A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement

By: Anthony Powell

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 21 hrs

Publisher's 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.

This production is part of our Audible Modern Vanguard line, a collection of important works from groundbreaking authors.

©1951 Anthony Powell (P)2010 Audible, inc.

Critic reviews

"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)

"A book which creates a world and explores it in depth, which ponders changing relationships and values, which creates brilliantly living and diverse characters and then watches them grow and change in their milieu. . . . Powell's world is as large and as complex as Proust's." ( New York Times)

"Vance's narration captivates listeners throughout this outstanding examination of a life in progress." ( AudioFile)

dud

I gave up after an hour of listening since I did not find anything interesting in any character nor in the story.

totallly devoid of plot

Oy. Two facts emerge as, upon reflection, very telling about this "novel". #1: After three degrees in English, I had never heard of this author or novel series, until when searching for a new Simon Vance narration, I stumbled upon this new release. #2: When doing a superficial search before purchase, wikipedia spit up an entry on the longest (ie: wordiest) works of literature in the history of the written word. Ugh. I like long, rambling narrations as much as (MORE) than the next person, but this one lacks warmth, substance, humor (though the author tries to be funny), and plot. I'm midway through book two (of 3) of the first "movement" (of 12!), and honestly, even Vance's truly incredible narration can't make me continue. Dull Dull Dull Dull Dull Dull Dull Dull Dull Dull. (get it?) Dull Dull Dull Dull.......Though the phrase in the novel: "earmarking duchesses" is awesome - described as (in my words) the hungry look of someone scanning a room (at a dinner party for ex) for important people who can be of use.

Detailed to death...

I enjoy British and period books, for the culture and history, and I deliberately seek out unabridged version of everything, but the details this author includes describing body language - posture, hand gestures, facial expressions and even breath sounds, etc - is too distracting from the dialogue. I have stopped listening after only a few hours of this narration. It is too painful to listen to the whole thing.

Listened to the whole story and it goes nowhere.

Picture PBS Masterpiece Theater without the video told in fist person. The ramblings of a early 20th Century British narcissist.

I kept thinking the school-house characters would be engulfed in a World War or something interesting. Just rambling through the day-to-day of the main character. Must be modern art?

One of the best books I have ever listened to.

I first heard this book on book at bedtime in the U.K. and was delighted to find it here. I like the drawing of the characters and its very Englishness. It may be too English for some. Enjoy!

Unappreciated Gem

I won't belabor the point, earlier positive reviewers are right, this is an excellent production of an overlooked gem. It is full of lovely prose and a fascinating re-creation of a bygone era. The interview which accompanies the First Movement, which you should read first, makes an apt comparison to Proust, while pointing out that Powell's acute observations of character focus much less on the narrator and more on the other characters. There is little navel gazing here, and you come to appreciate the narrator "Jenkins" and his modesty which enables him to cast more light on other characters.

Readers of contemporary novels may struggle with the minimal plot of this book... very little happens during the first six hours of narration! But hang in there as Powell populates his world with memorable characters and transports you to another place and time.

Simon Vance does an excellent job.

The greatest English novel of the 20th century

This multivolume masterwork surpasses Prousts's bloated and frankly overrated "In Search of Lost Time/Remembrance of Things Past" in elegance, profundity, nuance and humor. The Dance to the Music of Time is perhaps too subtle for our crude, simplistic and superficial age.
The narration is excellent.

Boring beyond words - deserves zero stars

This book has absolutely no redeeming qualities - no excitement, no plot, no major relationships, nothing. There are so many characters that one needs a program to keep track of who is going to which ball. Why was this originally given 4 (or possibly more stars) when it was first highlighted??? Is Audible trying to stack the deck here? I've listened for over half the book - my mistake - and am through. This book is as interesting as watching paint dry.

Very Disappointed

After reading the other reviews, I had expected a very interesting book. Unfortunately, it seems to lack any story structure. The history is vague, and I couldn't understand what the main character's purpose was. Also, the characters surroundings aren't well painted, so I could never picture where he was, or the people he was interacting with. Save your credits - find a different book.

Pretentious boring and plotless

How I wish I had read ALL the reviews instead of the first few - this is one of the most awful audio books - pretentious, plot-less, devoid of any characters worth connecting to - and after a few hours of struggling to find some value - I gave up. What a waste of money. And after I had just listened to Ken Follett's and Nelson De Mille's amazing books, the let-down was even worse. Not only was the book itself pointless, but the reader had this dreadful nasal snobbish upper class British accent that was hard to listen to. Sigh. What a disappointment.