I still haven't gotten around to "Dance to the Music of Time"

[MsAmerica]

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.