Classics · ThoughtfulNicholas Jenkins narrates twelve volumes about his life and the people he meets, from youth to postwar change
A Dance to the Music of Time
A narrator watches a circle of acquaintances across decades of English life
The series follows Nicholas Jenkins, who recounts the events as though his own life is of secondary importance, and the people he meets from youth through the decline of the upper classes after World War II. It is set in London and Boston and covers the early to mid-twentieth century. Kenneth Widmerpool, an ambitious power broker whom Jenkins repeatedly encounters, runs through it. The twelve volumes appeared from A Question of Upbringing in 1951 to Hearing Secret Harmonies in 1975.
More about this book
Who
Nicholas Jenkins, the narrator, and Kenneth Widmerpool.
World
London and Boston, from the characters' youth through the decline of the upper classes after World War II.
What makes it different
It has 12 volumes, later reissued as a quartet of trilogies. Powell took the title from Nicolas Poussin's painting.
Feel
Wry and gradual.
Page count and cover shown for: Selected edition