomery's 21st Army Group Tactical HQ in November 1944 three miles from Roermond, Holland then held by the Germans. For representing the interests of foreign armies in exile as a liaison officer he received the following decorations: the Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovakia), Oaken Crown (Luxembourg), Order of Leopold II (Belgium), and Luxembourg War Cross (Croix de Guerre -Luxembourg).[21]

After his demobilisation at the end of the war, writing became his sole career. Despite a holiday trip to the Soviet Union in 1936, he remained unsympathetic to the popular-front, leftist politics of many of his literary and critical contemporaries. A Tory, Powell nonetheless maintained a certain scepticism towards the right as well, often associating with George Orwell and Malcolm Muggeridge. He was wary of right-wing groups and suspicious of inflated rhetoric.[22] He organised Orwell's funeral together with Muggeridge.[23]

Family

[edit]
Anthony Powell with Violet on their wedding day in 1934

Powell married Lady Violet Pakenham (1912–2002),[24] sister of Lord Longford, on 1 December 1934 at All Saints, Ennismore Gardens, Knightsbridge. Powell and his wife moved to 1 Chester Gate in Regent's Park, London, where they remained for 17 years.[25] Their first son, Tristram, was born in April 1940, but Powell and his wife spent most of the war years apart while he served in the Welch Regiment and later in the Intelligence Corps.[26] A second son, John, was born in January 1946.[27]

On 30 April 2018, Powell's granddaughter Georgia Powell married Henry Somerset, 12th Duke of Beaufort.[28]

Writing

[edit]

Powell's first novel, Afternoon Men, was published by Duckworth in 1931, with Powell supervising its production himself. The same firm published his next three novels, Venusberg (1932), From a View to a Death (1933) and Agents and Patients (1936) two of them after Powell had left the firm. The cover design of these three were by Misha Black.

During his time in California, Powell contributed several articles to the magazine Night and Day, edited by Graham Greene. Powell wrote a few more occasional pieces for the magazine until it ceased publication in March 1938. Powell completed his fifth novel, What's Become of Waring, in late 1938 or early 1939. After being turned down by Duckworth, it was published by Cassell in March of that year. The book sold fewer than a thousand copies.

Anticipating the difficulties of creative writing during wartime, Powell began to assemble material for a biography of 17th-century writer John Aubrey. His army career, though, forced him to postpone even that biographical work. When the war ended, Powell resumed work on Aubrey, completing the manuscript of John Aubrey and His Friends in May 1946, though it only appeared in 1948 after difficult negotiations and arguments with publishers. He then edited a selection of Aubrey's writings that appeared the following year.

Powell returned to novel writing, and began to ponder a long novel sequence. Over the next 30 years, he produced his major work: A Dance to the Music of Time. The title of the multivolume series is taken from the painting of the same name by Poussin, which hangs in the Wallace Collection.[29] The cycle of novels, narrated by a protagonist with experiences and perspectives similar to Powell's own, follows the trajectory of the author's own life, offering a vivid portrayal of the intersection of bohemian life with high society between 1921 and 1971. Its characters, many modelled loosely on real people, surface, vanish, and reappear throughout the sequence but Powell claimed that it was not a roman à clef. The characters are drawn from the upper classes, their marriages and affairs, and their bohemian acquaintances.[30] Powell was awarded the 1957 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for the fourth volume, At Lady Molly's. The eleventh volume, Temporary Kings, received the W. H. Smith Prize in 1974.[31]

In parallel with his creative writing, Powell served as the primary fiction reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement. He served as literary editor of Punch from 1953 to 1959. From 1958 to 1990, he was a regular reviewer for The Daily Telegraph, resigning after a vitriolic personal attack on him by Auberon Waugh appeared in that newspaper.[32] He also reviewed occasionally for The Spectator. Many of Powell's book reviews were republished in two volumes of critical essays, Miscellaneous Verdicts (1990) and Under Review (1992).[33]

Between 1976 and 1982, Powell published four volumes of memoirs with the overall title of To Keep the Ball Rolling,[34] followed by two more novels: O, How the Wheel Becomes It! (1983) and The Fisher King (1986).

Several volumes of Powell's Journals, covering 1982 to 1992, appeared between 1995 and 1997. His Writer's Notebook was published posthumously in 2001, and a third volume of critical essays, Some Poets, Artists, and a Reference for Mellors, appeared in 2005.

Alan Furst, an author of spy novels, has noted of him, "Powell does everything a novelist can do, from flights of aesthetic passion to romance to comedy high and low. His dialogue is extraordinary; often terse, pedestrian and perfect, each character using three or four words. Anthony Powell taught me to write; he has such brilliant control of the mechanics of the novel."[35]

Collage

[edit]

Powell created collages during his writing life. His greatest achievement, the collage in the Chantry, has been characterized as "a monstrous collage of a size and surrealistic disturbance."[36]

The collage took decades to create. It has been digitised and partially reproduced in Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time as endpapers.[37] A 360-degree panorama is viewable at the website: Powell's "Boiler Room" Collage at The Chantry.

In 2019, the Collage was photographed by Tim Beddow and featured on the cover of The World of Interiors, a Condé Nast magazine.[38] In 2021 Christopher Matthew described it as "One of the most elaborate collages I have ever encountered covering not only the walls and the ceiling, but even the water pipes."[39]

In 2025, writing in Telegraph Luxury with many photos, Harry Mount observed, "the collage is a Sistine Chapel of literary Britain."[40] Powell's great-granddaughter, Hope Coke, wrote an illustrated essay about the boiler room collage in The Oldie.[41]

Recognition

[edit]

Dance was adapted by Hugh Whitemore for a television miniseries during the autumn of 1997, and broadcast in the UK on Channel 4. The novel sequence was earlier adapted by Graham Gauld and Frederick Bradnum for a BBC Radio 4 26-part series broadcast between 1978 and 1981. In the radio version, the part of Jenkins as narrator was played by Noel Johnson. A second radio dramatisation by Michael Butt was broadcast during April and May 2008.

In 1984, Powell was awarded The Hudson Review's Bennett Award, to honour 'a writer of significant achievement whose work has not received the full recognition to which it is entitled' and the Ingersoll Foundation's T. S. Eliot Award for Creative Writing.[42]

In 1995, Powell was awarded an honorary degree (Doctor of Letters) from the University of Bath.[43]

In 2000 scholars founded The Anthony Powell Society to advance for the public benefit, education and interest in his life and works. The Society publishes quarterly The Anthony Powell Newsletter and the journal, Secret Harmonies.

A centenary exhibition in commemoration of Powell's life and work was held at the Wallace Collection, London, from November 2005 to February 2006.[44]

Smaller exhibitions were held in 2005 and 2006 at Eton College, Cambridge University, the Grolier Club in New York City, and Georgetown University in Washington, DC.

Hilary Spurling, a newspaper colleague, had written at Powell's request in 1977 Invitation to the Dance: A Guide to Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time, and in 2017 published his biography, Anthony Powell: Dancing to the Music of Time.[45][46][47]

A Blue plaque was mounted on 16 September 2023 at 1 Chester Gate London NW1 where Powell began writing A Dance to the Music of Time. The Anthony Powell Society organised the ceremony.[48][49]

Bibliography

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References

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Further reading

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[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Anthony Powell

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Anthony Dymoke Powell CH CBE (21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist, playwright, and literary critic, best known for his twelve-volume novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time (1951–1975), a panoramic chronicle of upper-class British society spanning the interwar years through the late 20th century. Born in Westminster, , as the only child of Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Lionel William Powell, a regular army officer of Welsh descent, and his wife Maud Mary Wells-, Powell grew up in a military family that frequently relocated. He was educated at , where he later recalled fagging for the future historian , and at , though he left without a degree after focusing more on social life than academics. Powell's early career involved nearly a decade in publishing at & Co., where he rose to director, followed by a stint as a scriptwriter for Warner Brothers in and an unsuccessful attempt at screenwriting in Hollywood. During , he was commissioned into the Welch Regiment in 1939 and later transferred to the Intelligence Corps, experiences that informed the wartime volumes of his major work. Postwar, he joined the Times Literary Supplement as a reviewer in 1947 and served as literary editor of Punch from 1952 to 1959, while also acting as a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery from 1962 onward. His literary output began with satirical novels like Afternoon Men (1931), Venusberg (1932), and From a View to a Death (1933), which depicted the aimless lives of the interwar smart set, though they achieved modest success. Powell also wrote biographies, notably John Aubrey and His Friends (1948), and plays, but his enduring legacy rests on A Dance to the Music of Time, narrated by the reflective Nicholas Jenkins and drawing inspiration from Nicolas Poussin's painting of the same name, with influences from Marcel Proust's expansive social canvases and P.G. Wodehouse's comic precision. In recognition of his contributions to literature, Powell was appointed Commander of the (CBE) in 1956, received the in 1957 for At Lady Molly's (the fourth volume of his sequence), and was made a Companion of Honour (CH) in 1988; he declined a knighthood offered by in 1973. Married to Lady Violet Georgiana Pakenham, daughter of the , from 1934 until his death, Powell lived much of his later life at The Chantry in and was known for his wide circle of literary friends, including , , and . He died at his home near , , at the age of 94.

Early Life

Childhood and Family Origins

Anthony Powell was born on 21 December 1905 in one of 159 identical furnished flats in a block near Victoria Station in Westminster, , the only child of Lieutenant-Colonel Philip Lionel William Powell and Maud Mary Wells-Dymoke. His father, born in 1882, was a career officer in the Welch Regiment whose family traced its roots to a twelfth-century Welsh chieftain, embodying traditions with a focus on and rural pursuits like foxhunting. Philip Powell's temperament was marked by depression, stinginess, and an explosive anger, often exacerbated by the demands of regimental life. Powell's mother, fifteen years her husband's senior at the time of their secret marriage, hailed from a modestly genteel family with pretensions to landed status but no significant wealth or exalted connections; her forebears had lost much of their fortune in a futile pursuit of a peerage. Maud Wells-Dymoke, initially adventurous and musically inclined—she played the banjo and endured early postings in —grew increasingly reclusive and morbidly shy, disliking the social rigors of army life and contributing to the family's inward-turning dynamic. This middle-class maternal heritage contrasted with the paternal line's aristocratic undertones, exposing young Powell to the nuances of Edwardian social hierarchies and the tensions between and domestic isolation. The Powell family's peripatetic existence shaped his early years profoundly, as frequent relocations followed Philip's postings across Britain and abroad, confining them to transient hotels and rented rooms that fostered a "sadly underpopulated" and monastic seclusion. This nomadic lifestyle, beginning shortly after his birth, immersed Powell in the rituals of upper-middle-class Edwardian society—from regimental socials to the quiet frustrations of parental discord—while limiting peer interactions and instilling an acute observational detachment that later informed his explorations of class and . By age ten, these formative experiences gave way to formal boarding at the in , bridging his sheltered home life to structured education.

Education at Eton and Oxford

Anthony Powell entered in the autumn of 1919 at the age of thirteen, following a preparatory education that had already introduced him to future literary figures. There, he formed a lasting friendship with Henry Yorke, who would later publish novels as ; the two had met earlier at their prep school and continued their bond amid Eton's hierarchical environment. Powell's time at Eton was marked by participation in the school's vibrant arts scene, including contributions to The Eton Candle, the publication of the Eton Society of Arts, where he made his first appearance in print. His academic record was solid enough to earn him the Oppidan Prize upon departure in 1923, though these years also fostered a keen satirical perspective on public school rituals and social dynamics, which would permeate his later depictions of elite British youth. In 1923, Powell matriculated at , to read history, a subject that aligned with his growing interest in societal structures but did little to ignite academic passion. He quickly joined the , a notorious undergraduate drinking and social group known for its bohemian excesses and iconoclastic spirit, which provided a counterpoint to the university's formalities and introduced him to a circle of aspiring writers. Powell engaged in early literary endeavors there, including writing for university publications alongside peers like Yorke, his roommate, whose shared discussions on books and ideas honed Powell's observational skills. Despite these extracurricular pursuits, his university experience was marred by listlessness and mild depression, reflecting a broader disaffection with the privileged yet constraining world of . Powell graduated in 1926 with a third-class degree, forgoing honors and underscoring his ambivalence toward formal scholarship. Shortly thereafter, leveraging family connections rather than personal distinction, he secured an entry-level position at the firm Duckworth & Co. in , marking the tentative start of his professional life amid economic uncertainties. These formative years at Eton and , immersed in the rarified air of upper-class institutions, profoundly shaped Powell's fictional lens, enabling his incisive explorations of class privilege, social climbing, and the absurdities of inherited status in works like A Dance to the Music of Time.

Literary Career

Early Publications and Influences

After leaving without a degree, where his literary interests had been sparked by encounters with contemporary , Anthony Powell joined the staff of the Duckworth house in 1926 as an assistant, working under the influential editor Edward Garnett. During his decade at Duckworth (1926–1936), Powell gained invaluable exposure to modernist literature through reading unsolicited manuscripts and assisting with editorial decisions, an experience that honed his understanding of narrative craft and contemporary styles. Garnett, known for championing authors like and , provided direct mentorship, editing Powell's early submissions and encouraging a precise, economical that would define his debut works. Powell's first novel, Afternoon Men, appeared in 1931 under Duckworth's imprint, offering a satirical portrait of bohemian life in London's district, centered on the aimless pursuits and romantic entanglements of protagonist William Atwater and his circle. The novel's laconic, detached style drew from influences including Evelyn Waugh's sharp social comedy, as seen in its ironic depictions of party-going and fleeting relationships akin to those in Decline and Fall (1928); Henry Green's understated exploration of class and emotion in works like Living (1929); and even Marcel Proust's intricate social observations in , evident in Powell's subtle layering of interpersonal dynamics amid mundane settings. Contemporary reception was mixed, with some reviewers praising its witty while others found its episodic structure and ironic tone insufficiently plot-driven. Building on this foundation, Powell published Venusberg in 1932, also edited by Garnett at Duckworth, which shifted focus to an English journalist's disillusioning experiences in a fictional Baltic state, blending satire with themes of cultural dislocation and personal frustration. This work evolved his thematic interest toward broader social observation, incorporating Waugh-like farce in its absurd diplomatic intrigues and Green's influence in its fragmented, introspective narrative voice. The following year, 1933, saw the release of From a View to a Death, again by Duckworth, depicting rivalries among social climbers at a decaying country estate, where an ambitious artist's schemes clash with aristocratic inertia in a manner echoing Proustian examinations of ambition and decline. These early novels marked Powell's progression from bohemian vignettes to more structured critiques of English society, establishing his signature blend of humor and acuity. In 1936, after leaving Duckworth, Powell transitioned to scriptwriting, joining Warner Brothers in on a six-month and attempting screenwriting in Hollywood the following year, though without success. These experiences in the film industry, involving adaptations and original scenarios, further developed his skills in concise narrative and dialogue before the outbreak of war.

Development of Major Works

Powell's conception of his magnum opus, A Dance to the Music of Time, emerged in the 1930s as he sought to craft a multi-volume roman-fleuve capturing the rhythms of English upper-middle-class life across decades. The title and overarching structure drew direct inspiration from 's 1630s painting of the same name, which depicts four figures—representing the seasons or social classes—dancing in a circle to the music of time, symbolizing life's inevitable cycles of fortune, mortality, and recurrence. This visual metaphor informed Powell's ambition to trace interconnected lives over half a century, building on the satirical social observation honed in his earlier standalone novels like Afternoon Men (1931). World War II profoundly disrupted Powell's literary plans, as he was commissioned into the Welch Regiment in 1939 and served through 1945, including postings with the and later the Intelligence Corps as a . The demands of military duty—ranging from administrative roles in to wartime postings abroad—rendered him temperamentally unsuited to sustained fiction writing, leading to a creative hiatus during which he instead researched and composed his biography of 17th-century antiquarian . Yet, these experiences enriched the series' character archetypes; encounters with eccentric officers, bureaucrats, and soldiers in the regiment provided prototypes for the pompous, ambitious figures like Kenneth Widmerpool and the varied military personnel populating later volumes, infusing the narrative with authentic depictions of wartime absurdity and hierarchy. Postwar, Powell joined the editorial staff of the Times Literary Supplement in 1947, where he served as the primary fiction reviewer, and later became literary editor of Punch from 1953 to 1959; these roles provided financial stability and deepened his engagement with contemporary literature while he resumed work on his major sequence. Securing a contract with Heinemann for the ambitious project, which was envisioned as a serialized progression of discrete yet interconnected novels rather than a single continuous text, Powell published the first three volumes in quick succession: A Question of Upbringing in 1951, A Buyer's Market in 1952, and The Acceptance World in 1955, establishing the series' pattern of annual or biennial releases. Initial critical reception was warmly positive, with reviewers praising Powell's elegant prose and acute social satire; for instance, The Times Literary Supplement hailed the opening volume for its "delicate irony" and promise of deeper exploration, while early sales and discussions in literary circles affirmed its viability as a long-term project, encouraging Heinemann to commit to the full arc. At its core, the 12-volume structure revolves around recurring characters whose paths intersect and diverge like dancers in Poussin's composition, narrated in the first person by Nicholas Jenkins, a reflective observer whose detached perspective mirrors Powell's own. Jenkins, loosely based on the , guides readers through a panoramic arc spanning from the schoolboy era to post-war reflections in the , emphasizing cyclical themes of time's inexorable flow, social flux, and human recurrence—fortunes rise and fall, alliances reform, and echoes of past events reverberate across volumes. This framework allows for a vast ensemble of over 300 figures, from bohemian artists to political climbers, whose evolving relationships underscore the painting's motif of eternal motion amid change.

Later Writings and Retirement

Following the publication of Hearing Secret Harmonies in 1975, which concluded his twelve-volume novel sequence , Powell entered a period of relative creative pause before embarking on more personal projects. This final volume, released by Heinemann, marked the end of over two decades of sustained narrative effort on the cycle, allowing Powell to shift focus toward autobiographical reflection. From 1976 to 1982, Powell produced his memoirs under the collective title To Keep the Ball Rolling, a that chronicled his life from birth in through 1939. The volumes appeared sequentially: Infants of the Spring in 1976, covering his early years and family background; Messengers of Day in 1978, detailing his education at Eton and ; Faces in My Time in 1980, exploring his entry into London's literary and social circles; and The Strangers Are All Gone in 1982, recounting his pre-war experiences in publishing and writing. Published by Heinemann, these works drew on Powell's intimate recollections, blending sharp observation with wry humor to illuminate the influences shaping his fiction. A single-volume edition followed in 1983. After completing the memoirs in 1982, Powell largely withdrew from major , though he produced occasional shorter works, including the O, How the Wheel Becomes It! in 1983 and the novel in 1986, both issued by Heinemann. He also compiled collections of , such as Miscellaneous Verdicts (1990) and Under Review (1992). His journals, spanning daily observations, literary encounters, and gossip from the cultural scene, were edited and published in three volumes during the mid-1990s: Journals 1982–1986 (1995), Journals 1987–1989 (1996), and Journals 1990–1992 (1997), all by Heinemann. A posthumous compilation, A Writer's Notebook (2001), edited by his wife Lady Violet Powell and published by Heinemann, incorporated earlier notebook entries from the 1920s onward, offering fragmented insights into his evolving thoughts on literature and life up to the late 1990s. In 1982, following the memoirs' completion, Powell retired from intensive authorship and settled into a quieter life at The Chantry in , where he had resided since 1952. His health gradually declined in his final decades, marked by increasing frailty that limited public appearances and writing. Powell died peacefully on 28 2000 at age 94, survived by his wife and two sons; at the time, some notebook fragments remained unpublished, later integrated into the 2001 collection.

Major Works

A Dance to the Music of Time

A Dance to the Music of Time is Anthony Powell's magnum opus, a twelve-volume roman-fleuve chronicling the lives of an of upper-middle-class English characters from the early to the early . The series is structured as four trilogies, titled "Spring," "Summer," "Autumn," and "Winter," each comprising three novels that trace the progression of seasons as a for life's stages and historical epochs. The first trilogy, Spring (1951–1955), covers youth and early adulthood; Summer (1957–1961) focuses on marriage and pre-war society; Autumn (1962–1964) depicts the disruptions of ; and Winter (1968–1975) examines post-war decline and cultural shifts. This cyclical structure, inspired by Nicolas Poussin's painting of the same name, underscores the inexorable movement of time and human fortunes. Central themes include the passage of time, , fate, and the decline of the English , portrayed through ironic observations of and . In the opening volume, A Question of Upbringing (1951), Powell introduces these motifs via the narrator's reflections on school friendships and early encounters, setting a tone of detached contemplation amid the interwar era's stability. Later, in The Kindly Ones (1962), the third novel of the Autumn trilogy, wartime chaos amplifies themes of fate and disruption, as characters navigate and personal losses, mirroring broader societal upheavals. The series critiques the aristocracy's erosion through depictions of shifting class dynamics, bohemian influences, and the rise of new power structures, all viewed through a conservative lens that highlights the unpredictability of life's "dance." Powell's wartime experiences briefly inform the military volumes, lending authenticity to scenes of bureaucratic absurdity and camaraderie. The narrative is anchored by first-person narrator Nicholas Jenkins, a reflective and reserved observer modeled closely on Powell himself, who chronicles the fortunes of over four hundred characters without dominating the action. A pivotal figure is Kenneth Widmerpool, whose arc from an awkward, socially inept schoolboy in A Question of Upbringing to a ruthless, ambitious —rising through , , and even a —embodies themes of fate and , only to culminate in a humiliating fall amid the 1960s in the final volume, Hearing Secret Harmonies (1975). The ensemble cast draws inspiration from real-life figures, with Widmerpool primarily based on Denis Capel-Dunn, a corpulent and opportunistic colonel Powell encountered during , blended with traits from others like Reginald Manningham-Buller; Jenkins, meanwhile, amalgamates Powell's own experiences without direct . This interconnected web of relationships, marked by marriages, affairs, and rivalries, creates a panoramic social comedy. Publication began with A Question of Upbringing in 1951, initially conceived as a single novel or but expanding into the full cycle, with volumes released roughly biennially until the conclusion in 1975, totaling approximately 1.1 million words. Adaptations include a dramatization broadcast in 26 episodes from 1979 to 1982, scripted by Frederick Bradnum, and a four-part television miniseries on in 1997, directed by , which compressed the saga into a focus on key relationships and historical backdrops. Critically, the series garnered immediate acclaim upon its debut, with the Observer in 1951 hailing it as "the most exciting experiment in postwar English" fiction, comparable to and , and it was later praised by figures like as a 20th-century . Reception was mixed in Britain, where critics like and dismissed its focus on the upper classes as dated and insular, while it fared better in the United States. In later decades, postmodern reassessments have reevaluated its formal innovations—such as the non-linear, memory-driven narrative and ironic detachment—positioning it as a precursor to experimental fiction, though debates persist over its conservatism, as noted in post-2000 critiques by and renewed biographical analyses.

Standalone Novels and Short Fiction

Anthony Powell's standalone novels, distinct from the expansive interconnected narrative of his major cycle, feature more compact structures and often satirical portrayals of artistic and social milieus, reflecting his early experimentation with themes of , identity, and interpersonal manipulation. These works span through the 1980s, showcasing tighter plots centered on bohemian circles, espionage-tinged intrigue, and literary scandals, contrasting the cycle's broader chronological sweep with focused, jazz-age inflected vignettes of human folly. His early standalone novels include Afternoon Men (1931), a satirical depiction of the aimless of London's artistic set; Venusberg (1932), which follows a diplomat's absurd adventures in a fictional Baltic state; and From a View to a Death (1933), exploring rural social dynamics and among the . Published in 1936, Agents and Patients marks Powell's return to comic after darker tones in prior works, centering on the scheming financier Merrick Maltravers, who manipulates a young , Blair, and an artist, Louis Glober, into dubious ventures involving art deals and personal betrayals amid London's creative underbelly. The novel explores themes of power dynamics and exploitation, with characters as both perpetrators and victims in a web of vanity and ambition, highlighting Powell's ear for dialogue and social observation that would mature in later fiction. Reception noted its lighter tone and incisive character studies, though it remained overshadowed by the author's subsequent cycle. What's Become of Waring, released in 1939 on the cusp of , satirizes the publishing world through an anonymous narrator investigating the enigmatic author T.T. Waring, whose sudden disappearance and rumored activities unravel a tapestry of literary pretensions and hidden identities among editors, writers, and expatriates in and . Themes of elusive authorship and the absurdities of cultural production dominate, with Powell lampooning the era's bohemian pretensions and the blurred lines between fiction and reality. Critics praised its witty detachment and innovation, viewing it as a pivotal bridge to Powell's mature style, despite modest sales at the time. In 1983, after completing his twelve-volume cycle, Powell returned to standalone fiction with the novella O, How the Wheel Becomes It!, a concise tale of literary involving the aging writer Walter Fane, whose fabricated affair with a young poetess ignites among London's intellectual elite, exposing hypocrisies in fame and desire. Drawing on Shakespearean echoes, the work delves into themes of aging, rumor, and the performative nature of , with characters navigating and reinvention in a setting. Reception highlighted its elegant brevity and self-referential humor, appreciating it as a late gem that distilled Powell's satirical acuity, though it garnered less attention than his epic sequence. Powell's final standalone novel, (1986), satirizes a cruise around the aboard the ship , where passengers including a romance , a , and a dancer engage in gossip and intrigue, with allusions to Arthurian legend and themes of impotence, reinvention, and social folly in later life. Powell's output in short fiction was limited, with early efforts like the 1932 poetry collection The Bride—containing verse on love and transience—occasionally blurring into narrative forms, alongside uncollected pieces in magazines that experimented with satirical sketches of social life. These shorter works, less documented than his novels, emphasize concise wit and observational irony, often set in jazz-age artistic scenes, but received scant critical notice compared to his longer prose.

Non-Fiction, Journals, and Autobiographies

Powell contributed book reviews to prominent publications from the late , serving as a reviewer and fiction editor for the Times Literary Supplement (TLS) from 1947 until 1953 and later as literary editor of Punch from 1952 to 1959. His reviews often displayed a sharp, world-weary perceptiveness, critiquing both literary works and authors' factual inaccuracies, such as errors in addressing a knight's wife. For instance, in assessing contemporaries like , Powell highlighted Greene's "chronic love of conflict," viewing Greeneland as akin to the territory of a third-rate detective writer, a perspective that underscored his discerning yet acerbic take on mid-century British fiction. These reviews formed the basis for Powell's essay collections, culminating in Miscellaneous Verdicts: Writings on Writers 1946-1989 (Heinemann, 1990) and Under Review: Further Writings on Writers 1946-1989 (Heinemann, 1991). Each volume exceeds 400 pages and draws from his decades of criticism in outlets like the Daily Telegraph, encompassing evaluations of writers from to , as well as broader reflections on the literary canon. Beyond literature, the essays explore music, painting, , , and even picture-collecting, with discussions of figures like and comparisons such as versus . A planned third collection was lost by the publisher but appeared posthumously as Some Poets, Artists and 'A Reference for Mellors' (Timewell Press, 2005), further delving into poets, sculptors, and literary byways like archaeology and Arthurian legends. Powell's autobiographical reflections appear in the four-volume To Keep the Ball Rolling, published between 1976 and 1982: Infants of the Spring (1976), Messengers of Day (1978), Faces in My Time (1980), and Strangers All Are Gone (1982). These memoirs provide an insider's account of British literary and social circles, with the third volume focusing on the interwar years amid the scene and the fourth detailing his World War II service as a in the Intelligence Corps. An abridged single-volume edition was released in 2010, offering a revised overview of his life from Eton and through his career as novelist and critic. Powell's personal journals, covering 1982 to 1992 and published in three volumes—Journals 1982-1986 (Heinemann, 1995), Journals 1987-1989 (Heinemann, 1996), and Journals 1990-1992 (Heinemann, 1997)—offer unfiltered glimpses into his later years, distinct from the more polished tone of his memoirs. These entries capture witty, acute observations on family occasions, encounters with famous friends, and participation in cultural events, revealing the rhythms of his social world and creative process after becoming "stuck" on a novel in the mid-1980s.

Personal Life

Marriage and Immediate Family

Anthony Powell met Lady Violet Georgiana Pakenham in August 1934 at her family's home, where he was struck by her beauty and vivacity as a young and aspiring . He proposed to her just three weeks later, wooing her by reading excerpts from his unpublished works, and they married on 1 December 1934 at All Saints Church, Ennismore Gardens, . Violet, the third daughter of Thomas Pakenham, 5th , brought aristocratic connections and literary acumen to the union; she was already contributing reviews to periodicals like Punch and would later become a noted and biographer. The couple's first son, Tristram Roger Dymoke Powell, was born on 25 April 1940 in , , shortly after the outbreak of , which led to Powell's and periods of separation that strained family life. Tristram Powell died on 1 March 2024. Their second son, John Marmion Anthony Powell, arrived on 11 January 1946, amid postwar recovery, providing emotional stability as the family navigated financial challenges and relocations. These wartime births and disruptions influenced Powell's depictions of domestic upheaval in his novels, particularly the war volumes of A Dance to the Music of Time, where personal experiences of absence and reunion echoed broader societal shifts. After years in , where they immersed themselves in literary and artistic circles, Powell and Violet moved in to The Chantry, a 17th-century house in , seeking rural tranquility that supported his writing routine. Violet played a pivotal role in their shared life, offering intellectual companionship and serving as a rigorous editor who "mercilessly dissected" drafts, sharpening the social observations and interpersonal dynamics central to Powell's exploration of upper-class British society. Her insights, drawn from her own engagements as a and observer of elite social milieus, helped infuse his work with nuanced portrayals of relationships and class intricacies. Powell died on 28 March 2000 at The Chantry, aged 94, after a long illness. Violet survived him by less than two years, passing away on 12 January 2002 in a Bath nursing home at age 89, leaving behind a legacy of quiet support that underpinned Powell's prolific output.

Social Connections and Friendships

During his early years in 1920s , Anthony Powell cultivated friendships within the vibrant, hedonistic circles of the , a group of affluent young aristocrats and artists known for their extravagant parties and social escapades. Though somewhat peripheral to the core set, Powell engaged with this milieu through figures like the bohemian artist Nina Hamnett, who introduced him to eclectic personalities such as occultist , shaping his acute observations of upper-class frivolity that later permeated his fiction. A pivotal early connection was with , whom Powell met while working at the publisher Duckworth; Waugh inscribed a copy of his debut novel Decline and Fall to "Tony, who rescued the author from worse things," marking the start of a lifelong friendship that influenced Powell's satirical edge and provided character inspirations, such as elements of Sir Magnus Donners drawn partly from Waugh's acquaintances. Similarly, , encountered during days, became a close associate whose marriage to the volatile supplied traits for Powell's character Pamela Flitton in A Dance to the Music of Time, blending personal insight with fictional exaggeration. In the mid-century period, Powell's social network expanded through wartime and postwar literary circles, where shared adversities forged enduring bonds. He formed a particularly close association with , whom he knew before the war and with whom he shared military service in the Welch Regiment, enduring the frustrations of regimental life that echoed in Powell's depictions of institutional absurdities; Muggeridge later praised Powell's work while occasionally critiquing it publicly. , an initial admirer of Powell's novels, developed a mutual respect despite Larkin's later ambivalence, describing him in correspondence as a "horse-faced dwarf" yet acknowledging his literary stature through shared circles with . , whom Powell mentored early in his career by offering encouragement and introductions in London's publishing scene, repeatedly emphasized their friendship as a cornerstone of his own development, crediting Powell's "innate genius for friendship" for sustaining their connection amid Naipaul's evolving critiques of Powell's style. These wartime and immediate postwar ties, marked by intellectual camaraderie and collective resilience, informed Powell's portrayals of camaraderie under duress in his major works. Later in life, Powell assumed informal roles, nurturing correspondences with younger writers that revealed his reflective side through journal entries. His exchange with , initiated in the , blossomed into a warm rapport; Amis dedicated chapters in his memoirs to Powell, and Powell responded to Amis's radio broadcast on A Dance to the Music of Time with appreciative letters, highlighting their mutual appreciation despite differing social milieus. These interactions, often documented in Powell's journals from the 1980s onward, underscored his role as a generous elder statesman in British letters. Powell's engagements with the arts further enriched his worldview and characterizations in A Dance to the Music of Time. He maintained friendships with painters such as John Piper, part of a cohort including and , whose modernist sensibilities and wartime artistic endeavors Powell admired and wove into figures like the painter Ralph Barnby, inspired also by war artists and Adrian Daintrey. Musicians like Constant Lambert, a close friend and collaborator in London's interwar scene, served as the model for the composer Hugh Moreland, capturing the bohemian energy and personal volatility that Powell observed firsthand at events like the infamous 1929 Tavistock Square party. These artistic ties, blending visual and auditory influences, lent vivid authenticity to the novel sequence's ensemble of eccentrics and creators.

Recognition and Legacy

Awards, Honors, and Academic Positions

Anthony Powell received numerous honors throughout his career, reflecting his contributions to English literature, particularly through his magnum opus A Dance to the Music of Time. In 1956, he was appointed Commander of the (CBE) for his services to literature. Three years later, in 1957, Powell won the for his novel At Lady Molly's, the fourth volume in his twelve-novel sequence. In 1971, he was awarded an honorary (D.Litt.) by the . Although offered a knighthood in 1973, he declined the honor. In 1974, his novel Temporary Kings, the eleventh in the Dance sequence, earned the W.H. Smith Literary Award, and he became an Honorary Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, where he had studied as an undergraduate. That year, he also received honorary D.Litt. degrees from the Universities of Leicester and Kent. By 1977, Powell was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, recognizing his international stature. Further academic distinctions followed in the 1980s. In 1980, the conferred upon him an honorary D.Litt. The next year, 1981, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the . In 1982, he received an honorary D.Litt. from the . In 1984, Powell received the Bennett Award from The Hudson Review, a $15,000 prize honoring a of significant achievement whose work had not received full recognition from the establishment, as well as the for Creative Literature from the Ingersoll Foundation. His lifetime contributions culminated in 1988 with appointment as a Companion of Honour (CH). In 1992, Powell was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the . In 1995, he was awarded an honorary by the . Following his death in 2000, scholars established the Anthony Powell Society to promote study of his work, and institutions such as developed dedicated archival collections of his papers and correspondence.

Critical Reception and Influence

Powell's early novels, such as Afternoon Men (1931), received mixed reviews, often praised for their wry humor but criticized as slight and unmemorable depictions of interwar social ennui. With the publication of A Dance to the Music of Time beginning in , however, his reputation surged, earning widespread acclaim for its panoramic scope and ironic chronicling of British upper-class life across the twentieth century. Critics like lauded it as "Proust translated by ," highlighting its blend of introspective depth and comic verve, while compared its teeming cast of characters to an "aquarium" of vivid social types. This enthusiasm peaked in the , positioning Powell as a leading voice in postwar British fiction and solidifying Dance as a monumental roman-fleuve. By the 1980s and into the 2000s, scholarly and critical reassessments grew more ambivalent, with some viewing Powell's work as emblematic of conservative privilege and subtle , particularly in portrayals of women like the volatile Pamela Flitton, whose destructive traits reinforced stereotypes of female instability. A 1997 television adaptation fared poorly, further dimming his star, and post-2000 obituaries from figures like dismissed Dance as worthless, underscoring perceptions of it as reactionary and insular. These critiques were countered by defenses emphasizing Powell's , as in Perry Anderson's analysis of Dance as a "massive social and historical fresco" capturing the rhythms of English class dynamics from 1921 to 1971 with unflinching precision. Recent scholarship has expanded this debate, addressing postcolonial dimensions through characters like the imperial General Conyers, who evoke lingering Victorian attitudes toward empire, while feminist readings critique the marginalization of women, such as Isobel's passive role marked by miscarriage and domesticity. Powell's influence endures in comparisons to and for his exhaustive mapping of twentieth-century English society, blending with historical sweep to reveal the interplay of class, power, and personal folly. Later writers like , whose father was an avowed admirer, and have acknowledged Powell's impact; Mantel, immersed in Dance during the 2020s, praised its allure for evoking layered social worlds akin to her own historical tapestries. further championed Powell's comedic elegance and emotional acuity, arguing that his cycle uniquely recreates half a century of British history through ironic observation.

References

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