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A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 21 hrs
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Summary
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. Four very different young men on the threshold of manhood dominate this opening volume of A Dance to the Music of Time. The narrator, Jenkinsa budding writer shares a room with Templer, already a passionate womanizer, and Stringham, aristocratic and reckless. Widermerpool, as hopelessly awkward as he is intensely ambitious, lurks on the periphery of their world. Amid the fever of the 1920s and the first chill of the 1930s, these four gain their initiations into sex, society, business, and art. Considered a masterpiece of modern fiction, Powell's epic creates a rich panorama of life in England between the wars. Includes these novels: A Question of Upbringing, A Buyer's Market, The Acceptance World.
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.
Critic reviews
What listeners say about A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement
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Overall
- Louisa
- 31-05-12
Completely compulsive and absorbing
This is a listening experience not to be missed! It’s true that the first three books (the first download) are not the best, but I’m giving 5 stars to the whole series because you have to get to grips with the first books in order to understand the whole series. Powell introduces nearly all the characters in the first books and you really have to work your way through the 12 books quite fast in order to remember who is who. Recognised as a 20th century classic, A Dance to the Music of Time holds up a mirror to a certain part of British society in the mid-20th century. It is completely compulsive. Once you have got to know the characters they take on depth and as you listen you become increasingly intrigued and involved in the story. Where the books are at their best is in the mid century, when they describe the war years and then the late 40s. With a very light touch, they evoke both post-war depression (gloomy, dark streets) and post-war optimism (new magazines and art movements). As things gradually get better in London, and Britain in general, the story comments on the major social improvements of the period, and some of the truly weird things which happened in the 60s and 70s – explaining, without judging, both the paranoia of some and the search for an alternative society of others. Simon Vance’s reading is masterly – every character has his or her own voice. He keeps faith with the main character, Nick, who looks on but never judges. This is not however, a bodice ripper – only a brilliant explanation of the 20th century. As far as listening is concerned it’s one of the very best books I’ve ever listened to – absolutely absorbing - you don’t want it to end, but it’s also one of those books you can just start all over again!
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49 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Peter
- 19-11-10
The best way to enjoy this true classic
The written version of this book is rightly regarded as an English classic, but its size (4 volumes)can be off-putting but this unabridged audio version makes it more accessible taking some of the pressure off of your time being read to you whilst driving or working with your hands or when your eyes are 'tired'. This reading highlights the perfect way in which the English language is used throughout the book. Only an unabridged version can really do this book justice. You will find yourself becoming attached to a whole host of characters and following them through their lives and traumas and 4 volumes. And as for value for money... it makes membership even more attractive!!
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33 people found this helpful
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Story
- R.Hartop
- 15-04-18
REMOVE THE SPOILERS IN THE DISCUSSION AT THE END
REMOVE THE SPOILERS FROM YOUR DISCUSSION AT THE END OF THIS AUDIOBOOK WHERE YOU DISCUSS ALL THE FUTURE BOOKS IN THE SERIES
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20 people found this helpful
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- Kirstine
- 10-07-13
Life in a past era in minute detail
I chose this audio book as I had enjoyed watching the Channel 4 dramatization. The whole audio version comprises three "Movements" and each movement is divided into three parts. It's a lot of listening: over 60 hours. It's ordered chronologically so needs to be listened in sequence as the characters back-stories are detailed in Movement One, part one and so on. It did find it helped that I'd seen the screen version so had a mind's eye view of the characters as there are so many of them. The main characters are a group of men whose lives are described from their school days onwards. It's an upper class life starting in the mid 1920s. It's not a riveting listen more an unfolding of their lives and interactions with other people and tangentially with historical events. I've read elsewhere that the author based many of the characters on real-people (see Wikipedia entry about the books). This first Movement takes the main players from school to early adulthood.
The writing is stylish and the narrator does a splendid job of bringing the characters to life.
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15 people found this helpful
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- LondonLass
- 06-04-15
A privilege to have read it
Would you consider the audio edition of A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement to be better than the print version?
Have not read the print version
What does Simon Vance bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?
His range of voices was better even than my imagination could have conjured up.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Yes, but that would have been impossible.
Any additional comments?
If I were Powell, perhaps I would be able to write well enough to describe how fantastically good this cycle of books is—but I am not. What I can say is that it is an astonishing work of literature. The writing is simple and clear, it is by turns humorous and tragic, just like life.
I enjoyed every sentence; when I had to stop I was irritated by the interruptions; I was sorry when it ended and I feel that reading it was my time best spent.
Simon Vance, who narrated the entire twelve books, gave voice to a whole world of men and women, all with their own vocal affectations, habits and accents, all distinct and recognisable. He is obviously a truly talented artist but that sort of reading needed far more than just talent, it required the sort of application that most people would have trouble holding for a few hours, let alone the weeks or even months that recording this massive work would have involved.
The irony is that both writer and actor put so much work into the Music of Time books and they are so skilled at their jobs that the whole thing appears completely effortless.
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14 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Alison
- 03-01-13
Always Beautiful....
I did love the writing and the wit, the gentle flow of the 'story' and the atmosphere it sets. Gently unfolding narratives are fine with me, if I am in the right mood and this is what it delivers. I also very much enjoyed the narration - his voices worked well in underlining the social strata we are living in here.
At times, partly due to the calming qualities of the reader's voice and partly due to the sometimes less than gripping sections, my mind did wander and I may have missed several minutes here and there maybe 10 or more sometimes - but it never seemed to matter much.
If you want drama and action, don't buy this. If you want a rich slice of social commentary with almost no pace but a lot of atmosphere to get thoroughly lost in, this is probably for you.
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7 people found this helpful
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- Chris Rayner
- 05-08-15
Jane Austen for the mid Twentieth Century
I read these books in paperback twenty years or so ago. I loved them then, and have enjoyed rediscovering them now. I quite see the criticisms others have made, the snobishness, the smugness, etc. Even so, having been brought up in the England which pervades the books I recognise, and delight in the characters who people them, and I just love Powell's observation and analysis. OK OK, he's not quite up with Austen, but then, who is?
He shares her observation and humour, and his evocation of the zeitgeist of the fifties and sixties in England certainly rings true to me. If I have a quibble it is with the reader's pronunciation here and there. Mostly this is trivial, but nobody who had been to a performance of Siegried could possibly pronounce the name Mime as if describing one of those white faced pests who are inspired by Marcel Marceau. The name is pronounced 'meemer'. This confused me for a moment.
I can't be bothered to write reviews for each of the 'Movements' this will have to serve for the entire set of books.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Stewart
- 16-04-11
Oh god please get to the point
Listen, even though I gave up on this book after part 1 I don't want you to think the guy can't write. He can. Really well. He knows his way around the language, it's subtleties and intricacies but why he feels the need to use so much of it to say so little I don't know.
I love wordy writers. Dylan Thomas is one of my favourite poets and I believe language is a thing of limitless possibilities and beauty but a work of prose needs some pace, humour and something to happen at least once every few chapters.
This book takes paragraph after monotone paragraph to describe really very little and I absolutely didn't believe in or care about any of the characters after listening for what felt like months.
Sorry , some say this is a classic but for me it is dull, lifeless, humourless stodge.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Patricia
- 19-08-12
I''m not sure
I'm not sure why, but I've always been curious about this story and I missed the highly recommended 1990s(?) TV adaptation. I was looking for hours and hours of listening, and having exhausted my favourite Victorian classics (for the time being) decided to give this a go. It gets you interested and then it's hard work - and gets you interested again and then is hard work again.; I'm not sure why the narrator is so important to the story to be there in the first place - actually I'm not sure where the story is going. And its easy to drift off mid extra-long sentence and miss something happening. So I've just downloaded the second volume - I'm not sure why. Maybe Simon Vance?
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Andy
- 25-09-11
Over-ambitious?
ADTTMOT is perhaps my favourite series of novels. I can understand why people don't like it; it is dry, complex, determinedly upper-class and very long, but it is a masterpiece. The language is fantastic - if complex, the characterisation subtle and accomplished and you really need to read them all to appreciate the grand literary structure that has been created out of nuance, seemingly extraneous conversations and random events..there is a plan!
I too wondered what was going on after the first novel but was irredeemably hooked.
However, despite good narration I think that it's all too much for a simply read audiobook - a dramatisation would have worked better I think as it would still have a large element of narration to explain and set the context but would remove the demand to over-extemporise with the panalopy of different characters.
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4 people found this helpful