A Dance to the Music of Time: Fourth Movement cover art

A Dance to the Music of Time: Fourth Movement

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A Dance to the Music of Time: Fourth Movement

By: Anthony Powell
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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About this listen

Anthony Powell's universally acclaimed epic encompasses a four-volume panorama of twentieth century London. Hailed by Time as "brilliant literary comedy as well as a brilliant sketch of the times," A Dance to the Music of Time opens just after World War I. Amid the fever of the 1920s and the first chill of the 1930s, Nick Jenkins and his friends confront sex, society, business, and art.

In the second volume they move to London in a whirl of marriage and adulteries, fashions and frivolities, personal triumphs and failures. These books "provide an unsurpassed picture, at once gay and melancholy, of social and artistic life in Britain between the wars" (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.).

The third volume follows Nick into army life and evokes London during the blitz. In the climactic final volume, England has won the war and must now count the losses. In this climactic volume of A Dance to the Music of Time, Nick Jenkins describes a world of ambition, intrigue, and dissolution. England has won the war, but now the losses, physical and moral, must be counted. Pamela Widmerpool sets a snare for the young writer Trapnel, while her husband suffers private agony and public humiliation. Set against a background of politics, business, high society, and the counterculture in England and Europe, this magnificent work of art sounds an unforgettable requiem for an age.

As an added bonus, when you purchase our Audible Modern Vanguard production of Anthony Powell's book, you'll also receive an exclusive Jim Atlas interview. This interview – where James Atlas interviews Charles McGrath about the life and work of Anthony Powell – begins as soon as the audiobook ends.

©1971 Anthony Powell (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
Genre Fiction Literary Fiction England Fiction Marriage Witty Funny War

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Critic reviews

"Vance's narration captivates listeners throughout this outstanding examination of a life in progress." ( AudioFile)
"Anthony Powell is the best living English novelist by far. His admirers are addicts, let us face it, held in thrall by a magician." ( Chicago Tribune)
"One of the most important works of fiction since the Second World War. . . . The novel looked, as it began, something like a comedy of manners; then, for a while, like a tragedy of manners; now like a vastly entertaining, deeply melancholy, yet somehow courageous statement about human experience." ( The New Yorker)
All stars
Most relevant

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. It rounds off a magnificent work of 'documentary' fiction.

What about Simon Vance’s performance did you like?

Vance's performance has been wonderful and steady through the whole of Powell's huge work. The narrative voice of Nick Jenkins has been dry, almost aloof, and terribly funny.

Excellent but less satisfying that the first three

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I have really enjoyed this series of books, the author is witty and brings his caricature’s to life.

Wonderful

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I really enjoyed the whole experience. I intend to repeat listening to the whole 4 movements again soon!

A saga the repays your investment in and of time.

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I feel like I've been on a long journey with Powell, the beginning was a little slow, but gosh what a brilliant book. Its a work of supreme pathos, he has an eye for characterisation that cannot be bettered, and it's a wonderfully subtle, yet succeeds of creeping up on you. A tour de force.

One of the great works of fiction

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As I reached the end of this extraordinary series of novels (stirred by my godmother who reread them in her care home along with Proust knowing they might be the last books she read), Simon Vance’s reading just became better and better as we heard again some of the voices from the past. Brilliant.

Tour de Force by the narrator

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