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Start using Mumsnet PremiumI still haven't gotten around to "Dance to the Music of Time"
(15 Posts)but I'm posting this article in case anyone is interested.
How Anthony Powell Wrote His Twelve-Volume Masterpiece
Four decades after its completion, “A Dance to the Music of Time” endures as a classic, with a devoted following of readers who love it—or love to hate it.
By Charles McGrath
www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/12/how-anthony-powell-wrote-his-twelve-volume-masterpiece
The first two volumes are lurking on my kindle. I keep telling myself that I'm waiting for the right mood to take me to read them...
That's interesting @MsAmerica - I read the first four and then was distracted - but there was ( as I recall) a TV adaptation. Widmerpool is a fantastic ( if not loveable) character. If I am to be honest - I prefer Waugh , but I am minded to give these another go - Thank You
The television adaptation was very good. The books were better. I started reading A Question of Upbringing the day I got my degree results (in 1985). I finished Heating Secret Harmonies about 14 months later. (I did read other books in between.)
It's bloody wonderful. I envy your having yet to read it. I've read it so many time I've lost count. Possibly 9-10.
I read it all nearly 20 years ago. Makes me want to read it again but it's quite a commitment. Can't remember much now apart from "books do furnish a room", the Chinese restaurant and some scene from the end of WW1 or WW2 outside a church where they're lightheaded with relief that the war's over.
Oh and of corse the most critical fact is the correct pronunciation of Powell.
*course
I loved the TV series and have tried to read the books but didn't get far.. maybe I should try again.
TV series is still available to download on All4 - it's one of my favourites
I confess here are a gap in my reading, too. I can never get excited about the idea of them. Like Trollope. Every friend I have tells me I must read Trollope, and the more they tell me, the more I resist and tell them they need to read all of Proust.
Is the TV adaptation the one with the brilliant Simon Russell Beale?
Probably- it was out in the 90s. Weirdly I remember the adverts for it were Douwe Egberts coffee.
Is Powell not pronounced Powell?
Not to rhyme with ‘trowel’, more like ‘Pole’.
I was joking about the pronunciation being the most critical fact! Don't want to cause a complex.
Thanks for posting the link. How I love these books.
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