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

A Dance to the Music of Time: Third Movement

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A Dance to the Music of Time: Third 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 third volume of A Dance to the Music of Time, we again meet Widmerpool, doggedly rising in rank; Jenkins, shifted from one dismal army post to another; Stringham, heroically emerging from alcoholism; Templer, still on his eternal sexual quest. Here, too, we are introduced to Pamela Flitton, one of the most beautiful and dangerous women in modern fiction. Wickedly barbed in its wit, uncanny in its seismographic recording of human emotions and social currents, this saga stands as an unsurpassed rendering of England's finest yet most costly hour. Includes the novels: The Valley of Bones, The Soldier's Art, and The Military Philosophers.

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.

©1964 Anthony Powell (P)2010 Audible, Inc.
Genre Fiction Literary Fiction England Fiction Witty

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Critic reviews

"Nick's bewilderment, frustrations, and brief moments of joy as he negotiates life in the service are expertly conveyed by narrator Simon Vance. From the pomposity of the newly promoted to the silent acceptance of those assigned to menial labor, Vance captures the surreal world of the noncombatant soldier." ( AudioFile)
"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)
"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)
All stars
Most relevant
Small quibble - narrator, clearly no Wagner8ian, doesn't know Mime is pronounced "Meemeh" not "Myme"

Unfortunate pronunciation error

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Possibly the best "movement" out of the 4.
For full review of the series - see Part 4.

Great series

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I had previously read all 12 novels twice, and enjoyed them, but listening to them really brought them to life, with the expert help of Simon Vance. the writing is superb and truly evokes a world gone by much better than a thousand Downton Abbeys. The descriptions and pen portraits are superb, and you spend your time wondering who the model for Widmerpool really was. One thing is for sure, and that is that we all know someone with the attributes of a Widmerpool, and we are all a little curious, like Nicholas Jenkins.

A world lost forever

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this wonderful dance of a book whirls through the story of the Times through the lives of the characters seen and known by the hero whom I've come to admire as much as any real friend. it is masterly writing. so sad it will end after the next compilation.

the enchantment continues

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What made the experience of listening to A Dance to the Music of Time: Third Movement the most enjoyable?

I have listened to the first two movements. This third offering changes the tone as it describes the war years. While it retains its sharp wit it recognises the changed concerned of the culture.

What was one of the most memorable moments of A Dance to the Music of Time: Third Movement?

There was a delightful extended metaphor early in the book (which is actually three books) when a tailor, seemingly cut off from the world's affairs in a London shop, believes he is providing Nicholas Jenkins with a military uniform for a play rather than the "theatre" of war. This is remarkably effective and echoes through the book.

A comedy but also an elegy

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