Anthony Powell
Encyclopedia
Anthony Dymoke Powell CH, CBE
(21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time
, published between 1951 and 1975.
Powell's major work has remained in print continuously and has been the subject of TV and radio dramatisations. In 2008, The Times
newspaper named Powell among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers
since 1945".
, England, to Philip Lionel William Powell and Maud Mary Wells-Dymoke
. His father was an officer in the Welch Regiment
. His mother came from a land-owning family in Lincolnshire
. Because of his father's career and World War I, the family moved several times, and mother and son sometimes lived apart from Powell's father.
Powell attended Gibbs's pre-prep day-school at the Square end of Sloane Street
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 made a friend of a fellow pupil, Henry Yorke, later to become known as the 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 draftsman 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 digs with Henry Yorke. Powell traveled on the Continent during his holidays. Powell was awarded a third-class degree at the end of his academic years.
He married Lady Violet Pakenham
(1914–2002), sister of Lord Longford
, on 1 December 1934 at All Saints, Ennismore Gardens, Knightsbridge
. Powell and his wife relocated to 1 Chester Gate in Regent's Park
, London, where they remained for seventeen years.
Powell's first son, Tristram, was born in April 1940, but Powell and his wife spent most of the war years apart. A second son, John, was born in January 1946.
In 1950, using funds from a small legacy, Powell purchased a house called The Chantry at Frome
, Somerset
, about sixteen miles from Bath.
Powell was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE) in 1956, and during 1973 he declined an offer of knighthood. He was appointed Companion of Honour (CH) in 1988. He served as a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery from 1962 to 1976. With Lady Violet, he traveled to the United States, India, Guatemala, Italy, and Greece.
Anthony Powell died at The Chantry on 28 March 2000.
. He 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
, leaving their employ in 1932 after protracted negotiations about title, salary, and working hours. He next took a job as a script writer at the Warner Brothers Studio in Teddington
, where he remained for six months. 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 World War II, Powell joined his regiment as a Second Lieutenant
at the age of 34, more than ten years older than most of his fellow subalterns, not at all well prepared and lacking in experience. His superiors found uses for his talents, resulting in a series of transfers that brought him 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 assignment to the War Office in Whitehall
, where he was attached to the section known as Military Intelligence (Liaison), and later—for a short time—to the Cabinet Office
to serve on the Secretariat of the Joint Intelligence Committee
, securing promotions along the way.
Returning to Military Intelligence (Liaison), in the War Office, he had responsibility for dealings with the Czechs, later with the Belgians and Luxembourgers, and later still the French. In November 1944, Powell acted as assistant escorting officer to a group of fourteen Allied military attachés taken to France and Belgium to see something of the campaign.
After his demobilization at the end of the war, writing became his sole career.
. Without telling his friends, he joined a Territorial Army regiment in a South London suburb.
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 came to know the painters Nina Hamnett
and Adrian Daintrey, who were neighbours in Fitzrovia
, and the composer Constant Lambert
, who remained a good friend until Lambert's death in 1951.
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 confirmed Tory, Powell maintained a certain scepticism. He was wary of right-wing groups and suspicious of inflated rhetoric.
, was published by Duckworth
in 1931, with Powell supervising its production himself. The same firm published his next three novels, two of them after Powell had left the firm. 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 the seventeenth-century writer John Aubrey
. His army career, it turned out, 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
. Its twelve novels have been acclaimed by such critics as A. N. Wilson
and fellow writers including Evelyn Waugh
and Kingsley Amis
as among the finest English fiction of the twentieth century. Auberon Waugh
dissented, calling it "tedious and overpraised—particularly by literary hangers-on". Long time friend V. S. Naipaul
casts similar doubts regarding the work, if not the Powell oeuvre. Naipaul describes his sentiments after a long-delayed review of Powell's work following the author's death this way: "...it may be that our friendship lasted all this time because I had not examined his work". While often compared to Proust, others find the comparison "obvious, although superficial." Its narrator's voice is more like the participant-observer of The Great Gatsby
than that of Proust's self-regarding narrator. 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. 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.
The title of the multi-volume series is taken from the painting of the same name by Poussin, which hangs in the Wallace Collection
. Its characters, many modeled loosely on real people, surface, vanish and reappear throughout the sequence. It is not, however, a roman à clef
. The characters are drawn from the upper classes, their marriages and affairs, and their bohemian acquaintances.
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. He also reviewed occasionally for The Spectator
.
He published two more novels, O, How the Wheel Becomes It! (1983) and The Fisher King (1986). He reprinted many of his book reviews in two volumes of critical essays, Miscellaneous Verdicts (1990) and Under Review (1992). Several volumes of Journals, covering the years 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.
for a TV mini-series during the autumn of 1997, and broadcast in the UK on Channel 4
. The novel sequence was earlier adapted by Graham Gauld 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.
A centenary exhibition in commemoration of Powell's life and work was held at the Wallace Collection
, London, from November 2005 to February 2006. 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.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was an English novelist best known for his twelve-volume work A Dance to the Music of Time
A Dance to the Music of Time
A Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels by Anthony Powell, inspired by the painting of the same name by Nicolas Poussin. One of the longest works of fiction in literature, it was published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim...
, published between 1951 and 1975.
Powell's major work has remained in print continuously and has been the subject of TV and radio dramatisations. In 2008, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper named Powell among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers
British literature
British Literature refers to literature associated with the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. By far the largest part of British literature is written in the English language, but there are bodies of written works in Latin, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Cornish, Manx, Jèrriais,...
since 1945".
Biography
Powell was born in WestminsterWestminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
, England, to Philip Lionel William Powell and Maud Mary Wells-Dymoke
Dymoke
Dymoke is the name of an English family holding the office of king's champion. The functions of the champion were to ride into Westminster Hall at the coronation banquet, and challenge all comers to impugn the King's title . The earliest record of the ceremony at the coronation of an English king...
. His father was an officer in the Welch Regiment
Welch Regiment
The Welch Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1969.-History:It was formed as the Welsh Regiment during the Childers Reforms of 1881, by the amalgamation of the 41st Regiment of Foot and the 69th Regiment of Foot...
. His mother came from a land-owning family in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
. Because of his father's career and World War I, the family moved several times, and mother and son sometimes lived apart from Powell's father.
Powell attended Gibbs's pre-prep day-school at the Square end of Sloane Street
Sloane Street
Sloane Street is a major London street which runs north to south, from Knightsbridge to Sloane Square, crossing Pont Street about half way along, entirely in The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Sloane Street takes its name from Sir Hans Sloane, who purchased the surrounding area in 1712...
for a brief time. He was then sent to New Beacon School near Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks
Sevenoaks is a commuter town situated on the London fringe of west Kent, England, some 20 miles south-east of Charing Cross, on one of the principal commuter rail lines from the capital...
, which was popular with military families. Early in 1919, Powell passed the Common Entrance Examination for Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
where he started that autumn. There he made a friend of a fellow pupil, Henry Yorke, later to become known as the novelist Henry Green
Henry Green
Henry Green was the nom de plume of Henry Vincent Yorke , an English author best remembered for the novel Loving, which was featured by Time in its list of the 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.- Biography :Green was born near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, into an educated family...
.
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 draftsman and his interest in the visual arts
Visual arts
The visual arts are art forms that create works which are primarily visual in nature, such as ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking, design, crafts, and often modern visual arts and architecture...
. 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
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections....
. Soon after his arrival he was introduced to the Hypocrites Club. Outside that club he came to know Maurice Bowra
Maurice Bowra
Sir Cecil Maurice Bowra was an English classical scholar and academic, known for his wit. He was Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, from 1938 to 1970, and served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford from 1951 to 1954.-Birth and boyhood:...
, then a young don at Wadham College. During his third year Powell lived out of college, sharing digs with Henry Yorke. Powell traveled on the Continent during his holidays. Powell was awarded a third-class degree at the end of his academic years.
He married Lady Violet Pakenham
Lady Violet Powell
Lady Violet Powell , born Violet Georgiana Pakenham, third daughter of Thomas Pakenham, 5th Earl of Longford and Lady Mary Julia Child Villiers , was a writer and critic...
(1914–2002), sister of Lord Longford
Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford
Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford KG, PC , known as the Lord Pakenham from 1945 to 1961, was a British politician, author, and social reformer...
, on 1 December 1934 at All Saints, Ennismore Gardens, Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
. Powell and his wife relocated to 1 Chester Gate in Regent's Park
Regent's Park
Regent's Park is one of the Royal Parks of London. It is in the north-western part of central London, partly in the City of Westminster and partly in the London Borough of Camden...
, London, where they remained for seventeen years.
Powell's first son, Tristram, was born in April 1940, but Powell and his wife spent most of the war years apart. A second son, John, was born in January 1946.
In 1950, using funds from a small legacy, Powell purchased a house called The Chantry at Frome
Frome
Frome is a town and civil parish in northeast Somerset, England. Located at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, the town is built on uneven high ground, and centres around the River Frome. The town is approximately south of Bath, east of the county town, Taunton and west of London. In the 2001...
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, about sixteen miles from Bath.
Powell was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(CBE) in 1956, and during 1973 he declined an offer of knighthood. He was appointed Companion of Honour (CH) in 1988. He served as a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery from 1962 to 1976. With Lady Violet, he traveled to the United States, India, Guatemala, Italy, and Greece.
Anthony Powell died at The Chantry on 28 March 2000.
Work
Powell came to work in London during the autumn of 1926, renting rooms in Shepherd MarketShepherd Market
Shepherd Market is a small square in the Mayfair area of central London, England. It is located between Piccadilly and Curzon Street and has a village-like atmosphere.- History :...
. He 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
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
, leaving their employ in 1932 after protracted negotiations about title, salary, and working hours. He next took a job as a script writer at the Warner Brothers Studio in Teddington
Teddington
Teddington is a suburban area in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London, on the north bank of the River Thames, between Hampton Wick and Twickenham. It stretches inland from the River Thames to Bushy Park...
, where he remained for six months. 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
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
and memoirs and autobiographies for The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
.
Upon the outbreak of World War II, Powell joined his regiment as a Second Lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
at the age of 34, more than ten years older than most of his fellow subalterns, not at all well prepared and lacking in experience. His superiors found uses for his talents, resulting in a series of transfers that brought him 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 assignment to the War Office in Whitehall
Whitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...
, where he was attached to the section known as Military Intelligence (Liaison), and later—for a short time—to the Cabinet Office
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of the United Kingdom....
to serve on the Secretariat of the Joint Intelligence Committee
Joint Intelligence Committee
The Joint Intelligence Committee is a nodal government agency in several countries, responsible for the internal and external security apparatus of the respective nations.* Joint Intelligence Committee * Joint Intelligence Committee...
, securing promotions along the way.
Returning to Military Intelligence (Liaison), in the War Office, he had responsibility for dealings with the Czechs, later with the Belgians and Luxembourgers, and later still the French. In November 1944, Powell acted as assistant escorting officer to a group of fourteen Allied military attachés taken to France and Belgium to see something of the campaign.
After his demobilization at the end of the war, writing became his sole career.
Social life
Upon his arrival in London, part of Powell's social life developed around attendance at formal debutante dances at houses in Mayfair and BelgraviaBelgravia
Belgravia is a district of central London in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Noted for its immensely expensive residential properties, it is one of the wealthiest districts in the world...
. Without telling his friends, he joined a Territorial Army regiment in a South London suburb.
He renewed acquaintance with Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
, 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 came to know the painters Nina Hamnett
Nina Hamnett
Nina Hamnett was a Welsh artist and writer, and an expert on sailors' chanteys, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia.- Early life :...
and Adrian Daintrey, who were neighbours in Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia is a neighbourhood in central London, near London's West End lying partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the City of Westminster ; and situated between Marylebone and Bloomsbury and north of Soho. It is characterised by its mixed-use of residential, business, retail,...
, and the composer Constant Lambert
Constant Lambert
Leonard Constant Lambert was a British composer and conductor.-Early life:Lambert, the son of Russian-born Australian painter George Lambert, was educated at Christ's Hospital and the Royal College of Music...
, who remained a good friend until Lambert's death in 1951.
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 confirmed Tory, Powell maintained a certain scepticism. He was wary of right-wing groups and suspicious of inflated rhetoric.
Writing
Powell's first novel, Afternoon MenAfternoon Men
Afternoon Men is the first published novel by the English writer Anthony Powell. In its characters and themes it anticipates some of the ground Powell would cover in his masterpiece, A Dance to the Music of Time, a twelve-volume cycle spanning much of the 20th century.Published in 1931, it focuses...
, was published by Duckworth
Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd
-History:Founded in 1898 by Gerald Duckworth, Duckworth is an independent British publisher. It was important in the development of English literature in the first half of the twentieth century, being the publisher of figures such as Virginia Woolf , W. H. Davies, Anthony Powell, John Galsworthy...
in 1931, with Powell supervising its production himself. The same firm published his next three novels, two of them after Powell had left the firm. During his time in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
Powell contributed several articles to the magazine Night and Day, edited by Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
. 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
What's Become of Waring
What’s Become of Waring is the fifth novel by the English writer Anthony Powell. It is his final novel of the 1930s, and the only one not published by Powell’s first employer and publisher, Duckworth. Published in 1939, Powell’s book was overshadowed by international events, limiting sales...
, in late 1938 or early 1939. After being turned down by Duckworth, it was published by Cassell
Orion Publishing Group
Orion Publishing Group Ltd. is a UK-based book publisher. It is owned by Hachette Livre. In 1998 Orion bought Cassell.-History:Full history of the group can be found on Orion Publishing Group is owned by -Imprints:...
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 the seventeenth-century writer John Aubrey
John Aubrey
John Aubrey FRS, was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the collection of short biographical pieces usually referred to as Brief Lives...
. His army career, it turned out, 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
A Dance to the Music of Time
A Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels by Anthony Powell, inspired by the painting of the same name by Nicolas Poussin. One of the longest works of fiction in literature, it was published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim...
. Its twelve novels have been acclaimed by such critics as A. N. Wilson
A. N. Wilson
Andrew Norman Wilson is an English writer and newspaper columnist, known for his critical biographies, novels, works of popular history and religious views...
and fellow writers including Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
and Kingsley Amis
Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, along with works of social and literary criticism...
as among the finest English fiction of the twentieth century. Auberon Waugh
Auberon Waugh
Auberon Alexander Waugh was a British author and journalist, son of the novelist Evelyn Waugh. He was known to his family and friends as Bron Waugh.-Life and career:...
dissented, calling it "tedious and overpraised—particularly by literary hangers-on". Long time friend V. S. Naipaul
V. S. Naipaul
Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad "V. S." Naipaul, TC is a Nobel prize-winning Indo-Trinidadian-British writer who is known for his novels focusing on the legacy of the British Empire's colonialism...
casts similar doubts regarding the work, if not the Powell oeuvre. Naipaul describes his sentiments after a long-delayed review of Powell's work following the author's death this way: "...it may be that our friendship lasted all this time because I had not examined his work". While often compared to Proust, others find the comparison "obvious, although superficial." Its narrator's voice is more like the participant-observer of The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....
than that of Proust's self-regarding narrator. Powell was awarded the 1957 James Tait Black Memorial Prize
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
for the fourth volume, At Lady Molly's. The eleventh volume, Temporary Kings, received the W.H. Smith Prize in 1974. 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.
The title of the multi-volume series is taken from the painting of the same name by Poussin, which hangs in the Wallace Collection
Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection is a museum in London, with a world-famous range of fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries with large holdings of French 18th-century paintings, furniture, arms & armour, porcelain and Old Master paintings arranged into 25 galleries.It was established in...
. Its characters, many modeled loosely on real people, surface, vanish and reappear throughout the sequence. It is not, however, a roman à clef
Roman à clef
Roman à clef or roman à clé , French for "novel with a key", is a phrase used to describe a novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship between the nonfiction and the fiction...
. The characters are drawn from the upper classes, their marriages and affairs, and their bohemian acquaintances.
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
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, resigning after a vitriolic personal attack on him by Auberon Waugh appeared in that newspaper. He also reviewed occasionally for The Spectator
The Spectator
The Spectator is a weekly British magazine first published on 6 July 1828. It is currently owned by David and Frederick Barclay, who also owns The Daily Telegraph. Its principal subject areas are politics and culture...
.
He published two more novels, O, How the Wheel Becomes It! (1983) and The Fisher King (1986). He reprinted many of his book reviews in two volumes of critical essays, Miscellaneous Verdicts (1990) and Under Review (1992). Several volumes of Journals, covering the years 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.
Recognition
Dance was adapted by Hugh WhitemoreHugh Whitemore
Hugh Whitemore is an English playwright and screenwriter.Whitemore studied for the stage at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he is now a Member of the Council. He began his writing career in British television with both original teleplays and adaptations of classic works by Charles...
for a TV mini-series during the autumn of 1997, and broadcast in the UK on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
. The novel sequence was earlier adapted by Graham Gauld for a BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
26-part series broadcast between 1978 and 1981. In the radio version the part of Jenkins as narrator was played by Noel Johnson
Noel Johnson
Noel Johnson was an English actor.He was the radio voice of Dick Barton special agent on BBC radio and Dan Dare pilot of the future over Radio Luxembourg....
. A second radio dramatisation by Michael Butt was broadcast during April and May 2008.
A centenary exhibition in commemoration of Powell's life and work was held at the Wallace Collection
Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection is a museum in London, with a world-famous range of fine and decorative arts from the 15th to the 19th centuries with large holdings of French 18th-century paintings, furniture, arms & armour, porcelain and Old Master paintings arranged into 25 galleries.It was established in...
, London, from November 2005 to February 2006. Smaller exhibitions were held in 2005 and 2006 at Eton College, Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
, the Grolier Club
Grolier Club
The Grolier Club is a private club and society of bibliophiles in New York City. Founded in January 1884, it is the oldest existing bibliophilic club in North America. The club is named after Jean Grolier de Servières, Viscount d'Aguisy, Treasurer General of France, whose library was famous; his...
in New York City, and Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
in Washington, DC.
Additional reading
- Barber, Michael. Anthony Powell: A Life, Duckworth Overlook, 2004. ISBN 0-7156-3049-0
- Birns, Nicholas. Understanding Anthony Powell, University of South Carolina Press, 2004. ISBN 1-57003-549-0
- Spurling, Hilary. Invitation to the Dance: A Guide to Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time, Little Brown, 1977. ISBN 0-316-80900-4
- Tucker, James. The Novels of Anthony Powell, Columbia University Press, 1976. ISBN 0-231-04150-0
- Roger K. Miller, "Author offers intelligent study of 'English Proust'", The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 5 September 2004
- Norman Shrapnel, "Anthony Powell", The Guardian, 30 March 2000